Mills & Boon looks to move with the times

By KATHERINE HOBY

Move over Jane, Tiffany, and Anne. And move on in Carrie, Miranda and Samantha.

Romance publishers want the Sex and the City generation to have a couple of Mills & Boon books on the bedside cabinet, next to the Manolo Blahnik shoes and Cosmopolitan glass.

New Zealanders and Australians are among the first to see the slick new advertising campaign that accompanies sexy new book covers in a bid to woo the 20 and 30-somethings market.

The sexier the magazine, the hotter the ad in the "live the emotion" campaign. Cosmopolitan's is the sauciest, featuring a man with muscular back and arms crushing a woman against a wall in a suggestive clinch.

And instead of the swooning secretary and the angular boss, the covers are more likely to portray a couple entwined in a suggestive pose, or even a single red stiletto.

Robyn Ball, marketing manager for the publishers, Harlequin, says the company wants to drop the image of being solely for mothers, or older ladies.

"We're really quite funky now and we want people to know that," she says.

"We are hoping to scoop up some of the Sex and the City crowd."

Ms Ball says some of the books feature main characters similar to the hip, urban women at the centre of the hit television show.

"And that makes them very like some of the young urban professional women living in the cities of Australia and New Zealand.

"We want them to at least pick up one of the books.

"Some of the books could even be considered like a good episode of Sex and the City."

Hundreds of thousands of Mills & Boons are sold in this country every year.

Sales worldwide are reportedly 153 million a year.

Social trends commentator Sandy Burgham doubts the campaign will appeal to the target market.

"There has been this whole explosion of 'chick lit'," she says.

"Everyone loved Bridget Jones' Diary.

"But the difference between that and Mills & Boon is that chick lit is about the chick, not 'I'm in love with a sexy bastard'."

Ms Burgham says 'chick lit' is also good at laughing at itself.

"Laughing at oneself is important. Not that romance isn't," she says.

"But even if it might be the truth, I don't think women want to be seen to read this thing where the only thing really going on is the romance."

Dr Catherine West-Newman, a senior lecturer in sociology at Auckland University who specialises in images and representations of women, says "visual capture" is essential to win readers.

The students she teaches are now much more visual-oriented, and find books less accessible.

"I suspect the Mills and Boon marketing people said they couldn't or wouldn't change the story but that visual capture for the younger market is essential," she says.

"The cover might mean that you at least pick it up and consider it, even if you don't buy it that time."

Dr West-Newman says romance novel publishers have the same problems and issues as any form of entertainment.

"They must capture and hold new consumers," she says.

"It's a kind of reader replenishment strategy."

But will the target consumers go for the racy new novels?

The Herald asked Kate Washington, 26, and Debra Jeffries, 25, who were browsing in a local bookstore.

"Gosh! Is this what my mum's been reading?" Ms Washington said.

"They're a lot different to what they used to be. Definitely a bit more appealing now they're vamped up," she said, gazing at the bare-chested hero featured on the front cover.

Mary Smith, 32, said she picked up a Mills & Boon about a year ago in a bookshop because of the intimate-looking cover.

"I haven't been able to stop reading them since," she said.

"I relate much more to the heroines in the ones now. Except the ending is always better for them than for me."