If sex sells, then the promo team of Lars Von Trier’s upcoming Nymphomaniac is going for gold. The release of twelve promo posters, each featuring a cast member showing off their best O face, practically broke the internet. Every entertainment outlet today rushed to report on the provocative campaign and some even urged readers to vote on who could pull the best orgasm face. And of course, it’s no secret why the sexually-charged campaign is such a success – it sparks enough controversy to provide tabloid fodder for days.

Nymphomaniac Posters
Are the posters really that scandalous?

Why is it that we’re still so shocked at any mention of the Deed though? Even with increasingly progressive attitudes in most areas of life and the over-sexualization of entertainment and media, everyone still seems infatuated with the posters non the less. Even if the posters don’t actually show anything all that scandalous – actors from the waist up, making some scrunched up faces.

Nymphomaniac Posters
Or are we making them a bigger deal than they deserve to be? 

The movie itself does sound fairly scandalous for its art house genre – Von Tier reportedly got real porn actors to shoot the explicit scenes in place of the credited cast. Still, even the steamy scenes aren’t something that can’t be seen in a matter of seconds with a quick google search (and no kids, we won’t give you any search terms.) And yet, for some reason the media and the public still flock to a promotional campaign at the mere mention of the o-word. It probably has something to do with the fact that we still feel the need to use “the o-word” alongside a plethora of other euphemisms. But we’ll leave you to ponder that for yourselves.


Nymphomaniac Poster
In all fairness, it's quite the clever promotional gimmick.