The thermometers are really what are killing me here...

It's interesting to note the evolution of "hot" to describe women--we've danced around it since medieval days, but it wasn't until the (so-called) sexual revolution that we blatantly started applying it to women instead of sexy situations. In some ways I sort of appreciate this bizarro-world return to its origins--it at least acknowledges that "hot" implies, well, heat, instead of the lackadaisical way that Paris Hilton professes everything "hot."
(I researched the history of "hot" here, for any other word nerds out there: http://www.the-beheld.com/2011/04/thoughts-on-word-hot.html)

All i can think of looking at that display is "ow, that's going to leave a real mark." She sitting on the inside of an oven door. Burn marks are not sexy!

LOL i thought this ad was for the bathing suit untill i read it over!

Silly person, have you never heard about appealing to the Cannibal demographic ?

Don't sit on your oven door unless your oven is safety bracketed to the wall or floor to reduce tipovers. Or, you know, don't sit on your oven door period.

In case anyone is wondering, this photo was taken in Montreal (by me!) so it *should* read "Chaud! Chaud! Chaud!"

It's from a song, hence the three hots, and it being in English. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYITD8TMvcM

"Hot hot hot"

I was thinking it could be a comparison to the weather.

I'm having a hard time believing this is actually real! Most women I know don't necessarily think of cooking/baking as sexy and most men I know aren't going to say "Honey, you should buy that stove, you'd look so sexy!"

I think that's a bathing suit, and the woman is being depicted as enjoying a hot sunny day at the beach. The viewer will note the presence of sunglasses on her head. There is also a depiction of a hot flaming sun behind her. So I do not think that "Hot Hot Hot" is meant as a sexual inference about the store model or her appearance.

Good point, Bill. I mean, it's not like we sexualize women in bathing suits who are posing suggestively!

I read that

"Over 80% of women participate in the decision-making for purchases of vehicles, household appliances, television sets, and kitchen &
cooking appliances....Although less than half of the women are household heads, more than 8 out of 10 are the principal shoppers."

So in 80% of the purchases of household appliances such as ovens, a woman will either be participating in the decision as to what oven to buy, or making the decision on her own.

Hence, the likely target audience for this window display is women, not sex-starved men!

Sex sells to women AND men, though. Female sex, that is. I mean, most people buying Victoria's Secret are women, right? But those are incredibly sexualized images (though of course they are for lingerie, but even for their basic bras and underwear these are sexualized images that are targeted for a female audience, not a male one). That's the beauty of sexed-up marketing: Everyone wins, from the manufacturer's point of view.

Hmm, I wonder what this store does when it's time to sell vacuum cleaners? Put a mannequin in lingerie or a swimsuit and pose it so it's seductively stroking the vacuum next to the words "Sucks! Sucks! Sucks!" on the window?

Adding a sense of beauty, sensuality, or attractiveness to a mundane object is pretty common. And Autumn is right. Feminine sexuality or attractiveness is sold to women as often as it is to men, although geared a bit differently. Attractive women sell products to other women all the time. I mean, when was the last time you saw a lady with horrible skin, gnarled feet, or furry legs selling shoes, razors, bath products, ect...? Sometimes the angle is "If you use this product, you will look like this woman here!" Other times, its "Only smart and sexy women use THIS product!" Even sometimes there's the "See how different (more positive) people react to her now? You can have the same results!" But I digress...

The point is that I'm really not surprised what-so-ever that the store is using feminine sexuality to sell a stove. Correct me if I'm wrong ladies, but at the very least subconsciously, all women (well, all humans for that matter) want to be sexually desired by whichever gender they prefer.

So maybe the "hot" mannequin is tapping into that need to be the object of desire. "That image of a woman is desirable. I want that same sense of desire for myself."

Or, from a different direction, maybe it's angled more towards the perspective of ones self image. "That image is thin, feminine, and generally pleasant looking. I want that image for myself."

Then again, the store may have just been putting similar "hot" items together. Like a stove, thermometers with high readings, the sun, and a woman in a bathing suit, and not to mention the words Hot Hot Hot on the window. Associative marketing like that is also a rather common strategy. Much like associating the "cool, crisp" taste of a York Peppermint Patty with skiing down the snowy peak of a mountain.

I dunno... Just kind of thinking out loud, so to speak... No argument intended...

I think it's also worth mentioning that the O's in "Hot" are red hot stove elements. Details!