CONTACT: Lori Barghini (651)-503-5233

Nipples Out of Hiding; Take Center Stage On Sex and the City

MINNEAPOLIS - JULY 2, 2001 - While never accused of being demure, the two Minneapolis women who casually spawned an idea for a racy women's fashion accessory in 2000 never dreamed their product would end up as part of the plot of the July 1st episode Sex and the City (SATC).

But considering their inspiration - silicone nipple enhancers - flesh-colored protrusions proven to render men dumbstruck with their, er, prominence - it only made sense. It almost screamed SATC. So agreed the producers of the edgy, push-it-to-the-limits HBO program, where Sunday night, Samantha experimented with the "novelty nipples" to win the affections of a man she later had trouble "weaning."

The SATC plot was the culmination of a whirlwind ride on the publicity bandwagon for the women who, while preening for a "girls' night out" in a Las Vegas hotel room, thought of a novel idea for the bulbous bottle caps on the hotel's freebie shampoo bottles.

Giggling and bolstered by a few beers, the women, Lori Bargini, a Minneapolis sales rep, and her pals, removed the bottle caps, affixed them to their bras and headed out to the casinos. Their entrance created a stir, even amid the normal Vegas glitz. Their exaggerated nipples were enough to cause one dashing Argentine man to kiss the hand of one of the women and coo, "For you, my paycheck, for the rest of my life."

The following morning, over coffee and a postmortem of the previous night's reactions, the idea for "bodyperks" was born. The product was made available on a website, and the women, back to reality in Minneapolis (yet intrigued with the possibilities) clung to their day jobs.

Then the phones began ringing. The New York Daily News. Jane magazine. The BBC. Playboy. The Washington Post. The London Evening Standard. Quips about the "perks" by Conan O'Brien, on his late-night talk show. In a recent issue of Newsweek, Bargini was quoted, in response to the "false advertising" prospect of bodyperks: "Men have no idea the things women do to camouflage themselves, and once they get to that point, (having sex) they don't care. They aren't going to say, 'Hey, your nipples were really big in the bar!'" The potential of bodyperks didn't elude the marketing instincts of at least one major department store retailer, either. The product is offered in select stores nationwide.

Bargini admits to some "post traumatic stress syndrome" in the wake of the maelstrom of publicity. Yet she and her colleagues deny that they are gifted with extraordinary marketing savvy. "We're guerilla marketers," insists Barghini. "We just do it, and if we mess up, we beg forgiveness later."

Such moxie inspired the women to showcase bodyperks at the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D., where the "biker babe" audience seemed promising. They sold 1,000 pair, and, to the other extreme, then hit up Fashion Week in New York for further ideas. It was Barghini, an avid fan of the flashy SATC, who dogged HBO - and even cast members - about incorporating bodyperks as part of the story line. "Come on, it's a no-brainer," she insists. "It just seems like something the SATC women would risk doing."