Sex in advertising
Sex in advertising is the use of
sexual attraction as a tool of
persuasion to draw interest to a particular
product, for purpose of
sale, generally using attractive models.
Nudity in advertising often falls in this category, even if it is often only suggestively so.
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Images of pretty women often appear in ads even without connection to the product being sold. This provocatively clad woman lends "sex appeal" to a 1921 ad for tire valve caps. |
More recent studies have indicated an expanded overtness of illustrations depicting women as alluring or enticing sex objects. Over the past two decades, the use of increasingly explicit sexual appeals in consumer-oriented print advertising and particularly of women as
sex objects has become almost commonplace.
Sexuality is considered one of the most powerful tools of
marketing and particularly
advertising. Post-advertising sales response studies have shown it can be very effective for attracting immediate interest, holding that interest, and, in the context of that interest, introducing a product that somehow correlates with that interest.
Further evidence comes from
Gallup & Robinson, an
advertising and
marketing research firm which reports that in more than 50 years of testing advertising effectiveness, it has found the use of the
erotic to be a significantly above-average technique in communicating with the marketplace,
"...although one of the more dangerous for the advertiser. Weighted down with taboos and volatile attitudes, sex is a Code Red advertising technique ... handle with care ... seller beware; all of which makes it even more intriguing." This research has led to the popular idea that
"sex sells".
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Ivory Soap ads in World War I show sailors bathing on deck... |
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... and a male locker room with a homoerotic undertone |
The use of sex in advertising can be highly overt or extremely subtle: from relatively explicit displays of sexual acts, down to the use of basic
cosmetics to enhance attractive features. The more subtle end of this spectrum has penetrated all types of media including
news casts,
documentaries, and even
fast-food advertisements. The use is not limited to
visual media either: one of the criteria in selecting
DJs and announcers is the "sexiness" of their voice.
Use of sexual imagery in advertising has been criticised on different grounds.
Conservatives, especially religious ones, often consider it
obscene. Many
feminists feel it objectifies women (as women are more often portrayed in a sexual manner than men). Some claim it reinforces
sexism.
Increasingly, this argument has been complicated by growing awareness of
androgynous and homoerotic themes used in marketing.
Calvin Klein has been at the forefront of this movement, having himself declared, "Jeans are about sex. The abundance of bare flesh is the last gasp of advertisers trying to give redundant products a new identity." In recent years ads for
jeans,
perfumes and many other products have featured provocative images that were designed to elicit sexual responses from as large a cross section of the population as possible, to shock by their ambivalence, and often to appeal to repressed sexual desires, which are thought to carry a stronger emotional load.
While for long nearly only women where shown as sex objects, increasing tolerance, more tempered censorship, emancipatory developments and increasing buying power of previously neglected appreciative target groups in rich markets (mainly in the west) have lead to a marked increase in the share of attractive male flesh 'on display'.
Image:Sophie_Dahl_Opium.jpg|2000: A controversial Opium Yves St. Laurent advert featuing Sophie Dahl. The advert was never banned having received 948 (2nd most) complaints in the U.S. [1]Image:Photo of magazine page.jpg|2001: YSL ad for "Paris", a women's perfume. Successful male figure (sleeve reflected in mirror) flanked by two semi-nude figures. Published in The Economist (London), a publication with a 91% male readership having an average yearly income of US$154,000.Image:Gucci_big.jpg|2003: Gucci advert featuring a model with a "G" shaved into her pubic hair.*
Sex in film*
Sexploitation*
Advertising*
Cosmetic advertising*
Nudity in art*
Jean Kilbourne*
Marketing*
Promotion*
Early use of a homoerotic symbol in advertising: Budweiser beer ad based on Zeus' abduction of Ganymede*History of
erotic advertising.
*Sexual Messages in Ads & Other Media [
2]
