Most have heard the term, “Sex Sells” I decided to gain a deeper understanding of the whys and how’s behind that concept. I asked a few people to tell me what the first thing that comes to mind is when asked for examples of advertisements using sex to sell a product. Immediately, I got answers like Carl’s Jr., Burger King, Victoria Secret and Calvin Klein. There are many brands and companies that sexualize men and women to sell their products. Our society has become complacent, and these advertisements don’t come as a big surprise or shock anymore. I found myself realizing through my research that I had been exposed to the same advertisements as the examples shown in various articles I’ve read. I simply overlooked them. The response to erotic images triggers a biological reaction, a sexual impulse for many people. Brands have used this method for several decades. However, it started out being subtle. In the 1880s many tobacco companies included trading cards of what they considered sexual imagery. That later led to soap companies in the 1920s using suggestive language to lure customers. A decade later, the ideas continued to spread especially regarding products that have nothing to do with sex. By the 1950s, the advertisements still used sex to sell but did so in more subtle ways, still using suggestive language but without partial nudity or otherwise scandalous images. During the 1980s, advertisements were upfront regarding sex, and continued to increase in frequency.
Advertisements are everywhere, combining images and words together to create a message to sell a product. The initial impression is that the advertisers are just trying to sell their products, but there often seems to be an underlying message. It is often heard that “sex sells.” So, many advertisers will use beautiful women and men in their advertisements to try to market a product. The hope is that “sex will sell,” and people will go out and buy what the ads are selling. There are many advertisements and commercials that use this approach. Prime examples of this are the advertisements for Orbit Gum and A Diamond is Forever. Also, the commercials for Levi jeans use sex to promote the sale of their brand. As a way to
Advertisements are all over the place. Whether they are on TV, radio, or in a magazine, there is no way that you can escape them. They all have their target audience who they have specifically designed the ad for. And of course they are selling their product. This is a multi billion dollar industry and the advertiser’s study all the ways that they can attract the person’s attention. One way that is used the most and is in some ways very controversial is use of sex to sell products
Magazines play a part in creating the image of sex sells. Advertisers use an image to create an advertisement to sell a product. The Purpose of advertising is not to sell sex, but to attract the consumer. Their talent is the ability to transform seemingly neutral object to create a desirable product. It’s no wonder that we are so
As stated by Fite, Fite, Mcelwee, Neal, & Smith (2000) sex in advertising can be viewed as unacceptable and poor in taste by some viewers and acceptable or essential to others. The debatable issue of does "sex sell" has become a great importance to society as well as the advertising companies. Random students at Northern Kentucky University were interviewed by Fite, Fite, Mcelwee, Neal, & Smith (2000), about there opinions of the use of sex in advertising. The students had several different opinions, here are a few examples:
People are so used to seeing ads that they have become immune to them, so advertisers blatantly use sex to sell their products. Most people, immune to ads, won’t even think about the deeper meaning behind an ad. They will notice the product, but because the product is in a sexual situation, they will associate that featured product with sex. The problem with this advertising is that it, more often than not, uses women in compromising situations where the man has power over the woman. Some of these ads she presents as evidence are extremely violent and aggressive. One ad she mentions is three guys blatantly attacking a woman and it’s advertising women’s jeans. I agree with Kilbourne when she states, “Male violence is subtly encouraged by ads that
Everyone has heard the phrase “sex sells.” It seems to be a major factor that drives people to buy. Advertisers manipulate this behavior by creating ads that showcase their products as a way to gain love, beauty, and desirability. Advertisers frequently use sex appeal with flirtatious images as an attention grabbing device to play with the public’s emotions. Because the public is a diverse group of individuals, it is difficult to target the masses by focusing on hobbies, sports, or flaws. Because of this, advertisers target sexuality, something everyone can relate to. In the February, 2016 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine, they overtly demonstrate this. In an ad for Kinky Vodka, they represent multiple sexual innuendoes such as provocative body posing, stereotypical feminine colors, and seductive wording.
Sexualizaton and objectification in the advertisements we see and the media we watch has become a very strong issue in our society. With the idea that “sex sells”, consumers don’t even realize that they’re not viewing the advertisements for what they are, but for the women (or men) that are being portrayed in a very erotic way, posed with whatever product they were hired to sell. Many articles have been written so far to challenge and assess this problem, but one written by Jean Kilbourne (1999), “”Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence” holds an extensive amount of authority. Using her personal experience with the subject, as well as studies she has conducted herself on the topic of sexualization, she talks about how the amount of sexualization in advertising affects how society views the culture and products consumers buy. She also notes that because of the quantity and prevalence of these ads, the rate of all forms of sexual assault, specifically rape (mostly towards women of all age), increase, as well as other forms of assault. It is important to examine Kilbourne’s use of rhetorical devices, such as ethos, pathos, and logos, and how effective these devices make her article. This way, it can be examined for its validity and her understanding of her own research. Kilbourne’s article is very effective through her uses of pathos and ethos, but at the same time, it loses its effectiveness through her absence of a counter-argument, as well as a lack
According to the article, Why Sex Sells...More Than Ever, “Using sex to sell everything from alcohol to banking services has increased over the years: 15 percent of ads studied used sex as a selling point in 1983. That percentage grew to 27 percent in 2003,” (Why Sex Sells…). And we can assume percentages went nowhere but up from there. Having ads sell on sex appeal is not only happening in the United States of America, but all over the world as well. “In 2003, as with previous years, approximately 30% of all complaints to the Australian Advertising Standards Board related to portrayal of sex/sexuality/nudity and for the past four years this has been the most common issue prompting complaints,” (Beer, Boats, and
In recent discussion of the drastic marketing campaigns that companies utilize a controversial issue whether the massive growth of popular culture in today’s diverse society has created a need for mass advertisement and marketing. From this perspective, advertisement and marketing companies continue to exploit the slogan “Sex Sells.” Advertisement campaigns continue to target women as a sex object for men’s sexual prejudice. The main idea behind this campaign is that men’s needs are more important and significant, and women’s are not. Advertisement and marketing campaigns have gone too far and they devalue women. As Steve Craig said in his article “Men’s Men and Women’s Women”: “Advertisers therefore portray different images of men and women in order to exploit the different deep-seated motivations and anxieties connected to gender identity” (189). What Steve Craig refers to is that
The use of sex in advertising as mentioned earlier is said to have boasted a lot company’s revenues, but it also has its negative side which has caused a lot of problems in societies around the world. The idea of using sex in advertising is a very smart way that advertisers use to gain attention of consumers, but it has it's negative effects like depicting women as sex objects, forcing sexual innuendos on children, causing body dissatisfaction among youths even adults and it also attracts negative backlash on the companies that use it. It can attract the wrong kind of attention and sometimes it won't lead to the company becoming a bigger and better brand.
Advertising is a billion dollar market with a sole purpose to persuade the consumer to purchase some type of product or service. Companies use many different methods to convince the public to spend money on their products with most of their advertising focused around the idea of “sex sells”. This idea promotes a hunger in the consumer for gaining personal pleasure or acceptance of sexuality by the eye catching effects of publicly baring flesh. These ideas are promoted through TV commercials, billboards, magazines, radio ads, or any type of media targeted at the mass majority of people. Every where a person looks there seems to be some type of advertising based on sex. The illusion of making one feel they want, need, or cant live without
Everyday we expose ourselves to thousands of advertisements in a wide variety of environments where ever we go; yet, we fail to realize the influence of the implications being sold to us on these advertisements, particularly about women. Advertisements don’t just sell products; they sell this notion that women are less of humans and more of objects, particularly in the sexual sense. It is important to understand that the advertising worlds’ constant sexual objectification of women has led to a change in sexual pathology in our society, by creating a culture that strives to be the unobtainable image of beauty we see on the cover of magazines. Even more specifically it is important to study the multiple influences that advertisements have
The use of sex in advertising may create unrealistic ideals for men regarding women, however, it is a powerful tool for selling products. Through the years advertisers have shown through their advertisements that sex does sell products. Especially when selling to the male viewers. Sex is the second strongest of the psychological appeals, right behind self-preservation, and its strength is biological and instinctive, the genetic imperative of reproduction (Taflinger). Sexual desire is an instinctive reaction in animals, and a person?s perception of a suitable mate is the basis (Taflinger). That perception is usually a set of criteria that the opposite sex must meet, and those that meet and exceed those criteria will provide the chance for
Sex is everywhere you turn. Victoria’s Secret is notorious for their ads that plaster billboards and the sides of buildings, featuring scantily-clad women suggesting an obvious sexual air. The bags you receive at Abercrombie feature half-dressed models, often two of which may be kissing or touching one another. These sexual images are far too present in the every day lives of young children, much younger than what used to be acceptable. Aside from this moral questionability, ads such as these often contain images of unrealistic body types, which exploit insecurity to make consumers use their product, the result of which can be dangerous to mental and physical health. Finally, when I see ads like the one to the right, and rack my brain
Nowadays, sex appeal is essential element for advertising; sex is everywhere that has been becomes the media constant companion. Sexual in advertising has many types such as nudity, sexual behavior, physical attractiveness, sexual referents and sexual embeds that make sex is exist in advertising across many forms (Reichert & Lambiase, 2003). Therefore, Reichert (2007) state that sex in advertising has been defined as advertising tool for a wide variety of products that use sexuality in the form of nudity, sexual imagery, innuendo, and double entendre. Shahid as cited in Reichert (2007) said that sex in advertising really works in some products, at least for advertisers like Calvin kelvin, Dolce & Gabbana and Victoria’s Secret. They are successful through use erotic appeals to get commercial success. A message if want has opportunity to influence viewers, at least let their seen or heard, use sexual in advertising is effective approach, therefore, sex used in advertisings primarily to attract attention to the advertising (Reichert,2007;O’Barr,2011再找2个) . Sex in advertising