Sex in Advertising - Does It Work?

DID YOU KNOW, an American 18 year old will have seen around 350,000 commercials on television and a 40 year old around 1.5million. Based on that sheer scale, are these adverts too explicit in the sense that audiences can become too psychologically affected leading to anxiety, which can trigger a number of mental and physical complications. Underwear advertisements use explicit sex to sell their products. For example, Calvin Klein adverts selling boxers will always have a physically perfect male model shown just in his underwear. If a self-conscious male were to take this advertisement to a personal level, having bought the product with no prevailing similarity to the model, then it could lead to certain forms of eating disorders, body enhancers such as drugs, even surgery, which could also lead to mental disorders.

However, the sub-question that needs to be focused on is whether sex in advertising works or not. It’s hard not to notice an advertisement reeking with sex but it can be argued that it’s not being used to sell, but being used to grab attention. It is scientifically proven that sex triggers a chemical in our body that is meant to be used to preserve species’ survival, but is being misused to sell products.

Also, sex in advertising can lead people to think, ‘are men and women in advertising causing different genders to become objectified’? It is without a doubt that teenagers today are becoming more image obsessed and materialistic. This could evidentially lead to anxiety, depression, and physical abnormalities as a result of extreme dieting.

It has come to researchers attentions like myself that adverts in magazines and televisions etc are abided by a simple but extremely effective formula, ‘buy this, get this’. On a study by a Dr Tom Reichert that this is evident in almost 75% of all advertisements. This Dr also discovered that there are plenty of cases in which sexual positioning strategies have resulted in long-term success. One of those is Calvin Klein. He has successfully imbued his brand’s identity with sexuality. For well over 30 years, sex in one form or another has been a mainstay in Calvin Klein fragrance, fashion, underwear, and accessories ads. The result? In 2005, products with Calvin’s name generated at least $1 billion in annual revenue. The same is true for businesses like Anne Summers and Victoria’s Secret. However, why should it be up to the big corporations to decide what standard of beauty should be modeled in? It is this sort of advertising which allows teenagers and adults alike to become so self-conscious about their own image, leading them to diet and take other drastic measures to look anything like the models that have become the guideline of perfection.

It is possible that for as long as people desire lustfully and remain attracted to a thinner, ‘perfect’ male or female, that the mental and physical stability of the average person will be affected.

To increase cigarette sales in 1885, W. Duke & Sons inserted trading cards into cigarette packs that featured sexually provocative starlets. Duke grew to become the leading cigarette brand by 1890 (Porter, 1971). Woodbury's Facial Soap, a woman's beauty bar, was almost discontinued in 1910. The soap's sales decline was reversed, however, with ads containing images of romantic couples and promises of love and intimacy for those using the brand (from Account Histories, 1926). Jovan Musk Oil, introduced in 1971, was promoted with sexual entendre and descriptions of the fragrance's sexual attraction properties. As a result, Jovan, Inc.'s revenue grew from $1.5 million in 1971 to $77 million by 1978.

It is clear now more than ever, from looking at the timeline of sex in advertising, adverts are becoming radically more explicit, but is it going too far? It is evident that the general public according to a number of surveys are becoming less aware of sex in advertising and are just becoming used to it.

Sex is not only used to sell products such as clothing but completely different products such as tobacco. As far back as 1871, the tobacco company Pearl used a picture of a naked woman, preserved in very few items of clothing prevailing her top half, was used to promote this product and attract men.

Much anxiety in advertising can be linked to success, leading teenage girls and boys to believe that they have to look like a perfected and image altered model to succeed in life. However, is it not always just imagery that promotes sex in advertising. Much of the time is can be in sexual behaviour that promotes the product. Sexual interaction between two or more people typically includes, hugging, kissing, voyeurism, and more intimate forms of sexual behavior. It seems somewhat unfair that adverts like this are shown in public. For example, at football games, Superbowl, basketball games, there are always adverts been shown in the background for the whole audience to see, and when there are adverts promoting sex in their products, the audiences are given little choice but to watch. Whenever an advert is being shown on television, it is always difficult not to look at least once. It is most likely out of boredom and we can’t help but look. Highlighting the numbers watching the Superbowl, reaches an estimated 90Million viewers, most watching the advertisements.

Many other companies have sponsored and supported the Dove campaign such as NIKE. The campaign has been proved successful from a public survey through bill boards, showing an average sized woman with a caption ‘fit or fat?’. 51% of the public who voted said fit and 49% said fat, proving that the women in the campaign have more representation in numbers in the public.

It is obviously clear that sex sells, but it is not without its contradictions causing anxiety, depression and other medical issues both physical and psychological.