Sexual Imagery in Advertising

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Table of Contents

The Concept of “Sex”
The negative perception of sex
Responses towards sexual images
Example of sex in advertising
Works Cited
Appendix

The power of advertising is undoubted at present due to its strong impact on the public. No company producing goods or financial services currently neglects the possibilities which advertising offers to them. Even though companies have many ways to provide the promotion of their goods and services, advertising has been and will remain one of the most powerful tools which companies are using. The success of the product is in many ways pre-destined by the advertising strategy which the company uses. In the modern era, using sex in advertising has become one of the most popular practices for companies. (Reichert and Lambiase 23) They do no longer need to attract consumers with advertising based on competitive prices or higher quality than their competitors. Instead, they use sex as a peculiar magnet that is going to attract consumers to their stores year after year. In this essay, I am seeking to address the question of whether it is moral for companies to use sex in their advertising without limit to sell their products. The research question will be examined by hypothesizing that companies should not be limited in their advertising strategies in any way. Indeed, some people are not willing to see sex in advertisements. However, it is only a part of the companies’ advertising strategy. They are allowed to use any tools they need to promote their products because the market is very competitive and they might not be able to promote their products without using sex in advertising. Using sex in advertising as an incentive for consumers is very efficient for companies, and no limits should be placed on it.

The Concept of “Sex”

In advertising, “sex” is determined as a portrayal of nude bodies and hints at romantic and love relations. Advertising strategies of companies were destined to change with time. In the ’70s, consumers would not accept advertisements with sex scenes in them, and they were not used at that time. However, at present, using sex in advertising helps companies to promote products because many customers get interested in them in such a case. By introducing sexy commercials, marketing managers manage to catch the attention of consumers who would otherwise simply skip the information. Sex on television is widely discussed by people at work and during their leisure time. “Through the years, sex has grown dramatically on television. Sex has become an open topic on television sitcoms; as a result, sex is among the biggest attractions on television. It has become the center of our most attractive television shows and is the main topic for television.” (Does Sex in Advertising Sell 2009). Everybody remembers new sexy commercials, and thus products get easily promoted. People would not remember some old lady advertising a new brand of detergent; however, they would recall the name of the product if an attractive lady advertised it. Why do consumers get so interested in sexy commercials and sexy advertisements? First, because they often lack sex in their lives. Teenagers will most likely be the first ones to get interested in half-naked men or women in advertisements because they do not have anybody like that in their lives. They are dreaming of their future girlfriends or boyfriends, and they certainly get attracted to models advertising various products (Reichert and Lambiase 66)

Second, people need beauty in their lives. All of the models used in sexy commercials are very beautiful or handsome. They are flawless in the eyes of consumers. They are dressed well and their appearance is fantastic. People will rather take advice to buy a product from a beautiful young lady in a sexy mini-skirt than from an ordinary person. In Image 1, it is possible to see a young lady who was used in advertising to attract consumers to the product. She is very beautiful, sits in a sexy pose, and every person looking at the ad would remember it for a long time. The ad would have a very long-lasting impression on men because this is one of the most beautiful women they have ever seen, and they would not mind if they had a wife looking like that (Franke and Taylor 150). Women would also remember this image because the lady is very beautiful, and they would want to look like her. They could be jealous of her beauty and might even object to having this image in advertising. No matter what emotions the image would arise in them, they would remember it and pay attention to the product. This is exactly what a marketing manager of the company is looking for: attention to the product and a long-lasting impression. Nonetheless, when sexual themes are as dominant as they are in pornography, and are presented, as they often are, in a repulsive, depraved, and even violent manner, then sex becomes dehumanized, and love is transformed from a beautiful four-letter word to a common, harsher one. Sex without love is what pornography is all about (Lance and Woll 73).

Third, sexy commercials get fixed in people’s minds and always have a major immediate effect on the consumer. Practice shows that advertisements can have both a major immediate effect and minor effects the influence of which on the potential customers will take a long time. The major immediate effect can occur in the case when the company has something new to say in the advertisement. However, if the product which is being advertised is not new, does not bear many new functions, or failed customers in the past, the advertising strategy has to be chosen very carefully. In this case, the application of sex in the advertisement is the best answer. It is the most efficient strategy. There is little hope the advertisement of the product will be met with much interest and involves any of the customers’ attention unless the commercial has a beautiful model in it. Especially this strategy works on the low-involvement product categories in which a customer does not care much which brand to buy- for example, oil, yogurt, juices, and many other items. How can the producers make the consumers choose their brand of oil, if there are hundreds of other brands? Certainly, they can achieve that by making their commercial the most appealing to customers. Sex cannot fail them in such a case (Labarbera et al 29).

Fourth, people simply want something exciting on TV, while reading newspapers and magazines, or when driving by billboards now and then. They get tired of ordinary commercials which do not have any interesting features in them. They do not pay any attention to dull advertisements in magazines. They would not pay attention to the billboard. Both men and women might watch television for hours. They might also spend hours reading magazines. They might drive for hours. They do not react to an ordinary advertisement after spending so much time doing routine work. However, for many of them, an advertisement with some sex in it would be like a breath of fresh air. Men “wake up” when they see a beautiful woman model in a commercial or middle of a page in a magazine, and women “wake up” when they see an attractive man. They all get excited when they see a bunch of young people enjoying life. Companies take advantage of that and constantly introduce different sexual objects into their advertisement. Sex manages to “wake” people up, and this feature has to be taken advantage of by marketing managers (Berger et al 98).

The negative perception of sex

Sex in advertising is controlled and ruled by state authorities and legislative initiatives. Still, the USA has weak policies against sex in advertising in contrast to Great Britain and other European countries. Even though sex sells very well when it is applied by companies in their advertising strategies, it is impossible to say that it fits all of the moral standards. The first protesters against sex in advertising are people who belong to different religious groups and are against exposing bodies in the public. Indeed, the body cannot be used as a commodity. There are many cases when women are exploited. Many people oppose prostitution because it makes women sell their bodies. They are also against making women into sex slaves and forcing them to service many clients a day. However, it is necessary to pay a little bit more attention to the analysis of sex in advertising as selling the body as a commodity, because it is an entirely different problem. Women and men taking part in sexy advertisements expose their bodies to the public. However, they do nothing more than showing it. Besides, most advertisements do not show naked people- they rather give a hint so that consumers can look at them and imagine all the rest. Nudity does not attract attention as much as a hint on it. Therefore, advertisements that just give hints cannot be considered similar to prostitution. It is a piece of art (Bhargava and Donthu 7). However, many of them can also be regarded as a piece of art- a peculiar kind of art. The body in such advertisements is not simply a commodity. Such advertisements show the beauty of the body and make us desire it because it is so beautiful (Burns and Martinez 32).

Responses towards sexual images

A special commission was unable to turn up any evidence that sex crimes are linked to sex advertising and sex in media, but some recent investigations suggest that erotic material may very well heighten male aggression toward women, especially in men who are inclined toward such behavior. One such study was conducted at Iowa State University of Science and Technology. A group of students was asked to write essays on such topics as Richard Nixon’s presidency and the removal of criminal penalties for possession of marijuana. The essays were criticized by other students who not only evaluated them but added insults or compliments. Then, the students who wrote the essays were encouraged to get back at the reviewer’s by giving them an electrical shock with a special laboratory machine. First, some of the essay writers were shown erotic or aggressive films, and some were not. Three findings emerged from the study. One was that students who watched pornographic films were very aggressive in administering shocks to critical reviewers. The second was that those who had been made angry by the reviews but not exposed to the films were not as aggressive. And the third finding was that the men were more aggressive toward women than women were toward men, an interesting conclusion. Still, marketing managers of companies seem to compete with one another who can find a sexier model to advertise their home appliances or cars. They do not think that an average-looking model can attract customers. They are willing to sell the body of the model at any time of the day to bring profits to their company. What impresses me about sex in advertising is that it does not have any limits (Eyal and Kunkel 423).

To demonstrate a point of how sex in advertising sells, it could be useful to examine the advertising strategy of a well-known company. Calvin Klein is one of the top players in the fashion market. It is a very popular clothes store which sells such pieces of clothes as lingerie, sweaters, shoes, skirts, and any other items which every girl would like to wear. However, Calvin Klein has many competitors, and thus it needs to come up with an efficient marketing tool to win a considerable share of the market. The company’s website is full of provocative pictures in which sex is the main focus (Image 3). Even though some people might say that the images on the website are not proper, everybody will remember the company. Besides, its target audience consists of young girls, and they will get attracted to the products which are claimed to make them into sexy princesses (Furnham and Farragher 43).

Example of sex in advertising

The well-known campaign of Calvin Klein’s jeans is a classic example of using sex in advertising. Its main feature was that it promoted sex and sexuality as the most important quality in modern young women. Even though many people object to the need of making a focus on sex, Calvin Klein management has a different point of view. Every young girl wants to feel hot and beautiful; therefore she needs sexy clothes to walk in. She does not need to wear expensive clothes from Gucci to feel sexy because she might be not able to afford them. But here the clothes of her dream are- right in Calvin Klein collection. Here every girl can find something to her taste (Furnham and Farragher 41). The main slogan of the campaign was that sex sells (see image 3). Despite the company’s emphasis on sex in the collection and some disapproval from older people concerning that, the campaign was a huge success among students. Yes, the campaign encouraged sex and a free attitude to life. But that is the way of thinking of many young people nowadays. The company only made clothes which reflected this way of thinking and achieved huge success during it. All of the young girl students were interested in what Calvin Klein has had to offer. No matter what height, color, shape a girl is in, Calvin Klein had something sexy for her to offer. The types of clothes they were offering in the jeans collection were clothes in which a college girl could dress after just rolling out of bed. She did not have to spend plenty of time near the mirror adjusting everything- she could just jump into the clothes offered in the collection, and be hot and sexy (Furnham and Farragher 41; Calvin Klein Home Page 2009).

Sex in advertising is a very controversial issue because it is opposed by many people and welcome by others. I do not consider sex in advertising immoral because some of the commercials with sex in them are very entertaining and some of the advertisements in magazines are beautiful. It is true that sometimes companies go too far and advertise their products with very provocative visuals. However, I do not think that they cross the line in most cases because they all realize: the advertisement will be enjoyed by customers only when they add “just enough” sex into it. There should be not too much in order not to make the advertisement obscene, but not too little either to make the customer interested. In my opinion, the most efficient advertisements are those which have beautiful models in them with slight hints of sex. Customers will always buy products advertised with the help of such commercials. Obscene advertisements do not have a good influence on the public; therefore, there is no sense to use them in marketing. As the research of Calvin Klein jeans campaign and its website has shown, this company is one of the leaders of “selling sex” in its advertisements. It is famous all over the world for selling sexy clothes and accessories and using sexual motives in its advertising. I find the graphics which the company uses on its website very creative. The developers of the website have indeed put pictures of girls in bras and panties on the webpage to attract customers. Catalogs, which Calvin Klein distributes, also have models in provocative poses and clothes. However, all of the company’s advertisements are extremely beautiful and there is no possibility to call them obscene. I am sure that if other companies followed the example of Calvin Klein in using sex in advertising, they would be very successful in attracting customers. The most important issue which needs to be taken into consideration is that a “golden mean” has to be found between what is beautiful and what is obscene or provocative.

Works Cited

Berger Joshua, Dougher Sarah, Plazm. 2003. XXX: The Power of Sex in Contemporary Design. Rockport Publishers.

Burns, M., Martinez, D. Visual Imagery and the Art of Persuasion: A Political Campaign Project Teaches Students How to Read and Analyze Persuasive Imagery. Learning & Leading with Technology, 29 (6), 2002: 32-37.

Bhargava, M., Donthu, N. Sales Response to Outdoor Advertising. Journal of Advertising Research, 39 (4), 1999: 7

Calvin Klein Home Page. 2009.

DOES SEX IN ADVERTISING SELL 2009. Web.

Eyal, K. Kunkel , D. The Effects of Sex in Television Drama Shows on Emerging Adults’ Sexual Attitudes and Moral Judgments. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 52 (2008), 423.

Furnham, A Farragher, E. A Cross-Cultural Content Analysis of Sex-Role Stereotyping in Television Advertisements: A Comparison between Great Britain and New Zealand. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 44 (2000), 43.

Franke, G.R., Taylor, Ch. R. Business Perceptions of the Role of Billboards in the U.S. Economy. Journal of Advertising Research, 43 (2), 2003: 150-155.

Labarbera, P.A., Weingard, P., Yorkston, E.A. Matching the Message to the Mind: Advertising Imagery and Consumer Processing Styles. Journal of Advertising Research, 38 (6), 1998: 29-33.

Lance, S., Woll, J. The Little Blue Book of Advertising: 52 Small Ideas That Can Make a Big Difference. Portfolio Hardcover, 2006.

Reichert, T., Lambiase, J. Sex in Advertising: Perspectives on the Erotic Appeal. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003.