Has sex and sexuality inspired advertisers for marketing products and increasing sales by targeting consumers through sex appeal?
Introduction
Sex has been used in advertising since time in memory. Early forms of sex advertisements included the use of female wood carving usually half clothed with the upper part of the body barely covered. In early cases, most of the ads with sexual content only included female models, but with time and as the society became more gender sensitive the use of male models is also incorporated into advertising. The level of sex content in an advertisement ranges from simple cosmetics to enhance the beauty, to pin up girls or masculine males to complete nudity depending on the type of product.
Thesis
The use of sex in advertising enables marketers increase consumer's interest in a commodity and increase sales. Sex is a topic that generates curiosity in most people, incorporating sex in advert makes consumers curious about that particular product. This curiosity is reflected in the consumer's interest to try the product, therefore, increasing the amount of units a product sale in the market. I this essay we thoroughly examine why sex has become such an efficient tool in advertising
Advertisers are increasingly relying on the use of sex appeal to increase consumer interest and sales. Advertisements portraying consumers who use a particular brand is guaranteed of romance and the promise of love. Sex appeal has been used to give redundant products a new identity (Cavendish, 43). Consumer brands like Calvin Klein have endorsed sexually appealing imagery and phrases to push their products to their customers for a very long period. Sex has inspired advertisers to market their products and increase sales by incorporating sexual content on ads even if they do not relate to the product to attract consumer interest and increase sales, consumers are more open to trying products that attract their interests.
Sex appeal enables marketers create brand identity, some product heavily endorse sexual imagery in their ads to create a brand that is sexy. This brand is then perceived by consumers as hot, and consumed by users who want to be identified as sexy. Victoria secret has used this kind of strategy to create a brand that is recognized as sexy. It has been achieved by the showing a lot of flesh, curvy models and sexy phrases to make an illusion to consumers that using the brand is an identification of sexuality. Customers that want to be identified as sexy will find this products to satisfy their social need of being recognized as sexy (Reichert & Lambaise, 43).
Over time, there has been a change in consumer culture; most purchases made by consumers are not for use but to own. Consumers are increasingly buying commodities with the objective of ownership and not use. Marketers are exploiting this change in consumer culture to relate brands to sexuality, so when a customer buys a particular brand he/she feels that the brand will reflect them as sexy individuals among their peers. This influences consumers purchasing motivates because when a product are advertised in ways that it attracts customers that are in need to be identified as sexy, ownership of this particular product satisfies the need for sexual class identification (Reichert, 36).
Commodity that an individual consumes and his consumption habits is a portrait of a person’s cultural capital. The type of product and the number of purchases enable the society to class an individual to a cultural group. Commodities create social identity and class; marketers are relying on this to market their products in a way that consumers perceive that a particular product will identify them to a social group that is considered sexy and a higher social class. Early forms of cigarette ads had models showing a lot of skin, even though sexy has no relation to cigarettes, it was a success because most consumers perceived smoking cigarettes to be an indication of being sexy (Q’guinn et al, 64).
Sexuality has biological, emotional and physical aspects of consumers, when a consumer is exposed to a sexually appealing ad the natural aspect is the hormonal changes that occur within the consumer. Emotionally consumers get attached to a particular ad they are exposed to, it may be because they would like to be as physically attractive as the model in the ad or they are attracted to the model and the physical aspect arises from the connection of the consumers to the ads, because the consumers perceives the ads to relate to a particular lifestyle they fancy (Elza, 62).
Advertisements that have some sexual content are more engaging and entertaining to consumers, compared to advertisements that have no sexual content. Consumers are more receptive audience for ads that have some element of sex fantasies because they find them more engaging. Consumers spend more time viewing advertisements that have sexual content compared to other ads, meaning that consumers can get the brand message an ad tries to communicate if it has some sexual element. The level of creativity required to, make usual ads interesting is high and scarce. Making marketers resort to just using sex to capture consumer's attention (Reichert & Lambiase, 36).
Sex is a biological factor that is natural to humans, using sex in ads makes them relevant to any group and class of customers. Sex can be used in ads that target any group of users because it is an activity that does not discriminate on the basis of social class, gender or race. Advertisers use this strategy to create advertisements that can be relevant to any class or gender of consumers. Because sex, is non-discriminative and allows users to relate to the ads (Cavendish, 63).
Advertisements with sexual imagery are easier to remember, customers are likely to be familiar with ads with sexual imagery because being a natural activity it is in most people subconscious. Consumer, therefore, can readily recall brand names and phrases of commodities that have sexual imagery as compared to other ads. Sex imagery makes adverts more appealing to advertiser since it is more popular amongst consumers (Reichert, 46).
Desire for sex is an instinctive desire in humans, the use of models with qualities that the society consider desirable make a product more desirable to consumers. When users relate a product to their sexual desires they are likely to purchase a product because they perceive it to refer to their sexual desires, owning that particular product feels like achieving the consumers sexual desires in form of the product. Consumer product like axe men body spray make commercials that create the perception that the men whose this product line, smell so good that the opposite sex will find them attractive. It is a natural desire for every male to be considered attractive by the ladies; this makes this product very desirable to many men (Q’guinn et al, 27).
Research has proved that sex is a great way to influence consumers to buy low-risk products, which do not require a lot of information to decide a purchase or are not so expensive. Habitual and convenient goods are adequately advertised using sex because consumers tend to base their consumption decision on what they see. Customers do not require a lot of background information to make purchase decisions for low-risk products, and this creates a scenario where advertiser can use sexual element to manipulate consumers to make purchase decisions based on impulse (Cavendish. 13).
Advertisements are usually a reflection of what the society wants, the use of sex in ads is because advertisers are reflecting what the culture embraces. Men are more receptive to advertisements that use female models even if the ad has no relation to the product, products that have sexually appealing imagery sell mostly in men compared to the same product advertised without sexual imagery. Because most males are attracted to female sexual attributes. It is a natural male instinct to find it desirable to impregnate as many females as possible; therefore the use of women in ads that target male consumers is effective because the males will be naturally attracted to the female actor posing for that particular ad influencing their buying decision (Reichert, 31).
Sex is relevant to a variety of age groups, ranging from young adults to senior adults. This enables advertisers to use it as a strategy that is appropriate to a broad age group of consumers. Irrespective of users age most people share similar sexual fantasies and preferences. Mostly used in male products like alcoholic beverages, these drinks are consumed by a broad range of age group of men. Beers use ads having females acting in a manner that is sexually suggestive; these ads are relevant to the broad age range of beer consumers because despite the vast age difference the sexual fantasies of the consumers are similar (Elza, 42).
Critiques of using sex in advertisement
Religious and conservative groups consider these ads as immodest and promoting early sexual encounters in teenagers, and most ads use young models in ads because they are at their prime. The use of young models makes adolescents more receptive to indulging in sexual encounters. Lead to the rise in number of teenage pregnancies and spread of sexually transmittable diseases among the youths. Because the ads that adolescents are exposed portrays indulgence in sex as acceptable and never provide youth with enough information on the consequences of early sexual activity (Elza, 24).
Sex in advertising is a short-term strategy; it only attracts consumer’s attention and cannot retain customer loyalty to a brand. The ability to keep customers is entirely dependent on the product, so the product has to be of quality to enable it retain the consumers. If marketers advertise a product that does not meet the consumers perceived expectation, they will not be repeat purchases, so the advert has to meet the consumer expectations that the ad creates. If a product does not give the customers the expected sexual gratification reflected by the ad, they might feel cheated and exploited (Cavendish, 29).
Sex adverts create stereotypes in the society, and most adverts portray certain traits to certain personalities. In most cases, blonde girls are described to be pretty but with limited intellectual capabilities, masculine men are also in most instances characterized to be violent or suited for jobs that are more labor intensive like construction. This kind of stereotyping is not healthy because it creates the societies perception based on the ad stereotypes; this type of stereotyping creates discrimination in the society toward individuals who portray these traits (Courtney & Whipple, 121).
Most sex ads objectify women and portray them as an element of male fantasy, product that targets the male segment of the population usually use female models to attract the men. The models often use sexually stimulating poses to draw the male attention. Creating a perception the use of a particular brand is accompanied by attention to the opposite sex. Reflecting male’s decision making to be centered on females and females as objects that men fantasize about. While in the real sense most buying decisions are based on the product price and previous experiences (Elza, 34).
Conclusion
Sex is a need that most people fantasize about filling and being sexually attractive is everyone's desire, and sexual satisfaction is a subject that is relative to every individual's preference. Using the sex in advertising to create the illusion that a product will make one sexually attractive or enable one to satisfy their sexual needs makes a product of interest to most consumers. Sex is also in many people subconscious so when a product has some element of sexual fantasies consumers are more likely to remember the brand name and attributes of the product making the product familiar to the users.
Work cited
Courtney, Alice E, and Thomas W. Whipple. Sex Stereotyping in Advertising. Lexington, Mass. [u.a.: Lexington Books, 1984. Print.
Ibroscheva, Elza. Advertising, Sex, and Post-Socialism: Women, Media, and Femininity in the Balkans. , 2013. Print
O'Guinn, Thomas C, Chris T. Allen, and Richard J. Semenik. Advertising and Integrated Brand Promotion. Mason, Ohio: South-Western/Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.
Reichert, Tom, and Jacqueline Lambiase. Sex in Consumer Culture: The Erotic Content of Media and Marketing. Mahwah, N.J: L. Erlbaum Associates, 2006. Print
Reichert, Tom. The Erotic History of Advertising. Amherst, N.Y: Prometheus Books, 2003. Print.
Sex and Society. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2010. Print.
