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Sex should not sell
Do not ever underestimate the persuasive influential power, of gorgeous women with more cleavage, or the power of a gentleman with a muscular body, to increase the consumer’s consumption. Tom Reichert in his book “The Erotic History of Advertising” emphasizes the idea that sometimes this frequent use of the sex sells technique increases some consumer interest and builds a strong brand identity (Reichert). In fact, Sex was used to advertisements since the 1900’s when the tobacco companies used some erotic images on their cigarettes’ boxes (o’bar). If there is more effective way to increase the consumer purchasing power and make a higher brand recall, in an appropriate way, such as humorous ads; why do marketers always resort to the sex ads? Sex ads should be banned not only because of the inappropriate content that affects the values of the society but also because it manipulates the consumer using his instincts.
Azouz 2
Marketers always use sexual provocative images that sometimes are not even related to neither the brand nor the story of the ad itself. Sex In ads is only a hook to grab the audience’s attention. In most cases, there is either a sexual insinuation or sexual innuendos or inappropriate sexual poses that is sometimes not related to the product. Rebecca Chacko commented on this in her article ”the Mystery of Sex in Advertisements” “the racy nature” of the sex advertisement catch the audiences and make them unintentionally engaged with the ad. For example pizza hut’s commercial in which they showed Jessica Simpson wearing a sexy red dress and serving the food while making seductive moves. They were only aiming to attract the consumer and engage him. Tom Reichert has shown that the use...
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...Sex and Sexuality Human Values." By Daniel Cloud. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2014.
Portia. “Many Advertisements are Sexit." Muse Feminist Magazine (2005). Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context .Web. 23 may 2014.
Ettus, Samantha. "Help Wanted: Super Bowl Exposes Five Brands That Need Women At The Top." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 03 Feb. 2014. Web. 14 May 2014.
Bonilla, Liza. "How Does Advertising Affect Women's Self Esteem?" Womenandadvertising. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2014.
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Furnham, Adrian. "Does Sex Sell?" Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. N.p., n.d. December 13, 2013.Web. 14 May 2014.
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In a consumer-driven society, advertisements invade the minds of every person who owns any piece of technology that can connect to the internet. Killbourne observes that “sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women,” (271). Advertising takes the societal ideology of women and stereotypes most kids grow up learning and play on the nerves of everyone trying to evoke a reaction out of potential customers, one that results in them buying products. Another point made
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. For me to analyze this advertisement I used the rhetorical triangle, as well as ethos, pathos, and logos.
“Selling sex is illegal, but using it to promote economic growth is not.” (Sexualization and Sexploitation of Women in the Media; Rosery Films) What actually happened to our culture, people wondered? Has advertising gone too far? And are we being corrupted by sex? According Sex in advertising: Perspectives on the Erotic Appeal, in 2005, approximately one-fifth of all advertising used overt sexual content to sell its product. Society’s interest with sex and the advertising designer’s acceptance of it as an effective tool have served each other for the course of the twentieth century. And has always been separated on the extents to which sexuality can and should be used to sell. Advertising has become the single largest source of visual imagery in our social society. No matter where we look, we see advertisements trying to sell us things. Provocative advertising has been characterized as a deliberate attempt to gain attention through shock. (De Pelsmacker & Van Den Bergh, 1996) In 2007, The American Psychological Association sent out a press release to the media stressing the harmful effects of sexualizing our youth: “The proliferation of sexualized images of girls and young women in advertising, merchandisin...
In this selection by author, Jean Kilbourne the constant escalation in the media advertisements is displayed. She begins the text by explaining the vast blanket that sexualized ads now cover. Kilbourne states that this incredibly out-of-control practice “dehumanizes and objectifies people” (456). She presents the idea that these dangerous ads are so commonplace that it creates a toxic environment in which we base our judgements on staged, indecent ads.
This is not only damaging towards women, but it also affects the mindset of men, who are then told that the sexual assault and abuse of women is acceptable, because women take pleasure in it as well. This is not the case, and marginalizes women because ads have played a role in the formation of the normalization of rape culture in modern day society. Another important statement that Kilbourne makes is that ads sell more than products, that they sell values, images, concepts of love, sexuality, success, and normalcy. She says that ads tell people who they are and who they should be. Through the propagation of the idea that women are willing to be sexually assaulted, ads marginalize women by telling them that the willingness to be submissive and sexually assaulted is a positive mindset. In this way, ads are rios. This is a point that Kilbourne holds throughout the course of the
...three major effects of sex in advertisement: an attention getter, identification, and perfect models. People have often their eyes gotten by sexy images. Also, some sexy images may give cool concept on brands. Lastly, sexy male or female models in ads have perfect coolness or beauty and customers come to want to become like them by using the products in the ads.
Stephenson, T., Stover, W. J., & Villamor, M. (1997). Sell Me Some Prestige! The Portrayol of Women in Business-Related Ads. Journal of Popular Culture, 255-271.
“Ads sell more than products. They sell values, they sell images, they sell concepts of love and sexuality, of success, and perhaps most important, normality.” Jean Kilbourne, a media critic, goes into great detail of this disgrace to modern society in her documentary, “Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising 's Image of Women.” Many people like Kilbourne could argue that women have falsely been depicted as a minority to men over the years. All different forms of advertising have been guilty of womanizing in this way at one time or another. Some of the largest companies have been caught displaying woman in a sexual and desirable way in order to sell products; some even make the woman seem weak or dependable on a male figure. While many companies are guilty of the form of advertisement described in Kilbourne’s video, a handful of corporations bring hope into our often sexist society. One particular Nike ad contradicts Kilbourne’s theory of worsening feminization by showing a ruthless, successful female athlete. However, when analyzed, an Old Spice ad suggests that women are subjective to men, proving Kilbourne’s theory to have some truth.
Is advertising manipulative; can it be controlling, or is it fueling the demand of the American economy? The exhaustive battle of what advertising is and what it’s not is never-ending and both ends of the spectrum can only battle with statistics, words, and opinions on the fact of the matter. Many arguments have arisen since the establishment of the advertising industry and everyone sheds their own light on the subject. In “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising,” Jean Kilbourne argues that the advertising industry portrayal of women is narrow-minded and produces emotional and psychological problems within women in regards with their roles in society, their physical appearance, and sexual attitudes. She also emphasizes how the world of advertising creates artificiality among women. On another note, the author of “What Advertisement Isn’t,” John O’Toole, takes a look at how the government has too much control of and poorly regulates advertising, how it is not deceptive on a subconscious level, and how advertising is a sales tool and should not be evaluated by journalistic or any other standards. These two arguments talk about issues in advertising that interconnect on broader levels but essentially are speaking of two different levels of advertisements.
The basic strategy of this kind of gender stereotypes is men will ignore the advertisements by paying more attention on woman if the advertiser includes woman’s image, and if they use male photograph in advertisement it will attract more female consumers. Therefore, people will pay more attention on advertisement and then have more possibility to shape positive attitude of that product, or at least, bear that product in mind when they need to consume it (Courtney and Whipple, 1983, p.74). Moreover, it is not only a strategy to attract more consumers, more importantly; it is a method to stand out in a “male-dominated work environment in advertising”, and it challenges the value of patriarchy and “double sex standards” (Fedorenko, 2015, p.476). However, sexy female image are often controversially critique as gender stereotypes of women in advertising. According to Laura Mulvey’s idea of “male gaze”, it points out that female are sexual objects to men to please them in an “erotic spectacle” (1992, cited in Marcellus, 2009). In Sonata’s ad, this woman dresses sexy in order to be a sexual reward, a tool to attract men and accessory of a successful man. This expression of women object to the idea of feminism that has mentioned before, women is independent, and the reason for being sexy and glamour is not to please men and fulfil male’s desire of sex. So, this advertisement provides a negative feeling for women that reinforce the gender stereotypes of women looks sexy in order to satisfy male’s desire of
We live in a society full of commercialism. With marketing companies competing with one another to sell their products, they must produce the most appealing advertisements to attract the consumer. Adults and children are exposed to many advertisements on a daily basis, from television to magazines to billboards. These all use many rhetorical strategies and ideologies to gain the audience’s attention. In advertisements there are hidden tactics to promote their products and appeal to the consumer. One very popular technique used by these companies is sex. Sexual appeal is a huge marketing tactic in our society and many advertisements definitely promote “sex sells” in their advertisements. For instance, Carl’s Jr. commercials and advertisements
There are many companies that use sex appeal in their ads today. For instance Victoria Secrets is one of the top sellers in lingerie. They show skin in every one of their ads. All of their models put on the sex appeal for all commercials and magazines. That is what helps them sell. Women look at those ads and see those girls floating on clouds like angels and feel they could feel the same if they wore that purple bra or red underwear. By showing these girls constantly looking sexy in their ads make women feel sexy just wearing them. That is the whole point of using sex in your ads. It?s amazing what a little skin can do. "In advertising, sex sells. But only if you're selling sex (Richards).
The documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses and examines the role of women in advertisements and the effects of the ads throughout history. The film begins by inspecting a variety of old ads. The speaker, Jean Kilbourne, then discusses and dissects each ad describing the messages of the advertisements and the subliminal meanings they evoke. The commercials from the past and now differ in some respects but they still suggest the same messages. These messages include but are not limited to the following: women are sexual objects, physical appearance is everything, and women are naturally inferior then men. Kilbourne discusses that because individuals are surrounded by media and advertisements everywhere they go, that these messages become real attitudes and mindsets in men and women. Women believe they must achieve a level of beauty similar to models they see in magazines and television commercials. On the other hand, men expect real women to have the same characteristics and look as beautiful as the women pictured in ads. However, even though women may diet and exercise, the reality...
The portrayals of men in advertising began shifting towards a focus on sexual appeal in the 1980s, which is around the same that women in advertising were making this shift as well. According to Amy-Chinn, advertisements from 1985 conveyed the message that “men no longer just looked, they were also to be looked at” as seen in advertisements with men who were stripped down to their briefs (2). Additionally, advertisements like these were influencing society to view the male body “as an objectified commodity” (Mager and Helgeson 240). This shows how advertisements made an impact on societal views towards gender roles by portraying men as sex objects, similarly to women. By showcasing men and women in little clothing and provocative poses, advertisements influenced society to perceive men and women with more sexual
To sum up, it is often said that advertising is shaping women gender identity, and some have been argued that the statement is true, because of the higher amount of sexual references of women that advertisement show and the damages that occur on women’s personality and the public negative opinions of those women. As well, the negative effects that those kinds of advertisements cause to young generations and make them feel like they should simulate such things and are proud of what they are doing because famous actors are posting their pictures that way. Others deem this case as a personal freedom and absolutely unrelated to shaping women gender identity. On the contrast, they believe that, those sorts of advertisements are seriously teaching women how to stay healthy and be attractive, so they might have self-satisfaction after all.