The market says that sex sells, and looking at the success of Fifty Shades Of Grey it's hard to argue. E.L James sold 25 million copies in four months; compare this to Larssen's Millennium series taking four years to reach this mark. Everyone enjoys sex; although we are creatures of habit we are also creatures of chaos. Fifty Shades of Grey appeals to the piece of us that craves variety and madness. Every woman’s magazine runs articles on how to improve or spice up ones sex life. Fifty Shades Of Grey not only tells of exciting sexual experiences, but also goes into so much detail that the consumer is able to easily replicate the acts performed. Another factor contributing to the success of the novel is its origins. E.L James wrote the story as a fiction based on the Twilight series. It was uploaded on FanFiction.com. This meant that before its release, the novel already had a large fan-base. All these factors helped contribute to the massive success of the novel and helped it's marketing campaign spread.
Fifty Shades of Grey reinvented the public perception of BDSM, and addressed the “grey area” of sexual fetishes. When the topic of BDSM surfaces, generally horrific images of medieval dungeons, sadistic devices, and pain overwhelm ones mind. The author discredited the original social stigmas by exposing the reality of the lifestyle in an essence of elegance, romance, and control. The novel humanized the BDSM lifestyle by pulling the emotional strings that fabricate our lives. But what if I told you this top selling erotic novel wasn’t so erotic? The market reiterates that sex sells, but in reality it’s the fantasy that sells. The consumers of Fifty Shades of Grey are normal women interested in the fantasies that the novel...
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...hades Of Grey ending anytime soon.
Works Cited
1) http://www.tampabay.com/features/books/fifty-shades-of-grey-tops-all-book-sales-in-2012/2111301
2) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2187022/Fifty-Shades-Of-Grey-Its-really-FIVE-Shades-analysis-reveals-finishes-bestseller.html
3) https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/6-business-lessons-from-50-shades-of-grey/
4) http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/unique-everybody-else/201307/bdsm-personality-and-mental-health
5) http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1160495/marketing-moments-2012-fifty-shades-grey
6) Brown, S. (1995). Sex 'n' Shopping: A "Novel" Approach to Consumer Research. Journal Of Marketing Management, 11(8), 769-783.
7) Patterson, A., & Brown, S. (2005). No Tale, No Sale: A Novel Approach to Marketing Communication. Marketing Review, 5(4), 315-328.
...s, B. M., and W. Stroebe. (2010) “Setting the stage.” The Psychology of Advertising. East Sussex: Psychology, Print.
Reading Chapter 11, “Genders and Sexualities,” written by Carrie Hintz was to construct and enact alternatives for these two traditional categories. Data is clearly indicated that sexual material is some of the most controversial content in literature. Children’s literature that is involved with adolescent’s childhood are key battlegrounds for attitudes about gender and sexuality. The significance of gender and sexuality in children’s literature is the persistent investment in what is perceived to be the innocence of children. Innocence is defined in part by children’s enforced ignorance of sexual matters. According to James Kincaid, “Youth and innocence are two of the most eroticized constructions of the past two centuries. Innocence was that
There is probably no text this discussion embraces more in modern gothic literature than that of Brett Easton Ellis’ American Psycho. The novel was surrounded with controversy, ecen before its publication in 1991. Originally, cited to be published by Simon & Schuster, the company forfeited from the engagement, including its £300,000 advance, due to the controversy surrounding the novels publication after a number of chapters were leaked and later it became the first book in America to receive an R rating. Immediately, the novel was portrayed by critics as ‘vile pornography, immoral and artless’ (Milner 43), with Ellis himself being described as ‘a dirty writer’ . The reactions to the text were befitting of how many people negatively receive pornography, with some critics outright declaring that the novel was pornography. This shows a distinct example of how society viewed representations of violence coupled with sexuality, regardless of the purpose of the medium.
...noted to consist of more sexual themes than it did thirty years ago, a fact that changes the way erotic objectification can be analyzed as it can be considered to be more frequent and general but therefore also less purposely objectifying concerning the characters sex.
“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...
Vampires have been a popular figure in literary works for almost 200 years; from John Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819) to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight (2005), the figure of the vampire has changed and developed over time but still remains popular and recognisable throughout literary history. The figure of the vampire is often used to represent ‘the other’, or as a manifestation of social anxieties at the time of writing. This is why it is interesting to study the how the tropes found within vampire fiction differ between texts, and the reasons behind these differences or transformations in the figure of the vampire. I will look at a range of texts to study how sexuality
For instance, the previous generation of musical idols such as Michael Jackson and Madonna did not express their interests in nudity and extreme sexual behavior in the public arenas as compared to the modern-age equivalents, such as Miley Cyrus who has been renowned for extreme sexual behavior in the public domain (Marcotte 1). Prudery has also affected the literal and writing industry through books such as the Twilight Trilogy that incorporates extreme sexual obscenity. These ideologies then trickle down to the young generation. In fact, recent studies indicate that 33 percent of the young U.S. citizens aged between 15 and 24 years have never had sex (Marcotte 1). While these figures were overly publicized in the mass media platforms in the U.S. as an unobjectionably good thing, it is critical to understand that the numbers are relatively high compared to other nations, especially in Western Europe. The perception of these numbers as an achievement when it falls short in the global arena is the result of sexual perversion in the U.S. society as a result of
Sex truly has been a part of marketing for a long period of time, but only recently has it become excessively used. It is now causing an unseen burden on society. In the past the media has always straddled the line between just enough sex appeal and too much, but only ...
Sex is everywhere in our society. It is on TV, magazines, radio, billboards, and basically anywhere you look today. People cannot get away from sex in advertising because so many companies use it. Sex appeals are used in advertising all the time, and people love to look at it because 'Sometimes people listen better with their eyes' (Steel 137). Sex in advertising is an effective technique that is used today. It helps companies successfully sell their product in our market. Of course it has to be directed at the right audience, and sold at the right places in order for it to work.
Jobber,D & Ellis-Chadwick, F (2012). Principles and Practices Of Marketing. 7th ed. : McGraw Hill Higher Education. p19-21 & 352-354.
The movie, Fifty Shades of Grey, has a lot of portrayals of sexuality. Basically, there are two main characters. One of them is a female literature student named Anastasia Steele, and the other one is the young male billionaire Christian Grey.
The book is laced with emotionally and erotically boosted encounters. A person who would enjoy reading about vampires, the urge to keep reading comes within the first few chapters; in this story early as chapter three. The novel is a new vampire paradigm that casts a steady eye on racism, sexism, poverty, and ignorance. Relationships in this story, as loving and loyal as they are yet, are very different. There is no moral questioning at all, but this total acceptance of paedophilia is not only seen in those having sex with children, also by every single other character. Even though being black brought Shori some str...
It is difficult to set an explicitly pornographic magazine aside and hold it singly responsible for the degradation of women in society because we see pornographic images in every facet of contemporary media culture. But Playboy, as the "spearhead of the sexual revolution" (Stern and Stern 389), carries disproportionate responsibility for the cultural devaluing of women because of its powerful role as the world's leading pornography magazine and because of its iconic status in U.S. popular culture. In Playboy's crusade to liberate human sexuality from its puritan past, it was apparently unable to distinguish liberation from the exploitation and objectification of women as a viable expression of sexual freedom. Proponents of Playboy Magazine attempt to pass it off as a harmless testimony to human beauty, sexuality and freedom, but in fact, Playboy Magazine is an insidious proponent of constricted and oppressive sexuality achieved through the commodification of women's sexuality and lives, and through misogynistic and culturally insensitive literature and cartoons.
Steele’s Constructing Sex, the Sexual, and the Erotic- 'Doing It’: The Social Construction of S-E-X, which covers the social construction and perception of sex, sexuality, pleasure, and gender. In the text Steele mentions that very often in this society, penial penetration and male pleasure and climax are commonly seen as indicator of having had sex (Steele). The focus on male pleasure above females is not only relevant to the physical act of sex, but also the perception of gender and the way media targets their audience. More often than not, the typical objects of male pleasure (females) are taken and added into media and advertising to appeal to male pleasure even in ads that the products are targeted away from men. For example, underwear made for females often features an ‘attractive’ female seductively showing off the garments, effective for targeting straight males. Even in commercials for products for either gender like burgers or sunscreen, still use an objectified women as their selling point. Another point that Steele looks at in the text is the idea of consent, Steele states that “The dangers inherent in contemporary constructions of S-E-X… is about the pleasure of the actor” which can cause the dismissal of the object of desire as irrelevant (Steele). This idea of the focus being solely on the actor is problematic as it can easily perpetuate rape culture, and is a large part of the RadioShack ad.
Grover, R & Vriens, M 2006, The handbook of marketing research: Uses, misuses, and future