Sex, Does It Really Sell? If your innocent little girl had the chance to star in a television commercial ad, which emphasizes her eroticism, would you, as her primary caregiver, approve? The majority of those inquired, who are in a sane state of mind, would not approve despite how tempting the monetary compensation may be. In the modern capitalistic society the American people embrace, the survival of one’s enterprise is largely dependent on the how effective the business-person advertises his or her goods and services; this is where the element of sex comes into play. Because a modernized version of the sexual norm is exponentially becoming a part of today’s American culture, corporate greed has breached boundaries taking advertisement into …show more content…
The man guides Kristen, whom is blindfolded, into a dimmed, isolating room. As the two slowly walk around the room, they converse in regards to the compelling plan T-Mobile is promoting. However, the context of the dialogue, as well as the inappropriate gesturing, implies sexual …show more content…
First off, Kristen walks in the room with a blindfold for which there is no apparent reason for. Assuming she willingly allowed her partner to blindfold her, the viewer can infer that the man intends to do more than simply inform Kristen of the plan T-Mobile promotes. Kristen apparently showed no signs of objections. On the contrary, Kristen seems intrigued which suggests she is looking forward to whatever sex-related activities the man has in store for her. Because the blindfold pertains sexual reference, a pathway for the viewer is formed, subtly showing him or her the direction in which the ad is heading right from the start. A second observation is how multiple phones display hanging by chains. Not only are they hung with chains, but also, the phones are displayed with a bright red screen. Phones are not displayed like this in any T-Mobile store. However, the advertisement demonstrates the phones as such because the chains and red screen on the phone tie back into sexuality in the sense that red is associated to love , whereas the chains symbolize foreplay. On this note, the ambient red lights further contribute to the sex-inviting environment the man has taken Kristen to. Thirdly, another prop added is the couch in the background. Like the phones dangling in chains, couches are not typically found in a T-Mobile business facility. The background is altered from
In today’s society, everyone is worried about staying connected. Technology allows people to stay connected with others and access tons of information instantly. Cellular towers provide mobile phone users access to the internet on the go and send text messages and calls at high speeds. Phone companies such as T-Mobile advertise their quick connections by claiming that they have the fastest network. A recent commercial shown in the Super Bowl for T-Mobile has drawn viewers’ attention with its wholesome use of rhetorical strategies. The “Drop the Balls” T-Mobile advertisement shows its effectiveness through its humor, straightforward facts, and heavy explanations of credibility.
This thought has been held on for far too long. 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.
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...
The concept of woman as property runs deeply in the history of advertising, and continues, despite many hopes that such ways of thinking are archaic and no longer apply to our society, especially after the feminist movement and constant fighting for equality. But no, women and their bodies continue to be hypersexualized in media and commodified for the masses to sell whatever they think will make the marginalized and alienated feel better about the damage society has done. This damage still exists and will continue to do so, unless these transgressions are acknowledged, and women’s bodies begin to be appreciated and respected. The question remains—can the markets do this? Can media be effective without utilizing what is considered to be social conventions to appeal to the
Watching television growing up, half of the time spent watching was filled with advertisements. Most of the time, the ad would include a beautiful woman, barely dressed, doing something sexually suggestive. The whole advertisement would consist of this, while most people have no idea what the product being sold is. Then at the very end, they provide a brief description of the product. This is an example of using sex to sell products. It is no secret that advertisers have been using sex to sell their products for years. These tools are used in all types of advertisements. However, this is not just selling sex, it is selling elitism. It is selling the status of “hey, if you can get our product, you can get these types of girls”. Elitism is
Alcohol. Obesity. Violence. For kids today in the United States, these are only a few of the problems linked to the child-targeted mass media, especially the multi- million dollar business—television commercials in children’s programming. With the disappearance of a TV-free environment, a typical American kid sees about 40,000 television advertisements each year, most of which are for soda, candy, video games, fast food and their free toys. In order to collect some information, I sat down on a Saturday morning on July 16, 2004, and recorded several kids’ TV ads for further analysis. Needless to say, the results were quite shocking—aside from the obvious, I also noticed that most ads featured active and aggressive boys while the presence of girls was rarely to be seen. Being a girl myself, I felt the need to take a close look at such inequality. I began to wonder if commercialism has overlooked the importance of gender issues, which would then create negative impacts on children by sending out harmful hidden messages. For example, these ads can promote a polarization of gender roles that portray the sexes in stereotypical and traditional ways, which will unconsciously affect young viewers’ attitudes and values. In his article written in 1988, “What Are TV Ads Selling to Children,” John J. O’Connor asserts, “Things haven’t changed much in the television business of children’s merchandising, and some aspects of the scene are even more appalling.” Indeed, though not as prevalent as in earlier years, TV commercials aimed at kids still contain underlying themes such as sexism that’s extremely harmful to the development of the youth.
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.
Advertisements are everywhere, combining images and words together to create a message to sell a product. The initial impression is that the advertisers are just trying to sell their products, but there often seems to be an underlying message. It is often heard that “sex sells.” So, many advertisers will use beautiful women and men in their advertisements to try to market a product. The hope is that “sex will sell,” and people will go out and buy what the ads are selling. There are many advertisements and commercials that use this approach. Prime examples of this are the advertisements for Orbit Gum and A Diamond is Forever. Also, the commercials for Levi jeans use sex to promote the sale of their brand. As a way to explain how and why the media uses “sex to sell,” many articles have been written concerning this. For instance, “Sex as Symbol in Fashion Advertising” by Arthur Asa Berger talks about the sexual undertones used in ads as a way to sell products. Similarly, Jean Kilbourne’s “Beauty…and the Beast of Advertising” discusses the portrayal of women in advertisements as sex objects. Finally, “Analyzing Signs and Sign Systems” by Arthur Asa Berger offers ways to analyze advertisements and their use of sex. No matter what the advertisement is for; although it may seem that an advertiser is only trying to sell a product, the ways the advertisements are presented often have a hidden meaning.
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.
It is a dark and rainy night, Victor is on guard waiting for the creature to come and attack him, or so he thought. All of a sudden, he hears two horrified screams. Victor was blinded by his selfishness to see that the creature was going after Elizabeth the whole time. Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is a story about a mad scientist and a twisted creature. As the creature tries to navigate his way through the world while also trying to get revenge on his creator, tragedy and horror unfolds.
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.
Advertisements have been featuring sexual images to increase sales since the nineteenth century, and the phrase ‘sex sells’ is so popular even children know it. From cigarettes to soap to underwear to jeans, sex is used to sell everything, and the image of a naked women is one of the most popular examples of this. In the Weyenberg advertisement, the woman is topless and completely uncovered by anything but her own arm, despite the fact that she is selling a shoe. There is no correlation between the object being sold and nudity, they are actually direct opposites, but the company will still use it because they are more likely to sell shoes to men if the advertisement makes them think of sex. This image of women has not changed in the four decades since this advertisement was created, and it is so normalized that most people never stop to think about what is so inherently wrong with that. In 2013, just three years ago, Robin Thicke released a song encouraging rape that was able to sell astronomically well, and then he posted a music video featuring topless women being used as sexual objects that encouraged sales even more, and all because it features women and sex. Both the advertisement from 1974 and the music video from 2013 present women as sexual objects as a way to increase sales of the product, and since they
As the years progress, the influence of sex has taken a more profound effect on teenagers. Nowadays, it seems that sex is everywhere. The television shows, the Internet, magazines and even the movies almost always have a “sex scene” in them or portray sex in some sort of way. Because the industry is realizing that teens are having sex, (unprotected sex at that) they are now producing a number of commercials where they ...
The average American is exposed to hundreds of advertisements per day. Advertisements targeted toward females have an enormous effect on women's thoughts, attitudes, perceptions, and actions. Most of the time, women don't even realize these advertisements are formulating self-image issues. These ideals surround them daily and they become naturalized to the ads. Advertising creates an entire worldview persuading women to emulate the images they see all around them. In order to create a market for their products, companies constantly prey upon women's self esteem, to feel like they aren't good enough just the way they are. This makes women constantly feel stressed out about their appearance (Moore). Advertising has a negative effect on women's body image, health, and self-esteem.