SEX SELLS
THE POSITIVES
Publication 2021
IT’S IN THE INDUSTRY
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he impact that sexualised and gendered advertising has had on society is very difficult to pinpoint, however the main perception of this method looking at the data and the statistics this method of advertising does create an increase in sales. The use of this style in advertising has been proving to make a memorable and shocking advertisement experience which results in the viewer remembering the product and therefore later purchasing it. In an article which studies the sex sells form of advertising in the Business News Daily Tom Reichart of the university of Georgia stated that ‘Sex sells because it attracts attention. People are hardwired to notice
sexually relevant information, so ads with sexual content get noticed’. The data provided in the article produces certain percentages following the use of sexualised advertising in each relative area of industry. For example, the health and hygiene industry use sexual imagery in 38% of all adverts and the entertainment industry use nearly half
advertising looks different across different industries but there is one thing which connects the majority. In this form of advertising women are predominantly used for selling products, for example in the health and hygiene industry, Vitabiotics use images of women in their bus banner advertisements because women are more likely to take vitamins and also nag their partners and children to take them as well. In other industries such as the beauty industry, women are used to sell makeup and other beauty products as this is the type of target market that this industry aims for and therefore, they sell more products due to aiming their products at who uses them the most.
“People are hardwired to notice sexually relevant information, so ads with sexual content get noticed’.
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that amount at 21%. These are only the highest and lowest categories in industry which use this type of advertising, this concept of
Publication 2021
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ontradictory from the negatives of sexualising men and women in advertising it does provide positives for the industry as much as some may say it does not. The risk companies take with releasing gendered advertisement is high and yet they persist with this method of advertising and for what? Greater numbers of product sales and more income, statistics and data show that although people have such strong opinions on sexualised advertising it still sells, sex does sell! Products which have advertisements that are sexually suggestive and features ‘the perfect man or woman’ has proven to increase the sellability of a product. In an article against women in particular that find sexualised advertisement wrong written in the MAINSTREETHOST with the title of ‘Sex sells and so
do sexy men’ the subheading provides the quote
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Cut out the“bikiniclad” , hypersexualised women in an advertisement and insert a sexy man (or several of them). This man could fit any woman’s fantasy; he’s the stereotypical studmuffin. How do women feel about sexy ads now?” This shows us that women can scream, shout and fight against these ads until they are the ones gawking at the tele when a ‘good-looking’
product more easily than that of a boring and dull advert. They people who watch the advert remember the product and thus leading them to later on purchase it because they cant forget it, therefore proving that sexualised adverts do sell products and there are positive means to this form of promotion.
WHAT IF WOMEN WERE REPLACED man comes on in the break. This method of advertising stimulates the brain and therefore, makes the viewer of the advert remember the
Publication 2021
SEX SELLS. BODY POSITIVITY.
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t is important we account all the pros and cons we have discussed, how this method of advertisement should continue and if its necessary to continue seeing those sexualised advertisements on the tele every day. So the statistics tell us that sex does sell however much people may hate it, companies will continue to promote their products through the use of sexualised advertisement because at the end of the day it does work it may not be ideal for society but it is ideal to companies and the industry. Statistics prove that the industry does well through this method of promotion but on the other hand it also proves that the public and certain groups of people really do detest it. Companies are always being put between a rock and a
hard place because of this and they really do take all the risks, if they didn’t take the risk they may not succeed as much and a company needs to succeed to stay stable. However, there could be a ‘meet in the middle’ method, a variation of sexualised advertisement that still proves to create a memorable advert but also diverts away from the ‘perfect’ bodies and the stereotypical household, woman and man. There are things that need to change, a lot of things do, but whether or not they will change, whether some companies may actually take the risk of using variously sized people with various different skin tones, sexualities and ethnicities is hard to tell. There are a few companies which have done this, for example the Boots’ faceless
advert which used various people, some black, some white and it even included and amputee, this was a variation of a sexualised advert and more people would be likely to remember it because even though there were people thought to be ’imperfect’ people prefer seeing regular people whilst they are looking for products to buy and use on their selves it makes them feel better knowing that regular people have tried the products or associate themselves with them.
BODY ENHANCEMENT. THE PERFECT BODY.
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very 10 years since the 1900s women somehow became evermore sexualised, thus resulting in women slowly being viewed by men and society as objects. All these adverts led to men perceiving women as something they could ‘score’ in romance with, it is thought that this has affected society so much today with the increase in various sexual encounters and assaults. Many people speak up about assault and rape, but the courts and other superiors still believe that women bring these issues and encounters on themselves through the clothes they wear, how high their heels are and how short their skirt is, if they wear a lot of makeup or none at all, these all are factors which the
court are biased about when it comes to these particular kinds of cases. These factors that are relevant in court cases most likely because of how sexualised women are in some adverts, or for that fact movies as well, coming in to the adverts of today we see scenes of men and women having sexual encounters and ‘making out’ which is completely unrelated to the product. For example Jean Paul Gaultier Aftershave and Perfume sexualises both men and women in the adverts they use, men being more sexualised for the aftershave product and women in the perfume product although another advert occurs which uses both the male and female actors in a duo advert where both products are being promoted. As you can tell this isn’t the only brand who does this and it seems like perfume and aftershave products use the most sexualised advertising in industry thus giving the health and hygiene percentage so high. So, this predicts so many questions, some hypothetical and others not so much, questions like; is all this necessary? Is the damage worth doing? How can we prevent these adverts taking so much toll on the society of today?
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y the mid-1900s men also became involved in a lot of advertisements for clothing and scents. Therefore, by the mid-20th century men and women were both equally sexualised in advertisement, however, equally may not be the correct word, there were equal amount of men and women being sexualised but women were still predominantly more sexualised than men. Men were sexualised in a way woman weren’t, but it still affected the society we know today. Throughout the years the use of fantasized and ‘stud-muffin’ men have been used repeatedly in every area of advertisement, thus creating an increase in men being dissatisfied by their image and body type. The increase in the use of ‘perfect’ men in advertising has saw a rise in the percentage of men across the globe with poor or life-threatening mental health, which persists to still be a problem today, in the 21st century. Women on the other hand suffer the same negative affects as men but from other areas, more and more women are thought to be photoshopped, edited and fake. Advertising which
sexualise women usually hide more than that of men which persists the issue that women are thought to be objects, objects which provide sexual pleasure and clean houses. So how are men and women sexualised and stereotyped differently in advertising? Men are stereotyped differently from women and this causes all sorts of outrage, men are stereotyped to be; greatly masculine, muscly, sexy, dominating, boisterous and very ‘Casanova’. Men are stereotyped to be great and powerful, players and prudes, but this isn’t how women are played off to be, in fact women may as well be the exact opposite. Women are stereotyped to be; neat, tidy, sexy, thin, obedient, youthful and are expected to obtain/maintain beauty in an atypically feminine way. Women aren’t meant to get old and grey, they aren’t meant to go out and have sex with several men and they need to look and act in certain manners which no longer apply to reality.
WHAT WERE PEOPLE MEANT TO LOOK LIKE Page 6
ALL ABOUT WOMEN
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endered advertising began in the 19th century, led by cigarette and cleaning companies. These were the first products that were advertised with the sex sells methodisation. When companies realised that this method of advertisement increased the sales of a product there was no doubt that it was going to become a very popular concept of advertising in a short amount of time. The aim of these products were either to attract the opposite sex for purchase or to gain the trust and loyalty of the same sex which was used for advertising. Due to the regular stereotypes of this time women were the only ones being sexualised in advertisements for the first period of this method. You would find women being sexualised on cigarette packets and adverts which would encourage men to purchase them as this was the biggest market for such products at the time. However, the likes of cleaning products and the way they were advertised, sexualised women with the use of a male presence. In cleaning product advertisement the use of a female figure was used to engage the ‘normal’ at home life of that then
present day, where women would mother children, clean the house and cook the meals for the man to come home and relax. For example, Gold Dust Washing Powder by N. K. Fairbank & Co. used an advertisement in 1893 with imagery of a women cleaning and polishing the wooden floor with the quotation of, ‘To enable to get through work as early as their husbands, Gold Dust saves time, strength and money’ thus saying that women would be able to finish work as their husbands do but in reality they never really got to stop.
Publication 2021
SEX SELLS
THE NEGATIVES