Sex Sells - Design Context essay by Ellie Chalmers

SEX SELLS

S

tereotyping effects a large percentage of the population targeting gender, faith groups, nationalities, race and more.

Although it is natural as humans to evaluate everything we see, stereotyping can be very offensive. Generalising a group of people as one stereotype implies that they are not individuals and that they are all the same. It can cause different groups to be portrayed as something they are not.

Gender stereotyping in advertising is harmful to its viewers and creates the idea that each gender should stick to their stereotype ‘gender roles’ as a man or women. For example, the men should go to work, and the women should stay at home cooking and cleaning. Fortunately, these advertisements have been officially banned

by ASA (the advertising standard authority).

If they feel that an advert may be depicting gender stereotypes and it could cause offense, then the advert will be banned.

“7 IN 10 YOUNG WOMEN AFFECTED BY STEREOTYPES SAY THEIR CAREER CHOICES WERE RESTRICTED.”

An example of an advert that was banned is the Volkswagen e-golf car advert in 2019 which was said to have used ‘potentially harmful’ stereotyping according to the ASA. The advert shows several scenes including a person in a space station and another making sandwiches. That does not sound like a very problematic advert until you are told that the woman was making the sandwiches and the man was in the space station. Throughout this advert men are shown to be taking part in exciting activities whilst the women are doing laundry and sitting on a bench beside a pram. This advert creates offense specifically for women as it suggests only men can take part in fun activities. Adverts like these can set a bad example especially for younger generations as they may believe that they are restricted to their stereotypical gender ‘norms’. Another example of an advert that was banned was Mondelez’s Philadelphia cheese advert. The advert begins with a woman, presumably the mother, handing over a child to its father at a restaurant/café. The father is joined with another man holding a baby.

There is a conveyer belt of food that the men are distracted by and they put their children down on the belt and start to eat before realising the children had reached the other end of the room. This advert is harmful as it suggests that men are not capable of looking after their children.

Gender stereotyping in advertisements causes society as a whole to come to a standstill. We are not moving forward and accepting that you can do what you want no matter your gender, instead we are going backwards and showing the ‘gender norms’ in advertisements.

Body enhancement is often used in advertising and it causes viewers to have an unhealthy relationship with body image and can contribute to people gaining serious disorders and illnesses.

87% of women and 65% of men compare themselves to images in the media according to research from the Florida House Experiment. The ASA do not allow the use of unhealthily thin models in advertising although state that “the use of thin models itself is not automatically considered socially irresponsible”. I would agree with this statement as if a model Is naturally slim is should not be discriminated against however, if the advert depicts an unhealthily slim model it may damage the viewers. These adverts have a big impact on young girls especially as they feel like they should look like the models they see in adverts everyday sometimes causing serious illnesses.

Unfortunately, it is natural as humans to compare ourselves to others, often in a negative way and when adverts show an unrealistic body image it can cause further harm. An example of an advert deemed inappropriate is the YSL

2015 advert in Elle magazine. It features an image of a model lying down. According to the ASA the model looked unhealthy as her ribcage was very visible. Another reason was that her thighs looked no wider than her knees which was made to look that way because of the contrast between her thin legs and the chunky shoes she is wearing. It is important to note that body image enhancement is not just photoshopped models, but it also depends on the pose of the model and the clothing. Just because females seem to be more impacted by this does not mean that males are not also affected. Men and boys are becoming more and more concerned about the way they look. According to the BBC,

fifty three percent of eight to eighteen year old boys felt the biggest influence on them to look good was from advertising.

Adverts tend to use toned, muscular men to portray the ‘ideal’ body type. This is very damaging to young boys and even men as it leaves them thinking that if they do not look this certain way they are not deemed by society as good looking.

When people are constantly being shown adverts and images of models edited or made to look a certain way they began to want and idolise something that is not real. It is known that body enhanced images and ‘ideals’ can be harmful to its viewers causing body dissatisfaction and eating disorders. Therefore, companies should be more sensitive in the adverts they create.

87% of women and 65% of men compare themselves to images in the media

Unfortunately, it is true that sex does in fact sell and companies take advantage of that when advertising. Between 1983 and 2003 the number of advertisements using sex in order to sell products climbed from 15 to 27 percent according to research from the University of Georgia. The over sexualisation in advertising and use of men and women’s bodies, if not done tastefully, can be very offensive and unnecessary. It all depends on the product being sold. For example, to sell a moisturiser it may be necessary to show a woman moisturising her legs. However, when adverts for example, a burger become overly sexualised that is where the line is drawn. If it does not have anything to do with the product then why is it necessary? The answer is it is not, but it sells because it catches people’s attention. Although in some adverts it may be necessary to ‘show some skin’, there really is no need for nudity, especially on television adverts that could be seen by children. It is not only nudity that is unacceptable according to the ASA but also the use of sexual jokes or innuendos. The ASA reported that “the public is generally more tolerant of it if the nudity is relevant to the advertised product”, lingerie and beauty products were listed as examples. It causes public offense when the nudity does not relate to the product or it is degrading. An example of degrading and unnecessary nudity in advertising is the 2015 Screw Caps UK advert.

The advert shows a naked woman from behind, dressed only in gloves and ski boots. It features the words ‘Cover up’ in red text diagonally positioned over her bottom however it barely covers anything.

This company sells screw caps and covers so many were horrified to see nudity in the advert as the product is completely irrelevant. Members of the public complained that the image was degrading to women and the words ‘cover up’ were highly offensive. This advert is an example of how nudity in adverts can be used completely wrongly to sells a product extremely unrelated to bodies in any way. An example of an advert which uses nudity correctly and is related to it is the 2012 Calvin Klein advert. The advert features women wearing just underwear with very natural poses which did not cause offense. There were some members of the public with strongly religious views that did find that the advert inappropriate although, it did not cause widespread offense therefore the ASA did not uphold it. This advert was not overly sexual and was simply showing off Calvin Klein’s new underwear range without causing offense and it

was successful. An example of a degrading advert featuring a man is the 2018 Lewis Oliver Estates Ltd advert. It showed a partially nude man, in underwear only. A text bubble is used to cover his crotch, but the most inappropriate part of the advert is the slogan that reads

‘WOW! WHAT A PACKAGE’.

It is obvious that the package they are referring to has nothing to do with the estate agent company.

The use of nudity in this advert is completely irrelevant and unnecessary. It was banned by the ASA for causing offence and for degrading men.

This further proves how unnecessary it is to use nudity or sex in advertising and how it is a problem.

To conclude sex sells is an issue in advertising. It can also feature gender stereotyping and unrealistic body images and lifestyles. It causes both men and women to feel degraded and offended. Sometimes, in the case off body image enhancement, it can cause damage to people and even serious disorders. When people see things often enough, they begin to think that it is normal and become blind to it, so it is important to talk about these issues and stress the problems that they cause. Therefore, companies should be mindful of these issues when trying to sell a product and consider how their adverts might impact people.