Sex Sells Products. Or Brands? A Continued Study on College Students’ Reactions to Sex in Advertising Megan Smock
Introduction This project is being conducted in order to better understand the differing views between college age men and women on the use of sex in advertising. This study is adding onto the research done in my qualitative project in which I interviewed three college age men and three women. In this previous study, I found that the college age students that were interviewed thought an appropriate amount of sex in advertising was more effective than no sex at all or too much sex. My intention for this research study is to gain a broader perspective of college students on the effectiveness of sex in advertising. I plan to use a survey using the Linkert scaling system with the goal of evaluating how college students respond and are influenced by sex in advertising. This type of survey will be most effective for my project because unlike an open ended survey, this forces a more exact answer and allows me to make more generalized conclusions about the men and women surveyed. At the same time, it won’t pressure my participants or add pressure to them because it gives them an undecided or neutral option. It won’t force them to have an opinion that isn’t representative of them. My research questions address my participants’ opinions of sex in advertising as well as issues of possible sexism in advertising and how effective they think sex actually is through their brand awareness and product purchasing.
Literature Review For my secondary research, I focused on articles discussing ad effectiveness when sexual imagery is used as well as discussions about sex in the media. In an article written by Tim Nudd titled Does Sex Really Sell?, he discussed research done by MediaAnalyzer Software & Research in Somerville, Massachusetts. Their survey explored how men and women react to the use of sex in advertising and saw if their visual behavior had any effect on how effective the ads were. Participants were shown a sexual and nonsexual ad for five product categories. This test used software to track where the participant’s eyes were looking. The study showed that the majority of men said they like sexual ads and are more drawn to them while very few women said the same. The majority of women said there’s too much sex in advertising. Very few men agreed. The visual test showed results that reflected the responses listed above. When it came to brand recall though, both men and women did worse at remembering with the sexual ads. Men remembered “an average of 19.8 percent…for the nonsexual ads; for the sexual ads, 9.8 percent did.” Women recalled “an average of 22.3 percent…for the nonsexual ads; only 10.8 percent correctly recalled the sexual ads. MediaAnalyzer hypothesizes that this might by the result of a general numbing effect that sexual stimuli has on the brain” (Nudd, 2005, 1).
In a study done by Tom Reichert called Assessing the Influence of Gender and Sexual Self-Schema on Affective Responses to Sexual Content in Advertising, he found that a positive response to sexual imagery in advertising has something to do with the participants’ attitudes towards sex itself. “Men responded well to sexual content regardless of their attitudes. But ‘women engage in more of a cognitive appraisal of how they should react,’ says Reichert” (Rawlins 1). Participants were labeled “sex-positive” or “sex-negative”. Whether or not a woman likes sex in advertising depends on her existing views on sex. Women with a more open view on sex were found to favor sex in advertising more than women who have uncomfortable feelings towards sex. In a study done by Professor Stephen K. Keiser at the University of Delaware, he found that, “sex was a predictor variable found to be related to total brand awareness. Eight of the 20 brands in the study were more recognizable to female adolescents, while 11 of the brands were more familiar to males. Similarly, males were more aware of three of the slogans, although female awareness was greater for five of the other slogans.”
Methodology For this particular research study, I felt using the Linkert scaling system in my survey would be the most effective. It allowed my participants to express their opinions, but also kept their answers within a range that I could easily measure. I created a survey using www.surveymonkey.com, and then created an “event” on Facebook which allowed me to post a link to the survey. I chose my participants from my list of friends on Facebook. I filtered out all the ones who weren’t within my demographics of “college age”, which I defined as 18-23 years old. I simply asked them to click the link and answer
honestly. I assured them their answers would be confidential and gave them a few days to respond.
EXAMPLE OF SURVEY GIVEN:
INSTRUCTIONS: This survey is being conducted for a project in my Research and Evaluation class. Its intent is to determine the effectiveness, i.e. in attracting attention, generating sales, creating brand awareness, etc., of sex in advertising. It should take you approximately 3-5 minutes. On a scale of 1-5, 1 being you strongly agree and 5 being you strongly disagree, please rate the following statements.
Strongly Agree Agree 1
2
Neutral
Disagree
3
4
Strongly Disagree 5
1. I believe sex in advertising is effective. 2. Sex in advertising creates positive reactions among college age students. 3. College age men react more positively to sex in advertising than college age women. 4. I believe sex in advertising is offensive. 5. Sex in advertising is only effective if the models are female. 6. Sex in advertising is only effective if the models are male. 7. It is more acceptable to use a nude female model rather than a nude male model. 8. My personal views on sex influence my acceptance or non-acceptance of sex in advertising. 9. Sex in advertising is effective in promoting brand awareness. 10. I would be more likely to purchase a product if they used sex in their advertisements. 11. The use of an appropriate amount of sex in advertising is more effective than too much use of sex. 12. The use of an appropriate amount of sex in advertising is more effective than no use of sex. Male or Female?
EXAMPLE OF FACEBOOK EVENT
I
analyzed my information by splitting up answers between males and females and comparing the two. Unfortunately, I had quite a few more females than males. 110 of my participants were females while 67 of them were male. When it came to my findings, I thought back to my
literature review from this study as well as my previous study to get better insight into my comparisons and conclusions.
Findings [Males’ results]
[Females’ results]
Mostly, males and females were on the same page with their responses. All agreed that sex in advertising is effective and that it creates positive reactions among college students, especially the males. Ironically though, the majority said they wouldn’t be more likely to purchase a product if sex was used in their advertising. The amount of sex in advertising is important as well. As found in my previous study, sex in advertising is effective in getting college students’ attention, but only an appropriate amount. When asked if using an appropriate amount or no sex in advertising, college students were neutral. So is sex as important as we think in our promotions? From the survey that was given, we see that this group of college students doesn’t need to see sex in advertising for an ad to be successful. It’s not that sex in advertising is
offensive to them, well the males, females were pretty neutral, it’s that there may be better ways to present your promotions. The overwhelming majority of the females were neutral, but it seems they were pretty on the fence because the next highest amounts were ‘agree’ and ‘disagree.’ What we can infer from my survey is if you want brand awareness among college students, using an appropriate amount of sex in your advertising could be helpful, but if you want to sell your product, you might want to try a different approach. According to their responses, the majority of males and females agreed that they remembered brands more effectively if there was sex used in the advertisements. As for purchasing the product, both genders disagreed that using sex in advertising would not make them want to buy the product more. Both sexes also agreed that their personal views on sex do influence their acceptance or non-acceptance of sex in advertising which was also seen in previous studies done and noted in my literature review. As for the issue of sexism in advertising, it seems this is not a problem for college students. In both questions that asked if using a male/female model is more effective, the majorities disagreed with the statements. When asked if it was more acceptable to use a nude female model than a nude male model, the majority of males agreed, but the “majority” of females disagreed. When I say majority of females though, 42 of them disagreed while 35 agreed.
Conclusions From my research questions, I conclude that among college students, there is no belief that sexism is an issue in the use of sex in advertising. This was not the main question discussed in this study and was therefore not observed in detail, but from the questions asked in my survey, it did not seem to hint that sexism was the issue. My other research questions focused on whether sex in advertising was effective in promoting brand awareness or the purchasing of products. It can be concluded that among this age group, brands are much more recognized if an appropriate amount of sex is used in their promotions. This is not the case if the company actually wants to sell their product. It seems that college students would not be more willing to buy your product just because you used sex in your advertising. My methodology was effective because it gave my participants a range of answers, but also forced them to answer the statements I wanted them to answer. It allowed me to start with a simple question and build into what my actual research questions were asking. The results of my survey were successful. It helped me understand how sex in advertising can be effective and when it should be avoided. This can be seen as a contribution as well. If companies’ target audience is college students then they need to understand what kind of promotions should be used to sell their product. If they truly understood what would work to promote their brand and also understand that a different kind of promotion is needed to sell their product, a lot of money could be saved in unsuccessful ads.
The limitation of this study is that not as many males as females could be reached. It was a decent sized group that was surveyed, but you can always have more. Despite this, I believe the results from my survey were very beneficial to the study.
Works Cited Keiser, Stephen K. "Awareness of Brands and Slogans." Journal of Advertising Research 15.4 (1975): 37-43. Print. Nudd, Tim. "Does Sex Really Sell?" Adweek 17 Oct. 2005: 14-17. Print. Rawlins, Aimee. "The Hard Sell." Fast Company 2007: 51. Print.