Sex Sells Everything
But what do you expect from a business dominated by men?
Advertisement is both a powerful tool and a powerful business — simply watch Mad Men and you’ll understand where I’m coming from. It can be the defining difference between the success or failure of a product, so there is always a lot riding on the work that is produced. Regardless of the fact that all advertising companies promote a huge range of products that appeal to both men and women, it is still a business mainly dominated by men. Because of this, it is believed that the old myth of ‘sex sells everything’ is still relevant in our current society, even though research has found that the use of sex in adverts or as promotion does not actually increase sales. Despite this, we still see both men and women being sexualised within advertising. It is done in two different ways: either as a way to make the buyer believe they will become ‘sexy’ by purchasing the product, or that they will ‘gain’ something sexual if they purchase the item. These methods of advertising are applied to practically everything, even the most mundane and non-sexual of objects — who needs sex to sell something we drink? — but it is one of those things that everyone has simply come to accept will be used in advertisement.
Becoming —Modern ideals of body image are often changing, and people are constantly arguing over what exactly makes someone ‘perfect’. However, certain images of both men and women flood advertising and is used to try and sell something by making the audience believe they can become like/be associated with the ideal of sexuality if they buy the product.
Sexualisation of women is often seen in advertising for endulgent products such as perfume, shoes, and jewellery. In theory, it supposedly gives women more of an incentive to buy the product by making them think that they will be associated with this image. In practice, personally, I think it just seems ridiculously stupid. How is perfume suddenly going to increase your sex appeal? Sure, it’ll make you smell nicer, which is always a bonus, but it’s not going to suddenly transform you into some kind of sexual goddess. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so how is the way you smell or the jewellery you wear going to change the way someone you care about looks at you, or how you look? It seems like advertising agenicies are trying to play on the supposed shallowness of women, but also the very old idea that women always wish to look perfect for their husbands/men. In our current society, this is absolutely rubbish. Women are their own people, and we look how we want to, not like an ideal that someone wants us to look like or conform to.
Women aren’t the only ones to suffer from this. Men are constantly sexualised throughout advertising, and are also the focus of the campaign to make them believe that buying something will make them become/be seen like this ‘ideal’ of what a man should look like. The picture on the left is taken from the 1985 Levi’s advert promoting their 501 jeans. Levi jeans had become associated with ‘Dad jeans’, so the advert was released using the model Nick Kamen to try and make their brand ‘trendy’ again. The advert had the exact effect that advertisers were trying to achieve, and everyone was so desperate to look just like the model that sales for Levi 501s saw an 800% increase. And not only were men desperate to own a pair to be just like Nick Kamen, but women wanted them just to be reminded of his strip-tease. Kate Thornton wrote about the impact the advert had on her, saying that “I only wanted them because Nick Kamen wore them and took them off”.
The question here is if an advert like this was released now, would it have the same effect? Well, the answer is quite simple — no. People are so used to seeing the sexualisation of men and women throughout advertising in the media that they have become desensitised to it. Sure, men and women may fantasise over the images they see — I’ll happily admit that every time I hear Etta James’s I Just Want to Make Love to You, I’m always reminded of the classic Diet Coke advert — but that doesn’t make them want to go out and buy the product if they don’t want, need, or like it.
Gaining — One of the other major uses of sex in advertising is the idea that by buying the product, the buyer will gain something sexual in return.
One of the best examples that comes to mind is every single Lynx advert that has ever been created. The idea that using a particular body wash will suddenly make you a ‘babe-magnet’ is just so utterly insane. And if men actually believe that this will happen then, buddy, you got some serious disappointment coming your way. But it is something we have been seeing advertised this way since 1985, and we are still seeing the same thing advertised over thirty years later. Does it work? Possibly. I don’t know about you, but almost every single man I know owns or has used some kind of Lynx product. But is that because of their advertising strategy, or simply because it: smells nice; is one of the cheapest products; is one of the most mainstream products so therefore is easy to get hold of?
It is less common for advertising to use the sexualisation of men to sell something to women, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Going back to my earlier point about the Diet Coke advert, it is one of the most prominant and memorable advert that uses this kind of advertising. Why do we need an attractive man to sell a beverage to a woman? And is this ideal of ‘attractive’ the same for every woman? How is it supposed to work, seen as the two aren’t in anyway connected? It may be the same type of aim as the Levi’s advert, with the woman wanting to drink it simply because the attractive gentleman has been seen drinking it, but because Diet Coke has been around for years, is it really necessary? It just doesn’t really make a lot of sense, so why is it that advertising companies believe that it will increase sales.
Sex is an interesting topic, purely for the fact that it is simultaneously a taboo subject and a public talking point. Because sex is such an everyday part of our lives through seeing it everyday in advertising, it is hard to make it an effective selling point anymore. Unfortunately this doesn't stop advertising companies constantly throwing it in our faces, but maybe one day that will change.
With thanks to Rebekah Ashleigh.
