Sex Sells
And it disappoints me.
When you look up the meaning of ‘sex sells’, you’ll instantly shake your head, unless you support its premise.
“Sex in advertising is the use of sex appeal to help sell a particular product or service.”¹
In this day and age, people are easily swayed by a little bit of skin popping out from underneath clothing. I hate to say this, but the majority of people seem to always be in awe of the washboard abs adorning males and females’ bodies. And I hate to say this even more, but I’m also part of that drooling community.
It disappoints me, yet I’m being hypocritical.
The picture above is an example of the term ‘sex sells’ produced by Calvin Klein Jeans and accompanied by provocative texts people have sent to each other. I have to give it to them — not everything is out in the open, meaning the models aren’t nude, at least.
However, the skin that is exposed leans towards seductive with the woman’s cleavage emphasised, and since a provocative message is right next to these two models, we definitely know what Calvin Klein Jeans is promoting with this denim line.
Although this ad clearly underlines ‘sex sells’, only the woman is showing skin. Is Calvin Klein targeting men in this advert? Does this entail that men are more stimulated by visuals compared to women? That is, of course, if the targeted audience based on this advert are heterosexual males.
According to The Journal of Sex research, a study conveyed that men think about sex more when compared to women with 19 times being the average time a man thinks about sex per day, whereas, a woman would think about sex 10 times a day. This information may render the idea that men are more stimulated by visuals as correct, but since there’s not much difference in average time, the same could be said for women.³
One thing is for sure, Calvin Klein definitely achieved its intention with this advert: to gain attention by having their models display a fair amount of skin to accentuate the idea that ‘sex sells’.
As visuals and aesthetics become more popular within the youth of today, most individuals care more about appearance and body image. Brands have noticed this, and just like Calvin Klein, they have incorporated visuals and the idea of sex into their adverts.
A good example of ‘sex sells’, yet not showing any skin at all in an advert is Durex:
As we all know, Durex is a condom brand that caters to those who want to get down and dirty, but I found this to be the most effective. This advert sells sex in the literal sense, but in a clever manner. I laughed out loud the minute I saw this whilst researching. The image relates to the product and almost gives customers the fright of their lives — Durex plays on the panicked state of sexually active individuals who don’t want to undergo parenthood yet to go and buy their product. Although being a parent is serious, Durex adds some humour to their advert to make it light-hearted.
Sex isn’t only present in adverts, but also everywhere. In Japan, anime is very popular and in most animes, there’s a genre that resides within it called ‘ecchi’ (pronounced etchi).
‘Ecchi’ is a Japanese slang word which contains multiple meanings such as ‘sexy’, ‘dirty’, or ‘naughty’. In an anime, when ‘ecchi’ is present, this usually means flashes of underwear or over the top cleavage — in other words, they are sexual innuendos or themes, yet never showing anything related to sexual intercourse⁵. Personally, I find it uncomfortable to watch any anime with too much ‘ecchi’, so I tend to avoid any that contain it.
Addressing what I said before about the possibility of men being more visually stimulated, when looking at animes that contain ‘ecchi’, there’s no doubt in my mind that they mostly cater towards men.
As you can see above, a single anime has multiple genres. The word ‘shounen’ is a genre “aimed primarily at a young male audience, typically characterized by action-filled plots”⁷.
Here’s another example of an anime targeting a male audience with ‘ecchi’ in its genres:
These sexual themes within animes, or other television series in general, deemed to be for men are included to attract those who enjoy watching shows with the inappropriate use of flashing skin. All because men are supposedly people that go crazy over them. I’ve checked out the first episodes of these two animes and all the ‘ecchi’ is unnecessary — the plot itself is good enough to have a following, yet the creators felt that it was a must to include some flying breasts within their work. Yes, they were literally flying. It makes me wonder if the idea of sex is dominating the media, as well as the mind of individuals.
Music also plays a big part in promoting the idea that sex sells. Most songs, if not about female empowerment, love or drugs, are about sex. Some are obvious while some are more implicit.
“You’re sayin’ that you want me,
So press record I’ll let you film me…”
These lyrics are taken from Beyoncé’s song ‘Video Phone’, which is obviously about sex. Whenever people listen to a song about sex, utter shock is usually the reaction — they get shocked in a good way and would sometimes utter “Oh my god, she didn’t…”, making them replay the song over and over again due to disbelief. Could this be why songs about sex are popular? For views?
“There’s more space above so come here girl,
You said, ‘long ass ride’,
You’re in clothes that are bigger than me…” — Whiplash, NCT 127.
If people weren’t educated in sexual innuendos, I feel like the lyrics in this song would have required a second read to fully understand that it’s about sex. The title even gives it away. NCT 127 is a South Korean boy group and when they came out with this song, I was in shock that I couldn’t register it in my brain, which made me replay the song continuously.
Asia is known to be quiet about sex and sexuality — it’s almost a taboo subject and is usually avoided if it was somehow brought up in a conversation. Therefore, for NCT 127 to release a sexual song made me wonder if this was due to Western influence. The fact that the idea of sex is popular enough to reach countries on the other side of the world is mind-boggling.
It seems as if an aura of ‘sex sells’ is hanging in the air, corrupting innocent minds since it’s plastered everywhere. It disappoints me because it does sell when we should focus on more important things.
If I owned a brand, I wouldn’t want it to be remembered for the topless model promoting it.
References:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_in_advertising
- Grinspan, Izzy. ‘Calvin Klein’s Fall Denim Ads Redefine the Meaning of ‘Sex Sells’. The Cut. https://www.thecut.com/2015/07/calvin-kleins-denim-ads-redefine-sex-sells.html
- Walters, Jennipher. ‘Do Men Really Think About Sex All the Time? New Study Sheds Light’. Shape. https://www.shape.com/blogs/shape-your-life/do-men-really-think-about-sex-all-time-new-study-sheds-light
- Iervasi, Katia. ‘Sex Sells: 10 Of The Most Effective Examples In Advertising’. ShowpoEdit. https://www.showpo.com/us/showpoedit/life/sex-sells-10-of-the-most-effective-examples-in-advertising/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecchi
- ‘Highschool of the Dead’. MyAnimeList. https://myanimelist.net/anime/8074/Highschool_of_the_Dead?q=high
- https://www.google.com/search?ei=EbPhW7PiI4-D8gLtgYmwBA&q=shounen+meaning&oq=shou&gs_l=psy-ab.3.0.35i39k1j0i67k1l9.339.1894.0.2941.7.6.1.0.0.0.111.446.4j1.6.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.7.588.6..0j0i20i263k1j0i131k1.122.04r-iPCmtQg
- ‘Nanatsu no Taizai (The Seven Deadly Sins)’. MyAnimeList. https://myanimelist.net/anime/23755/Nanatsu_no_Taizai?q=the%20seven
