Sex Sells
Pretty obvious really. Appeal to the more primal instincts of the population and you’ll pull in some people. Stick some innuendos into a yogurt ad and people will remember it. I’m not entirely sure why that makes those same people want to go and buy the yogurt, doesn’t seem hygienic to me.
When I want a snack, I’m not looking for a sexy snack. I’m looking for something filling, tasty and that won’t destroy my teeth. I find most ads annoying, so walking up the aisle of the supermarket, it really makes no difference to me whether I have seen a product on a screen or not. Dolmio ads are on all the time, but their sauce is pretty rank tasting (in my opinion). If anything, it seems like they need good ads to compensate for their poor product, so when another company is as try hard as to attempt to get the viewer to associate ‘getting jiggy with it’ with a product, I have to wonder how bad their product is. If you think about it, it’s very disingenuous to try this tactic with most products. Yogurt has nothing to do with sex, so knock it off.
A lack of honesty in advertising just makes it harder for customers to find what they actually want as well. Imagine, if you will, a world where all ads are accurate, objective, and just trying to persuade you to buy their product on the basis of its quality, like JML does! No bull, no weird manipulation tactics, and certainly not any entertaining, memorable, fun ads (except remembering that ‘JML’ voice). I’m not saying an advert shouldn’t be sexy. Ann Summers might have some difficulty advertising without anything suggestive. If your product is actually sexy, you won’t need an innuendo joke to get that across now, will you?
I dislike the idea that everything you see is trying to get you to do something, to act a certain way, not because I don’t think it’s true, I think it’s very true. It’s just a waste of all our time. You can have too many options, too many influences, too much information. All the white noise of the modern world, the last thing you need is a whole bunch of sexualised ads mixed in. I’m no puritan, I just can’t be bothered to see all these crap ads. I don’t even watch television anymore, I get to skip the ‘ad breaks’ by streaming online and installing ad blocker. An amazing free app by the way, go ahead and pick that up if you haven’t already, make a donation to the cool dudes that make it.
At some point, someone has probably sat down and really thought about how to reel in more customers. Like really, really thought about it in a cold, methodical kind of way. Sex isn’t the human race’s only motivator and you can bet your bottom dollar that advertisers try to push all your buttons, playing off your fears, hopes, aspirations, instincts, even ideology. If you ever find yourself watching an advert and you start to think ‘wow, this company really cares,’ or ‘how sweet, I really like that message,’ just remember: these suckers really want your money. When we hear what we like, we soften, pay attention, get interested. What the paid actor off the telly won’t tell you is that a smaller start up business down the road makes cheaper and better quality rainbow cookies, or that they cut down ten trees for every one that they plant, or that maybe you really shouldn’t drink so many sugary drinks (I’m looking at you Coca Cola, you may have turned Christmas red but your drink makes the teeth yellow!). Always step back from ads and look for an objective perspective. Your wallet will thank you later.
But anyway, back to sex. So someone has sat down and thought, ‘well, people like to have sex quite a bit, and they think about it a lot, so if we can conflate that with our product somehow, they will think about our product all the time!’ I know, sounds like a 90s villain and it sounds super dumb. And so it is, but the evidence that it works is in the repetition of its use. It is abundantly clear to the casual onlooker that sex not only sells, but it sells well. The vast majority of people have in them the innate drive to procreate, and its manipulation has reached grand new levels of use and utilises exceedingly unambiguous techniques.
Sick of it? Me too.
So now you’re armed against the ads online, go ahead and take a break from television. That’s a massive amount of advertising you’re shielded from now. Experience the ad free day (on screens anyway, those grimy bill boards aren’t going anywhere). Feel your need to needlessly buy stuff dissipate. Get that slimy salesman out of your ear. You won’t miss him when he’s gone.
