Sexual Content in Advertisement
More and more these days, we are seeing advertisements that use women as sexual objects and men as sexual subjects. But why? The companies that fall under the category of this statement have probably done their research. Sex sells. It grabs the attention of the viewer. Some brands that are guilty of this are Carl’s Jr./Hardees and Axe.
Carl’s Jr./Hardees is known for using attractive women, such as Kate Upton, Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian and Heidi Klum, in their commercials to sell product. In the duration of one of their commercials, Upton is shown as somehow making eating a sandwich/burger look sexy. The camera, very often, is pointed at things other than the food item being advertised. You get close-ups of Upton’s breasts, lips, rear-end and legs. This company tried to sexualize eating their food in order to appeal to customers, hoping that men would like what they see in the commercial enough to stop by and grab a bite to eat. In 2017, Carl’s Jr. announced that they would stop producing ads such as these, but the announcement came within an advertisement that also objectified women. The use of women as sexual objects is very prevalent in this company’s advertisements, as well as many others.
Axe is a company that uses men as sexual subjects, or someone who is the pursued and is in charge of a sexual encounter, but also uses women to portray the pursuer of the man and thus objectifying them. In the ad that is pictured below, it starts out with the camera pointed on a woman in a bikini running through the woods. Her breasts, stomach and face are focused on while she’s running. Next thing you know, loads of other women are shown running behind her, also in bikinis and also having their breasts, stomach and faces focused on. By the end of this ad, hundreds of half-naked women are running towards a beach where one shirtless man is standing by himself applying axe body spray. The ad finishes with just seven words: “Spray more, get more. The Axe effect.”
This specific advertisement shows the man being the pursued, and the women being the pursuers. The phrase at the end of the ad is basically saying if you use more Axe, you’ll get more women. The Axe effect.
“‘Sex sells because it attracts attention. People are hardwired to notice sexually relevant information, so ads with sexual content get noticed.’ (businessnewsdaily)” Although ads with sexual content might get noticed more, they are often a recipe for criticism. The trend nowadays seems to be that every company believes they can sell whatever product they want by having attractive men or women in their ads or representing their products. The thing being sold in these advertisements should be the product, not the person.
What would happen if all sexual content was removed from every single advertisement in the world? Would the product that’s advertised be sold as much? Would sales go down? Figuring out the answers to these questions could show us all how much sex really sells.
