Does Sex Sell Anymore?
With a book like “Fifty Shades of Grey” breaking sales records in Britain, it’s hard to deny that ‘sex sells’. Are people purchasing the book, and watching the film because they’re both well written? I’d like to think so, but probably not. The main female character lacks personality and confidence, and the main male character is comparable to a sexual predator (picture the character played by a much less attractive actor… It becomes creepier and less ‘sexy’, right?). I’ve never read the books or watched the films, but I did come close to skimming the books through the sheer shock of what people had told me was in them — so I suppose sex sells in that way too. Humans are drawn to sex, and we are just inherently curious creatures. Although, some people believe its success actually lies in the fact the story began as a Twilight fan fiction (which explains the lack of personality in the female protagonist), but you could also say that the addition of sex allowed it to become more popular than Twilight itself.
Going back to the point regarding humans being drawn to sex, it is actually true — our brain responds to primal urges such as food and sex, which is why we can’t help ourselves but crave those two things often. People are hard-wired to notice sexual things, and therefore ads or other media utilising sex will easily get noticed. But even though we are programmed to respond to and show interest in sexual imagery, does that really mean we’re going to buy whatever the imagery is encouraging you to buy, or believe what they are suggesting? Surely men don’t actually think that wearing Lynx spray will make women run to them in flocks?
Tom Reichert, professor and head of the department of advertising and public relations in the UGA Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, says that sex is primarily used to sell low-risk products (impulse purchases). You would never see an insurance company, or electrical appliances advertised in a sexual way, so it’s used quite appropriately.
On the other hand, there are exceptions such as American Fast Food Company ‘Carls Jr’ who advertised their burgers with beautiful women in minimal clothing (who probably never eat their food), and somehow that worked. Interestingly, sex appeal is not commonly used in beauty adverts, perhaps because they are directed towards women; they’re usually fun, or sophisticated, informative advertisements that show the effects of the makeup, as opposed to just showing off an attractive model. So does ‘sex sells’ mainly work for male viewers?
It’s somewhat clear that ‘sex sells’ mainly works for men considering that most of the advertisements, magazine covers, involve the sexualisation of women. Two assistant professors of sociology at SUNY Buffalo conducted a study regarding ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine covers by analysing whether men and women were equally sexualised. The study showed that only 2% of the images of men were hypersexualised, contrasting with the huge 61% of women that were.
I can safely say that a funny advertisement, or one with a powerful message would remain in my memory much longer than a sexual advert would. Although using an attractive celebrity may catch my undivided attention momentarily, I’m likely to forget about it straight after, and never think of the product again. No matter how attractive or scantily clad a model is i’m not likely to purchase something if I didn’t need it in the first place.
According to a study by an academic journal called ‘Psychological Bulletin’, advertisements that feature sex (and violence) aren’t actually as effective as normal ones.
In fact, the most popular advertising campaigns I can think of, don’t involve sex appeal at all. For example, the Cadbury’s adverts were incredibly popular in the UK; the whole country anticipates the John Lewis adverts just before Christmas time, and the clothing company ‘Colours of Benetton’ is renowned for controversial ads, which have made them known worldwide.
I believe that people are much smarter now, and are conscious to the fact of that we are being lured in by sexual themes to buy stuff that we don’t need. Not only are people more aware of the advertising techniques, but it also takes a lot more to catch a viewer’s attention; simply flashing a shoulder, or calves isn’t considered sexy nowadays, it’s fairly normal and therefore ‘sex sells’ must have been much easier when it was first used to advertise.
Controversial, heart-warming, funny, or political adverts tend to be the ones that get people talking. An advert that really got my attention recently was by Amazon Prime, and it featured a priest and imam (Muslim cleric) exchanging gifts to one another — the advert was heart-warming and relevant to events that are occurring at the moment. It was an advertisement that was shared over Facebook, and talked about for several weeks afterwards — I don’t necessarily believe that would happen with an advert with sexual themes.
It seems as if using sex in advertisements may be on the rise, as a study from the University of Georgia looked at ads appearing in magazines over the past thirty years and found that the numbers have risen. So though using sex to sell may be on the rise, it’s definitely evolved over the years: for example, an advertisement with sexual themes from the 1960s perhaps would not work for someone from 2017 (and would likely be offensive).
I also don’t believe that sex appeal is powerful enough to sell something without any context — I think it’s the sexual themes that may initially grab a person’s attention, but it’s the product that needs to do the rest of the work.
