Hey, the Era of Sex Sells is gone
Does sex sell a universal truth? Then, let me tell you- not all products are fit for sex sells. And don’t underestimate consumers, they have the ability to tell good products from bad. It’s a dangerous idea using sex sells to attract consumers.
In China, there is an old saying that “eating and sex are parts of human nature”. The world’s oldest profession- prostitution is also related to sex. Thus, it’s safe to say, sex surrounds us, though we are ashamed to speak of it sometimes. To be honest, sex for me is just a noun, and a topic doesn’t need to be hidden. There is nothing in the world that cannot be said. However, from the perspective of morality, a refined person doesn’t talk about sex in a vulgar way.
The first sex in advertising was produced by Pearl Tobacco brand in 1871, which featured a naked maiden on the package cover. Obviously, it had nothing to do with tobacco, but indeed gained a lot of attention. This kind of bold attempt evoked a sex sells trend. More and more advertisements pick sex as a selling method. In 1899, Pears Soap’s witchcraft advertisement drawn an attractive witch who ridding a broom stick naked. In 1980, a memorable denim commercial shot by Calvin Klein- a girl without clothes and bra sitting on a muscular man whilst the man was touching her ass, resulted in CK’s revenue apparently grew by 300% in the 3 months afterwards. After that, it seems because of the huge profit, CK started their road on sex sell by ads. In 2010, an advertisement from Diesel showed a half-naked girl sitting on a half-naked boy. And they posed as if they were having sex, though both of them wearing jeans.
A study from the University of Georgia found that the numbers of sexual ads appearing in magazines over the past 30 years are rising year by year. “Advertisers use sex because it can be very effective,” said researcher Tom Reichert, “People are hard-wired to notice sexually relevant information, so ads with sexual content get noticed”. The researchers also found that 15% of ads studied used sex as a selling point in 1983 and that percentage grew to 27% in 2003. All of these data implied that most of advertising companies consider sex as a good selling point and will bring them huge earnings. However, is it really true? I don’t think so.
I think most sex sells are unhealthy and unmeaning, which are just used to cater for some consumers’ erotic desire. Women’s big breasts and wide hips; and men’s abdominal muscle and sexy throat. Advertisers break people’s moral cognition again and again while sex in advertising become more and more explicit. It’s definitely a bad influence on the growth of adolescent. David Ogilvy once mentioned in Confessions of an Advertising Man that “never write an advertisement which you wouldn’t want your family to read”. That’s true.
After a pleased dinner, parents with their cute boy sit on the sofa watching TV. Everything is wonderful. Suddenly, an ad from Carl’s Jr appeared. Paris Hilton is shown in a very promiscuous black swimsuit eating her cheeseburger from Carl’s Jr. Meanwhile, a text of sexual innuendos included in the ad which says “She’ll tell you that size doesn’t matter. She’s lying”. Then naive little boy asks “papa/mum, what’s that?”. What would you do in that awkward situation? Let’s change a scene. Your wife and you are reading a magazine together, and she is happily pointing those beautiful clothes and said sweetly “i wanna buy them”. You accept her requirement readily. Then she turned the page. An image of Dolce & Gabbana breaks into your eyesight. This is a picture that one woman pinned down to the ground with four men staring at her like she’s a snack… See, why put the woman in such an embarrassing position? Is this a really good ad? Isn’t it similar to a gang rape? What your wife would think about it? Let’s imagine will you glad to see these cases happened in your family?
Good ads tend to be those fit for brand characteristics. Here, Durex is a typical example where the advertisements of Durex are often sex-based. However, consumers won’t be disgusted with ads of Durex since it’s a product that refer to sex. As an adult product brand, brand characteristics of Durex are bound to be related to sex. Meanwhile, the condom itself determines the plasticity of the shape and it’s easy to make people think about sex. Therefore, sex sells on Durex tends to be successful and without controversy.
To the contrary, for those brands that are irrelevant to sex, but want to attract consumers through sex sells tend to be controversial. For example, advertisements for coconut milk from Hainan, China, have been controversial for a long time.
Scene 1- A woman in a bikini holds coconut milk saying that I grew up drinking coconut milk.
Scene 2- A woman performs striptease holding coconut milk at the beach.
What do these ads want to express? Both of them have big boobs, which implies that drinking this coconut milk of this brand can increase breast size. Isn’t is ridiculous? Come on, consumers aren’t fools. Please don’t be perfunctory to us.
Although ads of the coconut milk such a rubbish, there still be a lot of consumers. Why? Reason is simple. Because its taste really good.
At the earliest year, when sex sells first appeared, people might have been attracted by those naked fleshes since nothing like this had ever been done before. However, nowadays, with the popularity of sex in advertising, people are gradually immune to it and its appeal is not as strong as it used to be. Therefore, if a product wants to attract the attention of consumers, spend more time on product itself instead of sex sells.
