In love with the idea of love
‘People don’t care about something new; they just want the same old thing behind a new sexier label’ Scat, Syrup.
We all romanticise the idea of romance, we love the idea of love; we idealise it, glamourize it, we all want it, and that’s how they sell it.
Fragrance, food, clothes, music, you name it, sex sells it. The notion of sex is taboo and dangerous, and that’s what makes it so enticing. A strip tease plays with the possibility of sex, it leaves the audience wanting to go further, excited by the potential of more. Advertisement mimics this, teasing a product that’s oozing with sex appeal, and we’re so in love with the idea of love that we fall for it every time. Sex and love are synonymous in advertisement, they present an ideal world, a dream that everyone strives for, a fantasy that their product will provide. They tell us that this makeup will make us look as good as sex feels, this perfume will make us smell as good as sex feels, and we fall in love with this idea; pure sexual desire.
Society has taught us that sex is off-limits, secretive, discreet, but advertisement tells us a different story: sex is plastered all around us, on buses, buildings, shop windows and TVs. We are excited by the feeling of risk that is associated with public displays of private actions; just like sending a precarious picture at work or having sex in a public place. We revel in the danger of almost being caught, and advertisement creates and encourages this same feeling, while society permits it.
Marketing is key in business: it’s the adverts that sells, the products themselves are insignificant. The 2013 film, Syrup, depicts this concept, as it highlights the power of advertisement and the power of sex, and how, when combined, these can create best-selling products. ‘Would you die for a Fukk?’ is the catch phrase for the energy drink designed by protagonist, Scat. He designs the drink named ‘Fukk’, whereby he is unconcerned by the flavour or packaging, but successfully illustrates how the sexually explicit nature of the brand is sufficient for it to become a best-selling product. Without marketing, an energy drink is simply syrup mixed with water, but with a name and a brand it becomes something desirable. A real-life example of this is the energy drink created in 2006 named ‘Pussy’, which was marketed with the catch phrase: ‘The drink’s pure, it’s your mind that’s the problem.’ By 2012, Pussy sales had climbed to 500,000 a month, but due to its sexually explicit nature the advertisement was banned in the UK in 2013. Consumers bought into the product because of its risqué undertones and sexual connotations, people enjoy flaunting that which typically remains behind closed doors.
‘Looking at a billboard is supposed to feel like love at first sight’ Scat, Syrup.
Models gaze out at us, dripping with water, luring us in. It all seems so direct and personal, it’s easy to forget that they’re staring out at billions of other people too, it’s easy to think that we’re individually selected, that we’re wanted. It’s thought that the same emotions associated with advertisement are also associated with falling in love: increased heartrate, dilated pupils, anticipation. Watching adverts is like love at first sight, but it’s all fake. That’s how they get us. We’re in love with the excitement, with the beautiful models, we want to be them, or we want to be with them, either way we want what we don’t have, and we want exactly what they are offering us. Sex sells. Whether we are aware of it or not, we fall right into the cycle of consumption: maybe, realistically, you don’t actually believe that Lynx body spray is literally going to bring angels falling at your feet but perhaps the suggestion that it might increase your sexual attractiveness has some subconscious appeal. Sold. And so, the cycle continues…
