Sex Sells… Food.
In 2017 every businessman knows that if he wants to sell his product, he must encourage people to buy it.
But how could he do that? There is a large amount of ways and methods to do it, but surely the best and most effective one is to sell the product with a sexy and provocative advertising campaign. By the way, this device is not only effective in selling consumerist products or objects, but it could also sell pretty much everything: music, clothes, cars, furniture, decorations, shoes, drinks… and so on.
This happens because our society is constantly fed with the image of naked and sexy human bodies, therefore the majority of people are starting to believe that body image is what really counts in life. The aim of most people is to have a perfect body, in order to be appreciated and be liked… practically everybody is selling his own self. These people can be compared to the products you see on the shelves in the supermarket: they are there exposing their best side awaiting for someone to look at them and to pick them.
In a similar way, products are being sold as if they were style models: we buy the food we think is sexy… Sexy foods are wrapped in shiny and glittering papers, in the same way that models are ‘wrapped’ in a Dolce&Gabbana dress. Businessmen know that consumers are attracted by shiny and bright colours, and that is why they put so much importance and attention into choosing how to wrap their product. They also know that another important device to sell foods is by using a provocative type of language. On the package, the food is often described with stimulating and enticing words that are most commonly associated with the human body. In the second place, since sellers know about the importance of body image, they are aware that more and more people aim to have a muscular and athletic body. Therefore they try to sell their products as if they were miraculous and prodigious for the body. A beverage that it said to help you to lose weight or to make your skin looking better is most likely to sell than a ‘normal one’.
The connection between food and sex allure is even more obvious if we think about advertising campaigns, where sexual references are explicit. Salesmen choose to hire famous actors or models in order to publicise and sell their product. Therefore, the buyers start thinking that if they will eat that kind of food they could be as sexy as the model. On the other hand, sometimes the food doesn’t need to be advertised by a famous person because the food is already sexy. Obviously, this is what salesmen want us to think, and the food becomes the object of desire and attraction. The salesmen compare the act of eating to the act of having sex, and they want us to think that by eating their product we will feel the same sensations and emotions that we would if we were having sexing intercourse.
However, the connection between food and sex has been the main topic of a large amount of famous films and books for many years, but mostly recently, this subject has been brought also to television programmes and series. In fact, the producers and makers of these TV series are trying more and more to hire cooks and chefs with a huge sex appeal in order to sell their programme to women and housewives. Furthermore, these TV series are trying to focus on the importance of eating healthy food and having a balanced diet in order to have a healthy lifestyle and a fit body. These sexy chefs are being the promoters of a new kind of approach towards food, and some of them can be even related to specific kinds and labels of food.
Nowadays, TV is being really effective in the marketing and selling of food products especially thanks to the impact of the linguistic and lexical choices. Moreover, also the choice of the right song and the right actors can be essential for the outcome and the success of the advert. Salesmen insert in their commercials sex related actions and words even if it isn’t clearly related to food products. By the way, this remains the most effective way, in fact it seems like food is trying to seduce the buyer just like if it was a sexy model.
Sex sells really everything, but most of all it sells happiness. Food products are commercialised on magazines as if they could give us joy and happiness. Salesmen are trying to say to us that if we will buy their product, we could be as cool as George Clooney (for example) or we could really start to feel better. This concept works really well because the buyer associates the taste of his food with the same feelings he could have during sexual intercourse, but this kind of thinking has been created by the consumer society and a great and effective work by the makers of commercials.
In the end, the truth is that there are only two things that make life better: good food and sex. These are the things that everyone desires, and this is why sex sells food.
Food… What else ?
With thanks to Ellis Wiggins
