Sexual Appeal in Print Advertisements
Print advertisements appear all over the place and have become a part of every day life. Most people don’t think twice if they see an advertisement in their local newspaper or in a magazine because it has become a norm for companies to use advertising to promote their products and services. However this norm of seeing print advertisements everywhere has been accompanied by the norm of seeing print advertisements that use sexual appeal to promote its product. When this type of advertising first began in the 1960’s it was seen as controversial and inappropriate, yet now, decades later, the number of advertisements containing sexual imagery or innuendos has only increased.
A survey that I conducted to collect data on opinions and encounters with sexual advertisements received 79 responses from people between the ages of 17 and 25. Of these responses, 74% of respondents claim to encounter a print advertisement at least once a day, and two-thirds of those respondents claim to encounter print ads multiple times a day. By the number of people that encounter print ads on a daily basis, it is clear that print advertisements are both an effective and popular form of promotion for a company.
While companies are not wrong for wanting to take advantage of this strategy to publicize their product, what is wrong is the fact that 27% of these advertisements contain sexual appeal. That means more than 1 out of every 4 advertisements contains either sexually explicit imagery or sexual innuendos, which has risen from the 15% of ads containing sexual appeal in 1983. In the same survey, of 79 responses, 93% of the respondents could recall at least one advertisement that used sexual imagery. And when asked to rate their opinions, 48% of the respondents rated the use of sexual appeal in advertising as either “inappropriate” or “very inappropriate”.
It is clear that sexual advertising is very prevalent in today’s society. Let’s take a look at some examples of how sex is wrongly used to promote a company’s product or service.
A survey that I conducted to collect data on opinions and encounters with sexual advertisements received 79 responses from people between the ages of 17 and 25. Of these responses, 74% of respondents claim to encounter a print advertisement at least once a day, and two-thirds of those respondents claim to encounter print ads multiple times a day. By the number of people that encounter print ads on a daily basis, it is clear that print advertisements are both an effective and popular form of promotion for a company.
While companies are not wrong for wanting to take advantage of this strategy to publicize their product, what is wrong is the fact that 27% of these advertisements contain sexual appeal. That means more than 1 out of every 4 advertisements contains either sexually explicit imagery or sexual innuendos, which has risen from the 15% of ads containing sexual appeal in 1983. In the same survey, of 79 responses, 93% of the respondents could recall at least one advertisement that used sexual imagery. And when asked to rate their opinions, 48% of the respondents rated the use of sexual appeal in advertising as either “inappropriate” or “very inappropriate”.
It is clear that sexual advertising is very prevalent in today’s society. Let’s take a look at some examples of how sex is wrongly used to promote a company’s product or service.
This advertisement for the popular fast food franchise, Burger King, ran in 2009. Advertising Burger King’s “Super Seven Incher” sub, this ad is just one example of how sex is inappropriately used. The innuendo of a sexual act is clear via the pose of the model with the sub, and is then emphasized by the large text tagline that very suggestively begins with “It’ll Blow”. This ad was not well received by consumers, who spread the ad via social media accompanied with hashtags such as #boycottBK and #SuckOnYourOwnSlimySevenIncher. Needless to say it was shortly discontinued.
Following the trend of sexually suggestive ads, Schneider beer has been releasing advertisements like this one over the past decade. All of the advertisements use images of the products to suggest a sexual image. The tagline that accompanies these ads is “It doesn’t matter what you see. What’s important is what it is.” This statement reinforces the idea that viewers should be seeing something other than just the beer. Schneider's hope with this advertising campaign is to have the viewers be sexually aroused by the image, which then causes an association between sexual arousal and their beer. This technique is seen over and over again through out Schneider’s ads, and many other companies’ advertisements as well.
Going in a different direction from the Burger King and Schneider ads, an advertisement for Tom Ford cologne skips the suggestive imagery and takes a more direct approach. With a clearly naked woman who is covered by only a single bottle of Tom Ford cologne, this advertisement is just one of many from Tom Ford that very bluntly uses sexual appeal as a strategy to promote cologne. This very graphic image balances a fine line between what should and should not be allowed in print advertising. This ad shows how companies are constantly pushing the boundaries with sexual imagery. With no clear guidelines or restrictions on what can be published, companies can get away with close to anything. Although ads like these may have a certain appeal, in general they are inappropriate and should not be allowed as public advertising.
These three ads are just a few from the broad spectrum of sexual advertising. Although many believe it to be a good tactic for promotion of a product, there are plenty of other options that are just as, if not more, successful. This strategy that accounts for more than one-fourth of print advertisements, is something that some don’t acknowledge as an issue; however, it is a growing problem that should be brought to light.