Sex in Advertising – Does it SELL?

May 25, 2010 - PRLog -- Our life is surrounded by marketing ads that compete amongst themselves to grab our attention. Wherever we look, the images of meagerly dressed attractive men and women inevitably draw our attention. The basic agenda behind all these images are to convince us to buy a product or service that they endorse. This is in fact a very common strategy which is very popular to increase the sale.

Sex appeal in advertisement increases the effectiveness by attracting customer’s attention. Humans by nature are curious about sex, and beautiful things. Pair of long legs on billboard attracts a guy, and also a woman perhaps with the desire of having goddess-like legs.
At the same time findings from past shows that the misuse of sex appeal is costly. There are many advertisement campaigns that were categorized as offensive, and which also resulted in brand boycotts, affected sales and damaged brand reputation.

Abercrombie & Fitch an apparel brand introduced a brand new catalog ‘XXX Wet, Hot Summer Fun’ featuring naked boys and girls in nature. Reaction was the Illinois State Senate passed condemnation, several not-to-profit organizations protested against the marketing strategy of A&F. The catalog was inappropriate to the targeted teenagers.
Advertisements with sex have stirred controversies.

Hence advertisers should not only be extra careful while using sex in advertisements, sex in advertisement does not only attract attention, it also provokes emotional responses. An endorsing model provokes positive response while nudity though attracts attention fails to create positive feeling towards the brand. In fact campaigns powered by nudity, cheap graphics, or shots negatively affect brand’s image.

Sexual content appropriate to the product category, with a proper underlying message is always safe.

Lets recall a ‘It’s All About the Beer’ – a campaign by Heineken in the year 2000
A spot called “The Premature Pour,” where a seductive woman pours Heineken to a glass. Same time a guy responds to this by pouring his own. But he spills foam all over the table. Here the sexual content is unspoken, yet direct. The campaign raised 13% sales in the first two quarter after the campaign.

‘The campaign with clear tag lines, plot, and creativity made the beer a real hero’ said Steve Davis (VP of marketing in Heineken USA).  

Sex sells, yes, but only when used appropriately.

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