Sex in advertising
Sex in advertising(full text is available here)
Eroticism and sex are used in today's advertising everywhere. If advertising is the engine of commerce, then various sexual motives are the engine of advertising. Sexual advertising influences our biological instincts and evokes strong emotions. It is generally agreed that this helps to increase sales.
Look at this Samsung advert. It uses one of the basic psychological methods of the advertising business – provocation of a conditioned reflex.
Sexual instinct is one of the most powerful biological stimulants. Connecting it with a neutral object you can achieve amazing advertising results. Most men and a lot of women like to see pretty young girls. It evokes positive emotions. These positive emotions that we experience looking at nice pretty girls is automatically transferred tothe logo of well-known brand, which is modestly situated in the top left corner of the advert. It is the so called “halo effect” well known in psychology and the advertising industry. After seeing this kind of advert numerous times (probably even in different medias), the conditioned reflex will be preserved and kept in you subconscious. Very soon you will forget about the pretty girls from the picture and will never recall them. But, sooner or later, you will come to a shop and will see the familiar logo on one of the products… and your reaction to this product will be a priori positive, so that you will be more likely to purchase this brand and not it's competitor.
It doesn't mean that some Mr. Smith, after seeing this advert for 50 times will be sexually attracted to a Samsung DVD player and won't be able to control his emotions if he sees Samsung logo on the window display of a nearby consumer electronics store. It's just that Mr. Smith for some mysterious reason that he himself cannot understand, will prefer Samsung labelled products. They will awaken positive emotions and will be associated with something nice, light, sexual and attractive…
Our conditioned reflexes are in place and working properly for the benefit of advertisers. The connection does work: familiar logo à recollection of something positive, attractive, nice (pretty women) à positive emotions + positive reaction (purchase).
Using the mechanism of conditioned reflex, advertisers often use sexually attractive male and female models not overloaded with clothes. Seductive tempting legs, butt cheeks, bosoms, biceps, triceps and other body parts (for every taste) are constantly attacking us from the TV screens, magazines pages, billboards and other advertising media. But how effective are those adverts? Let's see.
Yes, Freud would throw a party and write another book which would probably be called “Practical guide to male complexes.”
Just look at this picture. Look, look… do you really feel nothing? Well… this is a typical example of one more well known trick. Usually (yes, that's what surveys show) this trick has a great influence on the male audience. It is called projective identification . According to Freud identification is a form of emotional connection with an object, which, by means of regression, substitutes the real libidinal (sexual) connection. Yes… sexual function is transferred from the real object (person) to a symbolic object. In the other words, products advertised in this manner acquire some phallic symbolism and transform into symbol of male strength. So that the buyer is not buying cigarettes any more, but a mediated ability to satisfy this very pretty girl from the advertisement. On a subconscious level purchasing and smoking those cigarettes turns into symbolic realisation of sex relations.
In this way sexual attributes are projected onto objects that have no relation to sex whatsoever. This is a frequently used, though nasty trick of modern advertising.
Theoretically, this sexual meaning may be attributed to any product dedicated to the male audience. Comment on the second picture says: “ZIPPO will never reject you,” implying that if you use Zippo you can always approach the most beautiful women and will never be rejected. Also the trick of halo effect is in play here. Who will never reject you ? Zippo ? Or the pretty girl from the poster? Or any pretty girl you approach ? But only if you use Zippo …
You can find and play around with sexual motives in any product advertisement.
Shock Advertising
In the modern world the audie nce is bombarded daily by hundreds and thousands of advertisements and commercials. That's why one of the main obje ctives of any advertisement is to excel and stick out. Sexual subjects serve this purpose the best. Sexual instinct is one of the most powerful instincts and cedes only to the instinct of self-preservation. Our nervous system is built in such a way that any signal associated with sex immediately evokes orientation response. One's attention immediately focuses on the source of this signal and this reaction is rarely conscious. That's why sexual images are the most effective means to attract one's attention to an advertisement. It's believed that this makes the advertisement, and consequently, the brand more memorable.
Gucci generated an advert showing the letter G shaved into a woman's pubic hair. Shocking, isn't it? Memorable, as well… that's what they wanted to achieve. Calvin Klein, United Colours of Benetton, Gucci… all are respected and well known and established brands. All of them spend fortunes on advertising and market research… All of them use Shock Advertising policy and use sex images as the best “shock therapy” tool.
What can be more sexual and shocking than kissing nun and monk? (United Colors of Benetton, illustration is available in the full copy of the article). You may say that clothes are often supposed to be sexy… how about coffee? Lavazza uses the same technique to shock and attract attention to their products.
And doesn't matter that these adverts may cause a major scandal. Even better. Then it's more likely to be remembered.
Use of hints
Another advertising trick opposite to the shock advertising is the use of subtle hints. Sometimes it's better not to talk openly about sex. Sometimes an advert should have some mystery in it, should be a bit funny and intriguing and sexual motives may be just a nice addition to the commercial message. In this case the buyers can use their imagination and “finish” the story of the advertising image by themselves. Thus, the buyers acquire the role of active participants in the advertising process. People that act as active participants of the advertising process are more likely to change their views in favour of the views recommended by the scenario of the advertisement: “Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand."
The most effective is not an advert that suggests pre-formed schemas and images, but the one that evokes the thinking processes of the purchasers and allows them to understand and comprehend the meaning of an advertisement message on their own.
Various kinds of erotic hints and sometimes humour are very popular today in the advertising industry. This is not only an effective tool of advertising. It also allows the use of the attractive nature of sexual advertising message without the use of shocking vulgar images that may easily offend some part of the target audience and potential buyers. It helps to involve potential buyers in active thinking processes. Mental involvement in combination with the attractive, not vulgar, eroticism of the advertising images helps to achieve the advertisers goal: attract attention, involve, make the advert memorable, promote the brand, enhance sales.
Gender differences
Psychologists say that men and women approach sex differently. This is determined by biological and psychological differences between the sexes which are much deeper than artificially acquired cultural and sociological influences. As a result, advertisements designed for male and female audiences are very different.
With men everything is simple. It is assumed that men are naturally polygamous. As a result, for men any young good looking woman becomes an object of sexual attraction. Therefore, the advert should: (1) attract a man's attention with a sexy female body; (2) create a strong association: if you purchase the advertised product you will attract (have) a beautiful woman, maybe even few beautiful women. The advertising message is as follows: a woman will always prefer a man who possesses the advertised product.
This approach became so popular in the modern advertising industry that eau de colognes, cars, chewing gums, cigarettes, various beverages and other products are almost considered to be sex-stimulants (which is, of course, ridiculous). Chew this chewing gum and you will immediately become the object of desire of at least dozen of young attractive girls. Just smell this coffee and you'll have the best sexual adventure of your life. Choose those shoes and women will be at your feet.
Sometimes, to attract a more representative male audience, the theme of sex is presented as part of an “elite” life-style associated with the advertised product. This kind of advertising is appropriate for cars, expensive alcoholic beverages, houses, golf clubs, etc.
The approach to female-oriented advertising is more complicated. It is generally held that for women physical attractiveness of men is an important though not ultimately defining attribute of his sexual attractiveness (for the exception of really young teen age girls). Women are more pragmatic and any potential partner is evaluated by them on the basis of his social and biological characteristics. The process is often subconscious: is it possible to have healthy kids with him? Will he be able to satisfy her needs? Will he constantly take care of his wife and children? In our modern society the average women are looking for the features of “social success” with the set of typical characteristics ascribed to this “social success”: self-confidence, good manners, tenderness and sensitivity to the female needs, financial stability, high social status… and, of course, physical attractiveness – as a nice value adding feature. This kind of advertising demonstrates that the purchased product will attract this very type of men to women – successful, rich and sensitive. And, of course, stereotypic tools and images are used to demonstrate it: yachts, expensive cars, stylish watches, etc.
And, of course, the decision will be in women's hands. All men will go after her, will desire her and long for her… (if she purchases the advertised product). Along with that sex is almost never used in female oriented adverts. The male body in this kind of advert is not sexual, but romantic and aesthetic.
Yes, today's advertisement industry targets average typical female slobs. Not that it's very different from the macho targets of male oriented advertising.
Is this advertising effective?
Yes, marketing researches show that the majority of audiences would pay more attention to adverts that contain some kind of sexual element. However, what happens after that? According to researche males usually enjoy the pictures but do not really read the text of the advert and using their selective hearing technique do not listen to the commentary (if it's a TV ad). Women, on the other hand, usually read the text. This means that in most cases this advertising is “consumed” by the wrong target audience. Funnily enough the same happens with the adverts that use images of attractive men. They are usually read by men, while women just look at the pictures.
Moreover, American studies show that although people remember “sexual” advertisements they don't remember or remember much worse the actual advertising message and can rarely recollect what product, company or brand were advertised.
In the other words, consumers, i.e. – potential buyers remember the advertisement itself but have absolutely no idea and no recollection of the advertised products, services or brands.
For the full version of the article with more illustrations, please visit Articles Section of the Bizi Marketing Solutions web site.
posted by Bizi South Africa @ 7:18 PM
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