Sex sells.
- Thread starter Sizzle Montyjing
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Well, considering "sex sells" has been an age-old success in marketing ever since the first caveman drew stick porn on a rock and gave it to his next door neighbor..
..Yes, and yes. And while it may be a cheap marketing trick, it'll get you every time. Even if you hate it, chances are your already unconsciously prepped to purchase that item before you walk out of the store/room. Our sex drive is our most powerful biological instinct, no less.
..Yes, and yes. And while it may be a cheap marketing trick, it'll get you every time. Even if you hate it, chances are your already unconsciously prepped to purchase that item before you walk out of the store/room. Our sex drive is our most powerful biological instinct, no less.
Plenty of women fall for sexual marketing on a day to day basis, no matter how much they try to deny it. It's rather foolish to assume sexuality in advertisement is only a male targeted tactic (and somewhat sexist, no less).Hitokiri_Gensai said:
It's a shame it isn't superliminal, like in that Simpsons episode. Would definitely make advertising more interesting to watch.Yosharian said:
I really don't like the mindset associated with it that men just 'naturally' like looking at boobs and hence it will automatically sell. Because I think it's stupid, we are not 'driven' by our natural instinct, we have free will.
It's like when people try to defend their jerkiness by arguing that human beings are naturally jerks, no you chose to be a jerk. Just as people choose to buy into sexploitation style marketting.
You are not being programmed to do this, it's your own choice.
Plus, as I'm sure has been stated before, just because sex sells doesn't mean we HAVE to use it. Look at games like Halo, Gears of War and Call of Duty. Huge game franchises that have made millions upon millions of dollars, they never once had to resort to cheesy sexploitation style marketting to succeed. I just don't understand why people seem to determinedly think that sex appeal is a 'must' to sell games.
(Oh and before anyone mentions Cortana, I don't recall the Halo games ever marketting her as a direct sex symbol. That the fans made her one is irrelevant. Fans make EVERYTHING a sex symbol on the internet)
Maybe they can appeal to a market, but it's still cheesy and stupid and arguably going for an easy 'no trying' solution. Plus, like it or not, it does still help to reinforce unpleasant gender stereotypes.
Like that:
A. Men are all raging sex fanatics who cannot control themselves and go wild for tits at the first possible glimpse of them.
B. Women exist only as eye candy for aforementioned male sex addicts.
I guess it all depends on the context, if a product or series or whatever is meant to have sexual undertones as a theme then naturally you would advertise it with sex. Because that's just showing what it's about, you don't advertise a movie about sharks with shots of manatees.
But if you add crass sex appeal to a product without it having anything to do with the product, even when you claim to be doing it 'ironically' then I have to call you out as being immature and, potentially, sexist.
I guess to round it all up, if done with the right context sex appeal in marketing and advertising can be acceptable. Provided that sex appeal is actually the point of the product in general.
However just because sex CAN sell does not mean it has to, as plenty of franchises have proven. So I don't really think people like Team Ninja with their incredibly in your face 'boob marketting' stratergies can be defended with 'sex sells' because it doesn't HAVE to and as such, tactics like that are still immature.
And finally, nature schmature. Evolution did not teach us to love big boobs, we are resonsible for our own actions and that's one lame excuse I, as a male myself, am getting sick of hearing.
It's like when people try to defend their jerkiness by arguing that human beings are naturally jerks, no you chose to be a jerk. Just as people choose to buy into sexploitation style marketting.
You are not being programmed to do this, it's your own choice.
Plus, as I'm sure has been stated before, just because sex sells doesn't mean we HAVE to use it. Look at games like Halo, Gears of War and Call of Duty. Huge game franchises that have made millions upon millions of dollars, they never once had to resort to cheesy sexploitation style marketting to succeed. I just don't understand why people seem to determinedly think that sex appeal is a 'must' to sell games.
(Oh and before anyone mentions Cortana, I don't recall the Halo games ever marketting her as a direct sex symbol. That the fans made her one is irrelevant. Fans make EVERYTHING a sex symbol on the internet)
Maybe they can appeal to a market, but it's still cheesy and stupid and arguably going for an easy 'no trying' solution. Plus, like it or not, it does still help to reinforce unpleasant gender stereotypes.
Like that:
A. Men are all raging sex fanatics who cannot control themselves and go wild for tits at the first possible glimpse of them.
B. Women exist only as eye candy for aforementioned male sex addicts.
I guess it all depends on the context, if a product or series or whatever is meant to have sexual undertones as a theme then naturally you would advertise it with sex. Because that's just showing what it's about, you don't advertise a movie about sharks with shots of manatees.
But if you add crass sex appeal to a product without it having anything to do with the product, even when you claim to be doing it 'ironically' then I have to call you out as being immature and, potentially, sexist.
I guess to round it all up, if done with the right context sex appeal in marketing and advertising can be acceptable. Provided that sex appeal is actually the point of the product in general.
However just because sex CAN sell does not mean it has to, as plenty of franchises have proven. So I don't really think people like Team Ninja with their incredibly in your face 'boob marketting' stratergies can be defended with 'sex sells' because it doesn't HAVE to and as such, tactics like that are still immature.
And finally, nature schmature. Evolution did not teach us to love big boobs, we are resonsible for our own actions and that's one lame excuse I, as a male myself, am getting sick of hearing.
I doubt many marketing execs think "heh, if I put a naked chick on this packet of cigarettes I'll have a zombie army at my command". The simple fact is that you're more likely to look (read: stare) at an ad that has an attractive person in it and the more you look the more chance there is that you'll actually take in whatever information the ad is trying to convey.A Weakgeek said:
This post brought to you by a stupid STUPID company called "solve media" that actually dares to try and get me to watch an ad before I can read a godamn captcha. At least they gave me a skip button. Oh and the captcha code was "dirt bag", how appropriate.
Again it's not a matter of "I see boobs, I buy product" or "I see Pat Rafter's junk bulge in some Bonds underwear and will thus buy said mens Bonds underwear for my partner" for that matter. It's far more subtle than that. People say "I want to see Black Swan because of the Lebanese action in it" and to some level that's true but mostly they're just kidding.Vrex360 said:
Also check out this travesty/work of genius (Ad was pulled not for video content but because the song is GRAPHICALLY sexual except it's in Portuguese slang or something and no one noticed) (Australia ftw)
I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with exploiting the fact that sex sells - unless of course it's so in-your-face that you have to change channels or put your hands over your kid's eyes if he's watching.NickCaligo42 said:
But I think humor or irony sells way better to be honest, this video being a great example. It takes an ironical approach to the whole "sexy ad" idea while still admitting to the fact that it's trying to sell it's product by appealing to women's sexuality.
In general, bad commercials tend to make me negative towards a certain product and I believe that self-important and pompous sexy-ads (e.g. some of the perfume ads that OP mentions) might have that effect on people.
Sex doesn't necessarily sell.
I think you're overestimating how much sex sells.
A bit of cleavage can definitely make an ad more appealing and help sell products, can't say there's anything wrong with that.
But as soon as you show a nipple just watch the public outcry and the drop of your market share. Not to mention that if sex really did sell then we'd be seeing pornstars in every commercial.
Let's face it, most commercials do not feature sex in any shape way or form. They feature attractive happy people. People most of us want to identify with.
Sex doesn't really sell outside of erotic and pornographic industries, it's the wish-fulfillment that sells. The claim that their product is the first step towards becoming the person you want to be, who has the things you want to have. And for most people that includes an attractive partner and admiration by the gender they're attracted to.
A bit of cleavage can definitely make an ad more appealing and help sell products, can't say there's anything wrong with that.
But as soon as you show a nipple just watch the public outcry and the drop of your market share. Not to mention that if sex really did sell then we'd be seeing pornstars in every commercial.
Let's face it, most commercials do not feature sex in any shape way or form. They feature attractive happy people. People most of us want to identify with.
Sex doesn't really sell outside of erotic and pornographic industries, it's the wish-fulfillment that sells. The claim that their product is the first step towards becoming the person you want to be, who has the things you want to have. And for most people that includes an attractive partner and admiration by the gender they're attracted to.
Personally I think 'sex sells' is an outdated, erroneous, platitude. I refuse to believe that the majority of males would actually be motivated to buy something out of sex appeal, unless they live in a country with no internet connection.
You'd be suprised.Hagi said:
Almost all deodrant and fragrance adverts do.
Hell, i even saw a cruchy nut advert with it in.
Clothes adverts, and some car adverts.
As long as sex continues to sell, sex will be used to sell. The only way to stop it is, as consumers, refuse to stand for it. If you are against the morals of a product DON'T BUY IT, when you buy a product you are basically voting for that companies continued existence, hell there have been successful boycotts on amoral companies before, why can't the same principal be used to get rid of exploiting sexual urges to sell a product. It is a disgusting and manipulative marketing tactic and it has to stop.
btw. I'm not usually this closed minded and militantly against most things, I'm actually quite a liberal person, this one thing just really bugs me.
btw. I'm not usually this closed minded and militantly against most things, I'm actually quite a liberal person, this one thing just really bugs me.
It's not just males don't you know.OmniscientOstrich said:
Quite a lot of females sucubbme to it as well.
Why else would they show all those gucchi adverts with the topless men?
Deodorant and fragrance adverts sell attraction. They claim that using them makes the other gender attracted to you. It's about the attraction and admiration, it's not about the sex.Sizzle Montyjing said:
There's an extremely large difference between admiration and attraction and sex.
People do want to be admired, especially by the gender they're attracted to. They do not want a continuous orgy.
They don't want sex. They want to be a happy, attractive, admired and respected person.
I've honestly never seen a Gucci advert in my life so I wouldn't know. Also, that example doesn't demonstrate that the 'sex sells' ethos actually works, merely that is employed within certain companies. Companies who I believe are big enough and well established enough, that they would do just fine regardless of how awful their marketing campaigns are (see EA and Sony). Point is, I don't think that marketing campaigns that incorperate the idea of sex appeal being an incentive are going to produce any more beneficial results than those that actually demonstrate the qualities of the product.Sizzle Montyjing said:
maybe if there weren't so many sexual hang ups out there, it wouldnt be so easy to use sex to sell
Captcha: MAKE IT SO
Captcha: MAKE IT SO
I think that sex used to be the main selling point in previous years but it seems to be going down now. Now it just seems like commercials don't really know what they're aiming at, like the commercials for Kotex tampons is all centered around the wrappers being "colorful" and "punk"... My first reaction to that one was "Oh yes because I need my tampon wrapper to look colorful and edgy!"