-Pragya Mittal
A study from the University of Georgia looked at sexual ads that have appeared in magazines over the 30 years and found that the numbers are going up. Why does it work?
Simple answer: People are interested in sex.
According to The Journal of Sex Research, men think about sex 19 times a day while women think about sex 10 times. Advertisers like to capitalise on popular interests. It seems sex is one of, if not the most, popular interest.
Tell me a product that you can’t even imagine hiding behind the shadow of sex appeal to market itself?
Tobacco?
Like how can one relate it with sex advertisement?
Sex was first used to sell cigarette products back in 1871 by Pearl Tobacco (Source: World Heritage Encyclopaedia). Their cigarette package displayed an image of a “naked maiden.”
The first ad to use sex. Pearl Tobacco in 1871 (Source: Pinterest)
This advertisement turned out to be very provocative and sales immediately rose. A similar sex advertisement strategy was also used by Duke & Sons who became the best-selling cigarette brand within a couple of years.
After cigarettes, nude pictures for advertisement was adopted by the soap industry (honestly, it makes much more sense for me). The following years witnessed an upthrust in the trend. The researchers looked at 3,232 full-page ads published in 1983, 1993 and 2003 in the popular magazines Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Esquire, Playboy, Newsweek and Time. They found sexual imagery in 20% of the ads overall.
One of the most efficient hence famous sex campaigns was run by Calvin Klein in 1980.
Calvin Klein, 1980
Calvin Klein shot a denim commercial that was controversial, creepy (given that Brooke Shields was 15), and incredibly memorable. The ‘shockvertising’ campaign had a single tagline: “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” The ad wasn’t subtle: it was a call to go commando, and consumers ate it up – so much so, that Calvin Klein’s revenue apparently grew by 300% in the 3 months afterwards. Eventually, the commercial was banned, but that didn’t do anything to stop the buzz around the brand. And it was just the beginning: CK has always leaned on sexualised ads to bring in business.
For a matter of fact, sex advertisement worked wonders for luxury brands including Guess (1990), Emporio Armani, 2009, Diesel, 2010 (How can we forget that ad saying “Sex sells, unfortunately, we sell jeans.”)
Here comes the most interesting part, “Food-Porn”. Yes, so finally the food industry stepped in this messy advertisement business and made it messier. Burger King has undoubtedly the most active sex seller. Starting from its adolescent humour taglines: “super seven incher” and “it’ll blow” to running entire campaigns focusing on the extra quantity of their products, Burger King has grown up.
This Burger King Ad Ran in Germany in 2004
Tom Reichert, an Advertising professor at University of South Carolina, in his book “The Erotic History of Advertising (2003)”, concluded that using sex in advertising has frequently, but not always, increased consumer interest and often aided in the selling products and building strong brand identities. However, he notes that academic research on its effects has yielded equivocal and inconsistent conclusions, making it exceedingly difficult to render a clear verdict on its effectiveness. Despite this caveat, Reichert believes that several companies—such as Calvin Klein and Victoria’s Secret—have succeeded in linking erotic appeals with commercial success. Likewise, the public response has varied considerably. Some consumers respond with their pocketbooks to the sexual promises in ads while others complain that sexual imagery in ads oversteps the bounds of propriety.
Parting words: The mere fact that you read this point proves the title of this article.
MarkAvenue 