Sex In Advertising Research

1834 Words8 Pages
The conclusions inferred from the research made by Patterson and Ross (2015) can be backed up by statistics from the Indian market as well. Brands which extensively use sexual content in advertising like Fastrack, Axe and Set Wet etc. are all very successful in the Indian market. While Axe and Set Wet are partially related to sex considering that they are deodorant and hair grooming brands respectively, but Fastrack (which is the focus of this study), is an apparel brand which sells goods like watches and backpacks which are not really related to sex but the brand has used sex as a very effective promotion tool. Dahl, Vohs and Sengupta noted stark differences in men’s and women’s sexual beliefs and motivations. According to their research.…show more content…
While men enjoy the portrayal of sex in a casual and leisurely manner, women prefer it to be shown as the ultimate act of intimacy, love and commitment. Advertisers are very well aware of this act and deviate their portrayal of sex in accordance to what gender they are marketing the product to. For example, when the aim is to market a product whose target audience is men, you would notice that sex is being used in a casual manner. In the case of selling a body spray, the most cliché way of marketing it would be to have the model spray it on and immediately be followed by women who are seemingly sexually attracted towards the smell of the…show more content…
A sexual innuendo is a tiny imperceptible image of a nude person, sexual parts of an individual or sex acts, for example genitalia depicted indirectly as rockets or bottles and keys inserted into 44 lock systems are considered examples of sexual innuendos. Sexual embeds are integrated into images by ad creators and are intended to go unnoticed (Reichert, 2002, 2002a). Decorative Models Reid and Soley (1981) found that the portrayal of females as decorative model (or eye candy) remains a popular execution method among advertisers. Reid and Soley, based on the findings of their study, defined the decorative model of using sexual innuendos in advertising as a non-functional model whose primary goal is to cover the product as a sexually attractive stimulus. Peterson and Kerin (1977) noted that this model being used in an advertisement is neither strictly communicative nor exploitative in nature as there is a large degree of ambiguity involved. Reid and Soley (1981) came up with a study which claimed that using a ‘sexy’ model or an attractive female as a product cover is an effective attention-seeking device. Decorative model of sexual innuendos implies no discernable link or any sort of connection between the model itself and the advertised product or service (Lambiase & Reichert,

More about Sex In Advertising Research

Open Document