Sexual Appeal In Advertising

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Sexual appeals are fairly common in mainstream consumer advertising (Soley & Reid, 1988). Since 1990’s, this catchy marketing strategy has become prevalent and it does not show sign of slowing down. Recently, there are more brands have adopted this strategy in their advertisement from the fashionable garments to fast food use some form of sexual imagery to promote their product. The level of sexual content can be ranged from nudity to sexual innuendos depending on the brand and who is the target audience. Sex appeal is used in relevance with the type of product. Perfume has always been viewed as a form of woman’s allure, a scent that attracts her man and so that he is addicted to her. In reference to the REVEAL fragrance of Calvin Klein advertisements (figure 1), the ads depicts a sexualized image which shows the intimate posture between the two models. Like the product name, REVEAL, the woman looks lustfully as a man is hugging her and she is submissively allowing a man to dictate her. Is it necessary to use sexual appeal in the advertisement to sell the perfume? As the target audience of the product is female, why do advertisers need to have male model in the ads? According to…show more content…
However, it is an acceptable practice in marketing field. It is the language used by marketers to describe their products in advertising and sales presentations. Besides, it is also used in advertising as marketers find it difficult to differentiate their products or services from their competitors who have the same product category. Hence, the temptation for marketers to make statements about products that are considered puffs has increased (Preston, 1998). Ivan Preston, the leading scholar on the issue of puffery, has established six levels of puffery which is best, best possible, better, especially good, good and subjective qualities. For example, Papa John claims that their pizza has ‘better

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