Janay Blackwell
September 24, 2009
Eng 1020
Everywhere you look there is a billboard, sign, poster or even a painting showing some sort of advertisement. On the side of building's, in your favorite magazine, on your computer and even on the back of your favorite cereal box. Everywhere you go there is advertisements, from someone trying to sell you something. So with some many different companies, brands, and names competing with each other, advertisers are always looking for the best way to attract people's attention to a certain product. And the age old theory that sex sells is one they always seem to use over and over which never seems to get old. Sex is forbidden, tempting, and extremely out there, it draws people in no matter what. So no matter what the product is if you advertise it with a half-dressed attractive person in it, in a very provocative position it's gonna draw attention good or bad and that's exactly what advertisers want to do, to push the limits with sex, to grab your attention and to get you to buy there product.
They all seem to use the same techniques or strategies to grab the attention of people, it's human nature to be curious about sex or to desire this, so they feed off of this. They first try and catch your eye by showing you something shocking and out there. So let's take for example the Victoria Secret's lingerie ads.
A beautiful voluminous, slender women, amazing skin, completely in shape, long beautiful hair just the complete package. Sitting in a sexual position, wearing nothing but a bra and underwear. Looking at you with her sexy cat eyes and full pouty lips. So who are they trying to get to buy these items, who is there audience? Women look at this photo and think if I go and buy that, then maybe I might look like her. Then maybe my husband or boyfriend might think I will look just as attractive in it as she does. Or maybe, just maybe if I buy that I will be just as beautiful as her, she looks great in it so maybe I will to. While a man will look at this and think, wow she's hot, gorgeous, and beautiful. Maybe if I buy my wife or girlfriend that she might look just as good in it. It's all a mental game to make people believe that these material things actually have this sort of power over you. Which explains why people buy things they do not need, no needs to buy a 56 dollar piece of linguine to feel or be sexy but the image these advertisers put out makes people think in order to look this way I must buy this. In order to be desired in the way they are I must buy this. And Victoria's Secret has done a great job at doing so, there ads, campaigns, fashion shows, catalogues and commercials with all there sexual messages and images has made them one of the top lingerie companies ever selling over 2 million dollars of lingerie to women a year, making them a billion dollar company all from there ads.
Advertisers are always trying to use images of sex or sexual content to sell something that has nothing to do with sex at all such as this ad:
This is a company who is trying to get you to buy there toilet paper. As you can see there are 2 attractive people, half-naked standing in a very sexual and provocative position with toilet paper and a toilet behind them. Now, who in the world thinks toilet paper is sexy? Who would ever think that the whole act of using the bathroom is sexy? Couldn't this have been showed in a different way? How about maybe having both of these people fully clothed and playing tug-a-war with the toilet paper to show how strong it is, but sex sells and that's what people want.
So once the advertisement has grabbed your attention from just the photo alone, they need something else to really get you to buy the product, the picture is great and all but you need something else. So they come up with all these catchy sexual slogans or sayings that will stay in your head over and over until you buy the product, these advertisements don't even need a sexy photo the words alone explains and tells you everything you need to know.
The photo pictured above is an ad for Burger King, they are introducing to there new seven incher sandwich. They have an attractive women with her mouth open facing the sandwich with the words “I'll blow your mind away” below it. At first glance the sexual content isn't so obvious when looking at this photo, because you don't see any half dressed people in very provocative positions. But what you see instead is this large font that reads “I'll blow your mind away” and this women with her mouth open facing this huge sandwich, But once you put the two together (photo and the words) the sexual content becomes more obvious. But do people actually want to see food that they are going to eat displayed in this way, no I wouldn't . When I think of eating a sandwich, a picture of a women with her mouth open and the words “it will blow your mind away” never seems to come to mind. I never knew that there was anything sexual about eating a sandwich.
These advertisements never seem to think about the moral content that they show in these advertisements, or the picture that they are portraying to people about what is acceptable. So they believe that it is okay because people have proven that its okay, because they continue to buy products because of it. So they push the limits and often never think about how explicit or overly sexual some of the ads are, such as the ads below, all of these ads have been banned because they went to far with the sexual content and someone finally said that is wasn't acceptable to publicize these ads:
The photo to the far right is an ad advertisement for Diesel Jeans – UK and I think you can see for obvious reasons why this ad was banned. The sexual image is very offensive and degrading to women and men. And is unsuitable to be published in a magazine that is going to be viewed by children. The ad in the middle is an ad for Tom Ford's fragrance for men. This photo is not trying to hide anything they put everything out there, this photo doesn't even need an description because I think you can tell what it is for yourself. This photo is completely rude and distasteful to women and just people in general, there was no thought behind this ad about how this will effect people or the image that they are displaying to people. And lastly is the photo on the far right which is an ad advertisement for Bacardi. There's a women with 3 breast and the words “betterthanbeer.com below the photo. The picture alone is very demeaning and offensive to women, it portrays them as objects and objectified them.
Although some may oppose to my arguments and theories about this issue, because it has been proven time and time again that sex does sell and it's what people want and buy. But think about the true meaning of these advertisements, think about the way they are portraying people in these advertisements. The picture that they are displaying to our youth about what is acceptable, making them believe that these things are acceptable and that its okay to view men in women as sexual objects rather then human beings. These advertisements are giving the wrong impressions to people, you don't really need to buy a 56 piece of Victoria's Secret lingerie to be happy or desirable or buying the new Tom Ford's fragrance won't make women sworn to you or make you even more desirable to women.