UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND

Sex in Advertising
Marketing Theory
Juanita Khumalo

.
Table of Contents

Theme and Introduction ................................................................................................... 2

Research question, objectives and body ........................................................................... 3
Managerial Implications ................................................................................................... 9
Tom Ford........................................................................................................................ 11
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 13
Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 14

1|Page
1. Theme
This assignment is a review of academic research on the content and effects of sexual
information in advertising. It primarily explores the history of sex in advertising, its
effectiveness as a marketing technique, the benefits and risks associated with using sexual
appeal in advertising and how it affects consumer markets.

2. Introduction
Sexuality is a widely used appeal today. Since the beginning of modern advertising,
marketers have used sex to promote their products and services. According to Reichert
(2012), researchers using social science methods have attempted to understand the role of sex
in advertising for selling brands since the 1960s. Specifically, they have attempted to
understand exactly how sexual content influences the advertising communication process.

According to Wilson & Moore (1979), this trend towards the increasing depiction of
sexually-oriented themes in advertising is evident upon even the most casual inspection of
print and broadcast media. In general, advertising copywriters use nudity, romantic themes,
or suggestiveness to draw attention to specific advertisements and their sponsoring products.
In the marketplace of today, the use of such explicitly or implicitly sexually-oriented ads
seems to be especially popular for parity products that must compete intensely for consumers'
attention Danielenko (1974).

This research aims to primarily understand what sex in advertising is by further conducting a
critical analysis of its effectiveness, benefits and risks in advertising and finally to provide a
literature overview regarding the use of sex in advertising and the effect it has on consumer
market and its buying behaviour.

2|Page
3. Research Question
How effective is the use of sexual appeal in advertising and what effect does it have on the
consumer market?

4. Objectives
4.1 What is sex in advertising
4.2 Establish how effective is sex in advertising and the effect it has on the consumer
market?

5. Body
Companies make use of sexual appeal in advertising now more than ever. Perhaps the use is
in response to the preponderance of advertisements in everyday life. Advertising is an applied
form of persuasion that attempts to inform, position, convince and reinforce, differentiate and
ultimately sell products and services by an identified sponsor in paid form Ho Wing Tan
(2011).

Typically, sexual appeal in advertising is used for its “shock value”. It is a strategy meant to
break through the “clutter” of a multitude of marketing communication campaigns in the
modern world. The so-called shock value of this strategy, however, has been dulled by the
ever-growing permissiveness of contemporary societies. Today’s teens are growing up in
“societies immersed in sex”. As a result of fast-changing mores, the sexual-appeal strategy
may no longer have the ability to sell the way it used to primarily because its shock value has
sharply diminished Ledesma (n.d).

When sex is incorporated with advertisement, it became a form of sexual appeal.

Advertisements often use such appeals for image-based products. Actual images in ads can
often convey emotions powerfully, which may explain the frequent use in marketing image-
based products. These products include: candy, liquor, cigarettes, jewellery, fragrances,
3|Page
cosmetics and fashion Korn (2006). It is advertisements for products such as, but not limited
to these, that often use sexual appeals. According to Wazir & Ezaz (2012), sex appeals are
defined as the messages, and brand information in advertisement which exposed sexuality
(Tom et al., 2001). More recently, sex in advertising has been defined as mediated messages
containing sexual information with the persuasive purpose of selling branded goods Reichert
and Carpenter (2004).

Sexual appeal is one of seven appeals used successfully in advertising. These appeals include
fear, humour, sex, music, rationality, emotion and scarcity. Certain appeals are more effective
than others for particular circumstances Vigar-Ellis, D & Klug, P (2012). The objective of an
appeal is to arouse the need for the product in the target audience Trehan & Trehan (2007).

According to Reichert (2002), common forms of sexual advertising content include the
following: nudity, (dress), physical attractiveness, suggestive behaviour, interaction,
innuendo and other factors such as setting, context and camera effects. Content analysis
reveals that the vast majority of sexual content in advertising comprises visual representations
(nudity/dress) of people.

There has been a lot of conflicting literature on the effectiveness of sex appeal in advertising
and this article explores the beneifts and risks associated with sex in advertising.

Firstly, sex-in-advertising processing research suggests that sexual information has a relative
advantage at attracting attention to the ad. Viewers are more likely to encode and ultimately
remember sexual images in the ad, encoding of text within the ad is mixed, but more likely to
be processed if integrated with the sexual content, encoding of brand names in ads containing
sexual content is inhibited and thoughts and cognitions are directed toward the sexual
elements in the ad rather than the message. These conclusions support to the distraction
hypothesis that sexual information in advertising attracts attention, but usually to the
detriment of the sponsoring organization.

Advertisers have also looked to emotion (generalized arousal, affect) in their attempts to
ascertain the effects of sexual information on advertising responses. Assuming that important
components of emotion consist of arousal and affect, sex in advertising has elicited such
responses in research. Using Thayers (1978) two-factor arousal model, Reichert (2002) found
that arousal increased in intensity as the level of sexual explicitness of images in ads
increased. If respondents experienced general activations in response to the sexual image
(positively valenced arousal) they also had more positive attitudes towards the ad. If
respondents experienced tension (negatively valenced arousal), they negatively evaluated the
ad Reichert (2002). Attitudinal responses to sexual information influence responses to the ad
and brand.

4|Page
Third, using sex appeal in an ad may also help the audience remember the ad better; in other
words, sex appeal can enhance the audience's recall and recognition of an ad, the advertised
brand and the main message points (Reid and Soley, 1981). Shimp (2007) explained that sex
appeal in advertising can enhance brand and message recall because sex content is often easy
to relate to and memorable.

Due to the aforementioned roles that sex appeal may play, some researchers Saunders (1996)
believe that sex appeal ads are more persuasive than non-sex appeal ads. Hoyer and MacInnis
(2001) claimed that sex appeal may enhance the persuasion impact because they may lead the
audience through a favourable processing of an ad. Reichert et al. (2001) also reported that
sex appeal could attract attention and, therefore, could increase the likelihood of affecting
persuasion, especially in a saturated media environment typified by passive viewing
exposures. Owing to the impact of sex appeal on persuasion, Grazer and Keesling (1995)
argued that sex appeal ads may gain higher buying intentions than non-sex appeal ads.

However, there are uncertainties associated with using sex appeal in advertising.

The effectiveness of sex appeal also depends on its appropriateness to the advertised product.
Richmond and Hartman (1982) claimed that sexual stimuli may enhance brand recall only if
an appropriate relationship remains between the product category and the advertising
execution. Simpson et al. (1996) made a similar claim that positive attitudes may be induced
by using sex appeal if there is relevance of the sex appeal to the advertised product. Brand
recall was significantly lower when sexual content in the ad was not functionally related to
the product than when sexual content was linked to the product. For example, brand names in
ads for condoms (ad with boxes of condoms; 49%) and brassieres (close-ups of women
wearing the product: 52%) were remembered more correctly than ads for a utility company
(hazy image of a woman taking a shower: 9%) and a food promotional organization (double
entendre about cooking rice the first time; 15%) which suggest that congruence between text
or product with sexual information can influence encoding of ad text Reichert (2012).
However, since sex appeal is widely used to sell all kinds of products and services, it is not
easy to differentiate products appropriate for sex appeal and products inappropriate for sex
appeal (Reichert et al., 2001).

Figure 1 depicts a perfect example of a brand that uses sexual appeal which is completely
unrelated to the product. The bread is shaped as breasts of a woman. Figure 2 is a better
example, the product is a body firming lotion for women and it is only appropriate that the ad
shows women revealing skin and the ad emphasizes that the product has been tested on ‘real
curves’ which will relate better to the target audience as most women look like the women
depicted in the ad as opposed to using models only who majority of the public will not be
5|Page
able to relate to. Dove is showing an appropriate relationship remains between its product
category and the advertising execution.

Figure 1 Figure 2

Women tend to have a negative effect to sex in advertising then men do. According to Dahl,
Sengupta & Vohs (2009), unlike previous research that had found that both men and women
dislike the gratuitous use of sex in advertising because of its unethical nature and creates a
perception of undue manipulative intent on the marketers part. A gender difference emerged
under constrained conditions; men far preferred the ad featuring the sexual image (compared
to the nonsexual image) whereas women reported significantly worse attitudes toward the
explicit sexual ad compared with the nonsexual ad. Both socialization-based and evolution-
based accounts of human sexuality provide support for such a gender difference in sexual
attitudes. As pointed out in several scholarly reviews, socialization influences are almost
without exception biased towards promoting male sexuality but undermining female sexuality
Sengupta & Dahl (2008).

According to Sengupta & Dahl (2008), boys and girls typically receive differing indirect
messages about such stimuli from a variety of sources, including peers, parents and social
institutions. Ultimately, because of repeated and powerful conditioning, attitudes toward sex
per se get automatically transferred to sexual stimuli; thus stimuli such as erotic pictures are
likely to induce positive affect in men while inducing negative affect in women. Because men
are designed by natural selection to be favourably inclined towards casual, non-invested sex,

6|Page
they will exhibit a positive affect/approach response to portrayals of casual sex. Women on
the contrary, have more to lose from engaging in short term mating; and will accordingly
exhibit a negative affect/avoidance reaction to portrayals of casual sex.

However, it has been discovered that women with conservative attitudes toward sex show a
greater negative appeal to sex in advertising as compared to women with more liberal
attitudes to sex who seem to exhibit more positive attitudes towards a sex-based ad than a
nonsexual based ad. According to Blair et al, this current generation of women is becoming
more open to sexual advertisements and is more apt to be noticed by them.

Women have for years been the primary focus of sex in advertising but men have been
targeted more recently. According to Blair et al. (2006) women have often been the target of
sexual advertising because it seems to work in many cases. Sex is a powerful and easy
method of getting male attention and making a product desirable. It is easy to get a man’s
attention by using women’s bodies and associating getting the women if he buys the product
(Taflinger, 1996, p.8).

The focus has of late been shifted to men as objects of sexual appeal in advertising who play
a crucial role as well. According to Taflinger (1996), “It is rare for advertising to use sex as
an appeal for women. Women are often less interested in the sex act itself for its own sake.
They are interested in sex for what it can mean in the future. They may enjoy it as much as
men, but for them it has a far greater significance. Advertising cannot take advantage of a
woman’s instinctive sexual desire because advertising’s job is not to build for the future, it is
to sell products now Blair et al. (2006).

Finally, previous studies (Reid and Soley, 1981, 1983) have consistently documented that
sexual content may be eye-catching and entertaining, but it may distract the viewer from the
main message and hence result in a reduction of recognition and recall (Steadman, 1969).
More recently, Severn et al. (1990) argued that the use of explicit sexual messages in ads may
interfere with consumers' processing of message arguments and brand information, which in
turn may reduce message comprehension. MacInnis et al. (1991) and Grazer and Keesling
(1995) both claimed that the use of sex appeal may increase consumers' motivation to process
the ad and their attention to the ad, but may not necessarily enhance brand recall or induce
positive attitudes towards a brand.

The use of such appeals is constantly scrutinized in terms of ethics, regardless of the target
audience. Considerable research has been done on ethics in marketing, partly because
marketing is the business function most often charged with unethical practices. Ethical
judgements are subjective and complex and deal with cultural norms. The discussion gets
more complex when sexual appeals are used to target teens Korn (2006).

There appears to be a trend toward increasing nudity in advertisements, albeit “functional” or

“tasteful” nudity, in the present study use of a nude model resulted in the least favourable

7|Page
perceptions. Hence, at this time Peterson & Kerlin (1977) found it appropriate to question
whether marketers are making a fundamental mistake by employing nudity in their
advertisements. Rather than appearing as innovative (fashionable), the use of nudity may
ultimately produce delirious effects, not only regarding perceptions toward the firm’s
advertisements, but even towards its products and corporate image.

With the use of sexual appeals in commercials being both controversial and productive in
remembering a product, there is a fine line that advertisers should follow to keep the
controversy to a minimum Blair et al (2006).

8|Page
6. Managerial Implications
According to Blair et al (2006), Gould (1994) suggested that advertisers can attempt to
accommodate the seemingly conflicting concerns of the public by following the four
following guidelines:

1. Targeting consumers as carefully as possible to avoid unnecessary conflict and

minimize the viewing of sexual appeals by people who might be disconcerted by them
2. Heightening their own awareness of the impact of sexual appeals on the public at
large as well as on their target market
3. Testing the effects of their commercials, not only on their target audience but also on
other members of the public who might see their commercials and
4. Considering the effect of their commercials in prompting individuals, whether in their
target or not to take actions that have negative consequences.

As the morals and ethics of society change over time, what is considered appropriate and
acceptable by society must also change. Therefore it is necessary to re-evaluate the
assumptions on which strategic decisions are based when it comes to print advertising Blair et
al (2006).

Using sexual appeals in brand advertisements has not proven to be as effective as needed;
using them in social marketing may be more beneficial for marketers Blair et al (2006).

Marketers need to be aware of the impact that sexual appeals have to the public and be
cautious not to offend the audiences who would view the advertisements that contain sexual
appeals, in an attempt to avoid unnecessary conflict.

Women have a more negative attitude towards the use of sexual appeal in advertising then
men are. It would be advisable for managers to be particular of their advertising platforms
when compiling their advertising strategies. Example, target men on platforms such as
gentlemen’s magazines or MensHealth which are mediums/publications specifically targeted
at men.

The current generation of women is becoming more open to sexual advertisements and is
more apt to be enticed by them Blair et al (2006). Marketing managers ought to be aware of
this when devising their marketing strategies which contain sex appeal and target them to the
necessary age group which is the younger generation of women.

9|Page
The ethical complexity of sexual appeals in advertising needs to be considered and
incorporated in the strategic thought and planning of marketers.

Marketing managers need to carefully consider what the product or service is that is being
sold and who is the target market. For example, it would be unethical to put sexual appealing
commercials on Nickeldeon Blair et al (2006).

Agencies shoulder the majority of the responsibility for the campaigns they deliver, a true
partnership needs to be developed in order to ensure a sustainable relationship based on trust
and transparency Blair et al (2006).

Sexual content has a relative advantage at attracting attention to the ad. Managers can
leverage this to their advantage especially when attempting to boost sales or popularity of a
product or gain market share. There is a thin line as to what is acceptable and not acceptable
by the public therefore managers need to be aware of this implication and would be advisable
to conduct thorough research on the target audience they are pursuing before using sexual
content in their promotional campaigns.

Ethical issues involving sexual appeal in commercials are more controversial than those
involving print advertising due to the high number of viewers that see commercials Blair et al
(2006). Marketing managers should be more considerate of the platforms they use for their
marketing campaigns. Reduce television commercials and focus more on print advertising.
This allows them to exactly target their desired audience without offending the public.
Example, advertising sexually appealing ads in magazines such as Cosmopolitan which has a
high sexual content. The campaign won’t receive as much backlash as television is usually a
family platform.

10 | P a g e
Tom Ford

Sex has been used to sell fragrances for decades and

it is being used to play peoples fantasies. In 1970,
marketing analyst Suzanne Grayson revealed that
sex was the central positioning strategy for 49% of
the fragrances on the market. In Grayson’s analysis,
sexual themes ranged from raw sex to romance with
the fragrance positioned as an aphrodisiac – an
aromatic potion that evoked intimate feelings or
provoked behavioural expression of those feelings.
Today, consumers are no longer surprised. In order
to attract consumer attention in this industry flooded
with the use of sex appeal some brands choose to
adopt a more provocative and more explicit
approach.

Advertisements are using physiological needs to

Figure 3 humans in order to survive, to sell products that
consumers do not need. Advertisers manipulate the
product to it seem as though consumers need it in
order to survive because they use the physiological
needs of humans as a tactic to sell the product. One
of the relentless envelope-pushers, Tom Ford has
recently featured a sexy image of a woman lying on her back, her lips covered with red
lipstick with her mouth wide open. The model in the advertisement is shimmering with oil
and her bright red manicured nails and hands are pressing her breasts together in order to
display a bottle of Ford’s for Men fragrance in her cleavage. Another ad which is similar to
the above mentioned ad for the same cologne, Tom Ford for Men features a woman naked
with only a cologne bottle covering her private parts which caused outrage internationally
(See figure 4).

Tom Ford has now become one of the top leading fashion designers. Ford is known for his
designs in luxury clothing, accessories, fragrance and cosmetics. Ford emanates sex appeal to
consumers in order to sell his products. Many advertisements, not only Ford’s objectify
women and their bodies. The attitude most present in this ad for Tom ford’s fragrance is that
of women merely seen as sexualized objects. The women’s chest glistens with oil with a
bottle of cologne protruding between her breasts, but there is no representation of a woman’s
face; she is seen as simply an object to sell this product. The use of ‘women’s bodies to sell

11 | P a g e
products rather sell ideas such as, sex objects’ simply to ‘lure men’ in order for men to buy
the products under the impression that doing so, will get them a woman, like the model
depicted in the advertisement. The ad are targeted at middle and upper class men and contains
a heavy use of physical features of models and nudity, (dress), physical attractiveness,
suggestive behaviour and contextual features such as camera effects.

Figure 4

12 | P a g e
6. Conclusion

The primary objective of this paper has been to explore what is sex in advertising, its
effectiveness and benefits and risks associated with it and secondly to provide a literature
overview regarding using sex in advertising and its impact on consumer markets. The use of
sex appeal in advertising is common in advertising today and it is becoming more and more
overt as advertisers attempt to find ways to break through the media clutter. However, there
are many uncertainties associated with the use of sex in advertising.

Research has proved that sex in advertising is effective but only to a certain extent depending
on the objectives of the marketing campaign. For example, sex appeals are attention getting,
arousing, affect inducing and are memorable Reichert et al (2001). However, they do so
typically without a corresponding advantage for brand information processing Blair (2006).
The use of sex appeal in advertising has its advantages and disadvantages. The point at which
sex appeal may be viewed as unethical and counter-productive is what advertisers should be
concerned with and to recognise the ethical complexity of sexual appeal in advertising and
incorporate that understanding in strategic thought.

As Henthorne and La Tour (1994) stated “As the ethical considerations of society change
over time, what is considered appropriate and acceptable in advertising must also change”
(pp.88). So, it is imperative to continually re-evaluate what society would consider acceptable
through extensive market research and consider the full level of consequences of their actions
before considering what they perceive as ethically acceptable and targeting the relevant
consumer markets Blair et al (2006).

13 | P a g e
Bibliography
Reichert, T. Sex in advertising Research: A review of contents, effects, and Functions of
Sexual Information in Consumer Advertising (2002) 13 (1), 241-273.
[Link] Accessed October 12, 2013.

Ledesma, M. (n.d). The effectiveness of Sex appeal Advertising vs Cause related

Advertising.

Vigar-Ellis, D and Klug, P (2012) Gender Differences in student attitudes towards sexual
appeals in Print Advertising

Dahl, DW., Sengupta, J., Vohs, K.D. (2009). “Sex in advertising: Gender differences and the
role of relationship commitment”. Journal of Consumer Research Inc. Vol 36(2): pp.215-231
[Link] Accessed 12-10-2013.

Blair, J. Stephen, J. Hill, K. & Green, J. Ethics in advertising: Sex sells, but should I? Journal
of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues (2006). Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 109-118

Wazir, M., I & Ezaz, E., U (2012) Impact of sex Appeals in Tv Advertisement

Peterson, A. R & Kerlin, A. K. (2006). “The female role in Advertisements – Some

experimental evidence”. Journal of Marketing 41(4) 59-63
[Link] Accessed 12-10-2003 19:19pm

Sengupta, J. & Dahl, D, W. (2008). “Gender-related reactions to gratuitous sex appeals in

advertising”. Journal of consumer psychology; 62-78

Korn, D. Ethical judgements of sexual appeals in advertising image-based products to teens

(2006).

Reichert, T. & Carpenter, C. Journalism and mass communication quarterly – An update on

sex in magazine advertising: 1983 to 2003. 2004 81:823

Ho Wing Tan , N. Fashion & textile: Fashion merchandising and marketing Specialism.
2011; 16-17

Korn, D Ethical judgements of sexual appeal in advertising image-based products to teens

(2006).

Reid, L.N., Soley, L.C. (1983), "Decorative models and the readership of magazine ads",
Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 23 No.2, pp.27-32.

Shimp, T. (2007), Advertising, Promotion, and Supplemented Aspects of Integrated

Marketing Communications, 7th ed., Thomson South-Western, New York, NY

14 | P a g e
Hoyer, W.D., MacInnis, D.J. (2001), Consumer Behaviour, 2nd ed., Houghton Mifflin
Company, Boston, MA

Reichert, T., Heckler, S.E., Jackson, S. (2001), "The effects of sexual social marketing
appeals on cognitive processing and persuasion", Journal of Advertising, Vol. 30 No.1,
pp.13-27.

Grazer, W.F., Keesling, G. (1995), "The effect of print advertising's use of sexual themes on
brand recall and purchase intention: a product specific investigation of male responses",
Journal of Applied Business Research, Vol. 11 No.3, pp.47-58.

La Tour, M. & Henthorne, T. (1994). Ethical judgements of sexual appeals in print

advertising. Journal of advertising. 23(3); pp.87-91

Richmond, D., Hartman, T.P. (1982), "Sex appeal in advertising", Journal of Advertising
Research, Vol. 22 No.5, pp.53-62

Simpson, P., Horton, S., Brown, G. (1996), "Male nudity in advertisements: a modified
replication and extension of gender and product effects", Journal of the Academy of
Marketing Sciences, Vol. 24 No.3, pp.257-62.

Severn, J., Belch, G.E., Belch, M.A. (1990), "The effects of sexual and non-sexual
advertising appeals and information level on cognitive processing and communication
effectiveness", Journal of Advertising, Vol. 19 No.1, pp.14-22.

Steadman, M. (1969), "How sexy illustrations affect brand recall", Journal of Advertising
Research, Vol. 9 No.1, pp.15-19.

Wilson, D., Moore, K. (1979). “The role of sexually-orientated stimuli in advertising; theory
and literature review”, Advances in Consumer Research. Volume 6, pp.55-61

Trehan, M. & Trehan, R. 2007. Advertising and sales management. Delhi: VK Publications.

15 | P a g e