Sex sells and this is a wonderful phenomenon. Images of beautiful people are viewed with great enjoyment all around the world. While gender roles are evolving, sexuality still remains as one of the most important aspects of human life. Thankfully, the new wave of feminism eliminates the shame and guilt (both for doing it and not doing it) which was often associated with female sexuality in the past, opening the door to sexual equality in its most meaningful form. It has also been recognized that a healthy dose of objectification is only normal and that women objectify men too, sometimes.
However, objectification of women has always been considerably more noticeable in advertising than of men, sometimes in extreme ways. This might be for several reasons; Firstly, the lack female presence among C-level executives. Men have more say in advertising decisions and naturally, they tend to pick women to be in the ads. Secondly, it’s been proven that women love to look at each other, they spend more time checking out other women than they do men. And considering that women make 70 to 80 percent of household purchases, it makes sense why women are being used in advertisements far more than men.
Having said all of this, this golden rule of advertising (sex sells) does not always apply. As a matter of fact, we’re going to have a look at couple of cases where sex fails to sell.
- Anywhere that sex is irrelevant to the product/service that is sold:
Let’s think about it for a minute. What do Gillette, Beyonce, fashion industry, fitness and sports cars all have in common? They can all be somehow related to sex, either explicitly or not. Topics such as sex appeal, wealth, luxury and consumption have been used in advertising for years but in advertising world, no one size fits all. For example, the following ad of Burger King with multiple sex references has been called all sort of things, from distasteful to sexist. But arguably, the first word that comes to mind is “irrelevant”. When the ads deviate from the product attributes, it’s very difficult to take them seriously.
And this is an ad for a vacuum cleaner:
- Among religious communities:
Advertising has always been tricky in Middle East. Ads get banned in places such as Saudi Arabia and Iran so frequently that a lot of ad makers strategically avoid having a female figure in their ads or a sex-related theme, like how IKEA photoshopped women out of its Saudi catalogs just to be on the safe side.
Advertising in religious communities need extra creativity; and usually the sex factor is toned down in an attempt not to offend the locals.
- When it’s done in an exploitative manner:
American Apparel is known to make its own ads and has enjoyed years of free publicity because of its’ controversial and hyper-sexualized ad campaigns. Though, their approach is not like any other sex sells advertising. American Apparel ads are so sexually explicit that they can totally be featured on porn sites.
The ads scream from miles away that they were designed, created and photographed by men. However, they are for women. Their target market is mainly young girls and women in their 20s. I fall under their target market and frankly, the ads tell me “not to visit the store”. And I’m not alone.
There are numerous articles and blogs written on this subject and many attempts have been made to boycott the brand. American Apparel for sure was prepared to lose some of its target market due to its sexist ads. It’s also safe to say that other attributes of their products such as quality and being sweatshop-free are downplayed and overshadowed by their chosen strategy. As a result, a growing part of their target market is potentially left unrealized. This missed opportunity might partly explain the recent financial struggles of the company.
The CEO and the founder of American Apparel, Dov Charney, the man who definitely had the most say in the overarching marketing strategy decisions of the company, was fired in 2014 after years of ongoing multiple sexual assault allegations. The main photographer of American Apparel ads, Terry Richardson has also been accused of couple of cases sexual assaults. Undoubtedly, the new CEO of the company who is a woman has some major work to do considering the company’s financial troubles and tarnished image.
Sex might have been the most commonly used means to sell products over the years but we now live in a world that everywhere we look at, sex has presence. Sex is literally everywhere, in ads on the billboards, in TV shows & movies, in magazines, in video games, on the net and now, thanks to Ontario's new sex ed curriculum, at schools. We are so frequently exposed to sexy pictures of women and men everywhere that some of us might not even process them anymore. Our brain automatically goes “Yep, sex again. What’s next?” Flip through a fashion magazine next time, look at the ads without paying attention to the brands. The ads are so similar that you can barely tell which one is for which brand. One of the dangers of relying on sex in advertising is lazy advertising, an advertising that lacks creativity and sticks to stereotypes and therefore, can’t differentiate the brand from the rest or ends up pissing off a portion of its’ target market. It’s an advertising that is missing an element of mystery, is too easy to process and is therefore ignored by some. This still widely used form of advertising fails to make an impression. So next time you decided to use the sex sells advertising, look around carefully, you might end up being one hair on a hairy arm of a guy. :)
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