Sexism in advertising

“Sex sells” is a successful sales pitch for many companies. Regardless of whether you look at magazines, newspaper or television adverts bare skin is omnipresent. Sex in advertising is the use of sexually provocative or erotic elements that are specifically supposed to arouse interest in a particular product, service or brand. Especially in the television industry the amount of sexism in advertising increased over the last years. Does sex really sell and if so, why? Do companies really increase their profits by publishing offensive adverts?

There are many reasons why sex does not sell when it is not related to the product. First of all not everyone feels comfortable being influenced by sexism in advertising some even feel offended. Redundant sex in advertisements has caused a growing amount of people to be harassed and repulsed. Especially the older generation is hardly open-minded towards sexism as it has not been that present in media and approved in society as it is today. Moreover, many companies tend to exaggerate with the amount of sexism in advertising as the main purpose of the business is to arouse attention rather than presenting the actual product characteristics. Thus many people believe using sex to sell a product that is unrelated to sex is just a sales pitch, which actually cheapens the image of both the company and the product. Another point that sex does not always sell is that people simply forget the product. Those people that are attracted to the advertisement through elements that are unrelated to the product, rather remember what they were attracted to than the actual product benefits.

Another case where sex does not sell is when an advert seem to be sexist in the first sight but actually intends the complete opposite. A good example is the Dove campaign for real beauty. A not really sexist but rather a very successful advertisement. Launched in 2004, the campaign causes a worldwide discussion about the definition of beauty. But what was the reason for the sensational breakthrough? The characteristic of the placard is that it shows normal women in underwear. All of the pictured women are not models, they have not a skinny or trained body, but they seem to be very happy in each way everybody of them looks like. Nevertheless, the female group consists of many different types (there is a distinction between skin and hair color, height, body form and weight) all of them wear white underwear, which has the intention to symbolize the similarity of all women. Although the advert includes a lot of bare skin that some people might get attracted to the intention of this campaign is not sexist at all. Dove actually wanted to fight the negative attention sexist adverts attract, by showing normal women that are not perfect but naturally and happy. The Dove campaign as an advert from a well-known company shows that a company can still get noticed and have a lot of success without publishing sexist adverts.

On the other hand it is commonly believed that sex sells. First of all sex is a primal urge like food or safety that is built into our brains wherefore people tend to get attracted to sex as a human need quite easily. Furthermore, people think that sex will attract attention regardless whether it sells a product or not. Arousing people’s attention by sexist advertising helps companies to achieve that their product stays in people’s minds. As a result this mind game makes the society buy the product. The rising amount of sexism in advertising of especially well-known businesses also leads to the fact that many people assume that it must be beneficial for companies to use sex to sell otherwise they would not do so. Another point is that, sex is more present and approved in society today as it was some years ago as already the younger generations are confronted with sexism in advertisement. In some cultural circles where sex is still proscribed, sexism in advertising might even generate a greater attention. A good example for a company that uses sexism in advertising is Axe – a well-known business that sells all kinds of beauty treatments as hair products, deodorant or shower gel that address 20-40 aged men. A recently published advertisement is Axe ́s “Office love” commercial. It is a story about a headless set of breasts and a full (male) head of hair on tiny legs sitting in the same office. They stare at each other even though they do not have eyes, share an elevator ride and almost have lunch together. Finally, the two creatures transform into proper human beings at the bus stop after work. The advert ends with the tagline “Hair. It ́s what girls see first”. The implication of the sexist advertisement of Axe is that men see the breast of a woman first and not her face or something else of her body. According to the company this seems to be the only thing men remember of a woman body as the breasts are headless almost for the whole advert until they fall in love with each other in the end. In contrast, women tend to see the men ́s hair first and remember it until they finally fall in love with them. The focus distracts the people from the actual product which is actually related to the hair and not to the breasts. As mentioned above, the sexism attracts the attention of the society and makes them buy the product as the offensive pictures of the advert clearly stay in mind. In fact, customers do not buy the product but they buy the image of the brand. Axe refers to the cliché that men just look at a woman’s breast when they first meet. This evoked discussions on different boards in the internet as some men feel provoked and offended. It may be the majority that laughs about it or even thinks it is true but this cliché does not apply to everyone. However, this point shows that Axe gets attention in a adverse way, as well, but this is not a bad sign. It demonstrates the market strategy of Axe - arresting attention whether in a positive or a negative way. Next to this advert many other offensive adverts of Axe exist and their sales figures still increase. In this case it is clear that sex sells and it actually influences the customers. As a result of the offensive but innovative ideas of advertisement Axe became the brand leader in Europe.

All in all, it can be noted that sexism in advertising does seem to attract a lot of people, especially men. “I wish it weren’t so, but it’s a way to get attention—and even negative attention is attention” (M.J Rose, Advertising expert, AuthorBuzz). So if people are not attracted to any elements in the advert at all they are still giving it attention in a negative way, as you can see on the basis of Axe. These different reactions to sexism in advertising have actually the same effect: They give companies the attention they aimed for. Discussing about a product or a company, irrelevant in which type, helps the business concern that society can remember about it and also maybe prefer it towards other firms. For this reason, provocative advertising, notably sexist ones, has a huge aftereffect of promotion for free because plenty of people are talking about. Although, the market industry has an endless list of examples for sexism in advertising there should not be a need to bare all or be in suggestive poses in order to get noticed and have your brand seen. Many other examples related to non sexist adverts demonstrate success without any prejudices against sex, such as Dove has done. Sex must not be included in adverts at all in order to be successful or to be noticed. It can be seen as one sales pitch which is profitable most of the time, but not as ultimate solution for high sales rate. So the statement “Sex sells” might be true in many ways, but not necessary to sell a product lucrative.

References:

• Wahl, M., (2014). Why it's unfortunate that 'sex sells' in advertising and in life. Huffington Post Women. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/madeline-wahl/why-its-unfortunate-that- sex-sells_b_5433251.html
  • Kalb, I., (2012). Do you think sex sells? Think again. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/do-you-think-sex-sells-think-again-2012-4?IR=T