Sex Sells - Marketing

The print advertisement got your attention, didn't it. As marketers isn't attention to our brand is what we desire, what we crave? The Puma advert is actually a very well produced fake and first made it's appearance on the internet in 2003. Puma had distanced itself from the advert and immediately stated that the advert was a copyright infringement. My point here is that the advert, although fake, shows graphically an extreme to which ethics is questionable in advertising and use of sex to sell. I can furthmore argue Puma did through this fiasco did receive brand awareness.

The statement "sex sells" is questionable. I would contend that clever advertising, brilliant marketing, and off course a good product, sells a product. This is irrespective if advertisers use sexuality in the form of imagery, nudity or suggestion. What sex does, is lure attention to the advert. The goal of advertising is to inform, persuade and remind.

Advertising is a form of marketing communication.

The Toyota Rav 4 advert (Annexure A) is a print advert which appeared in a magazine. The advert shows a sexy model, next to a Toyota Rav 4. Once you have done staring at the model, you then direct your attention to the RAV 4, study the lines of the car. Stop staring!

Marketing communication is the communication that marketers employ, which endeavors to influence prospective customers to purchase the brand of the product being advertised. Advertising is a method of mass promotion in that a single message can reach a large number of people. Advertising, however leads to the marketing communication reaching not only the target market, but a general market.

Herein lies the quandary of advertisers of using sex to sell.

"This is the Warm Hearted candy Love and she thinks she'd be perfect for Rich Blue Diamond. But Blue Diamond thinks he'd go better with Cocoa Blush, because she's rich too. However she is more interested in Forest Lake. Now Forest Lake has been flirting with Treacle Tart, but she has discovered he is no good in the bedroom and she has now gone off with Brooklyn Nights. Who is fabulous..." (Annexure 1). The fore is from a television advert for Dulux Paints. Dulux has used sexual innuendo which is open to sexual interpretation. Advertisers can assert that the advert is creatively and tastefully done, and makes the consumer aware of the product and product applications. The concept of sex is used by the brand with respectable effect.

Steers Fast Foods, used risqué advertising to sell hamburgers. Steers television advert was screened in 2008. The advert starts with a male voice over, "Thanks to an ingenious technological breakthrough this TV set is able to detect exactly where viewers eyes are focused at any given moment." The advert is basically a screen split in two. To the left are women sexually suggestively dressed and modeling. To the right are various screen shots and angles of Steers hamburgers. Over the images are red dots and a green "target" like mark showing where the viewers eyes are focus. The green mark switches between the provocative body parts of the women and the focal points of the hamburger. The advert ends with the catchphrase, "It's that good." (Annexure 2). As a marketer I question the sexual overture in the Steers advert. Steers would argue their hamburgers are so good, they detract, the very nature of mans sexual desire, to its hamburgers.

The Dulux Paints and Steers television adverts are clear examples, sex is used to sell. And if anything, the sheer size of these brands, affirms sex sells. Both adverts created brand awareness. Socially responsible marketing appeals for segmentation and targeting which benefits not just the interest of the brand and or product but is not negatively detrimental to those targeted.

The quandary of using sex can without much difficulty be determined by ethics, morals and social responsibility and with the target audience in mind.

Adverting in South Africa is governed by the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA). The ASA is an independent body setup by the marketing communication industry to ensure that it's system of self regulation works in the public interest. And interestingly the preamble states;

1. All advertising should be legal, decent, honest and truthful.

2. All advertisements should be prepared with a sense of responsibility to the consumer.

3. All advertisements should conform to the principles of fair competition in business.

4. No advertisement should bring advertising into disrepute or reduce confidence in advertising as a service industry and to the public.

However... The very nature of business is profit and future profitability, creating wealth for its owners and growing the business itself. To achieve this companies provide goods and services to consumers. Unfortunately companies do not compete in a monopoly environment. Companies have competition and it is arguably this competition that persuades companies to use advertising approaches, such as sex to sell to lure clients to their brands or to make the public more aware of their brand.

Nankang is a fairly unknown brand of tyre in South Africa and uses a female model changing a tyre in a print advert to get the attention of the consumer. The advert tag, is "Change is good." Change from the more well known brands to Nankang. The advert is both creative and appealing. (Annexure 3)

Sean John, Unforgivable also adeptly uses sex to bring attention to its brand and product. The print advert shows P. Diddy (aka Sean John, the namesake of the product) an international celebrity with two women, on what looks like a bed. P. Diddy is looking rather toned down. Has P. Diddy made a mistake and cheated on his female friend? Has what he done Unforgivable? The advert does not leave much to the imagination. The new fragrance is sold exclusively at Edgars and Red Square. (Annexure 4)

The Nankang and Sean John, Unforgivable adverts appeared in FHM magazine. FHM stand for For Him Magazine. FHM is targeted to young sexually active heterosexual men. The target audience receive a message, change your tyre brand, cause change is good and quiet possibly you could be like international celebrity P. Diddy and sleep with two women! More importantly my point here is that the adverts appear in a magazine to which the target audience of the brand and product is targeted.

Lamb et al. make a case that advertising impinges

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