Sex sells, and I’m getting really tired of it.
It’s one of the most extensive marketing strategies used today, and probably the most effective. In most advertisements you view, there is usually something that can be construed as sexy. It might be slight, or it might be blatant, but it is almost always present.
Apparently, I’m not the only one. A recent study conducted by University of Florida researchers found that women were least interested in ads that contained sensual models. Instead, the women preferred ads where beauty was portrayed in a more wholesome manner.
Of course women don’t particularly like ads that sell sex. Isn’t it men that these ads are trying to reach? I don’t think so.
Perhaps it started that way. After all, marketing experts probably realized the great selling potential that sex had to a male audience. However, it’s gone beyond that. Sex-related ads are not limited to male products. Just look in a women’s magazine. It’s full of ads selling clothes, makeup, beauty products and other things meant specifically for women. But look at the ads. They are permeated by the “sex sells” approach.
I was watching a commercial the other day, and this is how it went: A man and a woman were in the rain, soaking wet and dancing very closely and provocatively. This went on for most of the commercial. I had no idea what product was even being advertised. Eventually, I think a tire descended in the background, and the name of a tire company flashed across the screen.
I was dumbfounded. What did that commercial have to do with tires? Nothing. The commercial was totally useless. It told me nothing about the product it was trying to sell. It didn’t influence me to buy anything. How about a commercial tells me about the item it’s selling, rather than surrounding it by scantily-clad women or making slightly off-color jokes about it? I’d like to see one of those.
We live in a sex-saturated society. It’s everywhere, bombarding us with images and ideas, trying to make us believe that the only way to sell something now is to include sex.
I’m not buying into this. Like I said before, I’m tired of it. Nothing turns me off more than an advertisement laden with sexual material. I don’t want to support a company like that. I want to buy a product because it’s a quality item, not because I was enticed by the sexy commercial.
There are just some things that I don’t want to get used to seeing. Immodestly dressed and posed models are high on that list. I don’t want to be desensitized to sex. I want to be shocked by it and upset when it’s thrust in my face, because it’s not something that should be put on constant display.
Society tries to tell us that sex isn’t that big a deal. That it’s not that offensive when it’s thrust into the spotlight. I disagree. Sex is a big deal. It’s not something we should take so lightly. Treating it like a cheap trick to persuade people completely strips it of its intimate nature.
Thankfully, marketing studies are showing a new trend. Consumers in general are getting apathetic toward sexual content. It no longer has the appeal and shock value it once carried. For those of you who know economics, the law of diminishing returns is at work here. Headlight Vision and Britain’s Chartered Institute of Marketing have both conducted research indicating that consumers have hit the saturation point.
I can only sigh in relief and hope that advertising agencies get the word soon. Then I’ll be able to watch a commercial or read an ad and actually learn about the product. Maybe I’ll even remember the company’s name and what was advertised later that day. Who knows, I might even start buying that product just because I liked the commercial.