For sure sex sells. But what’s it selling?
A wise man once said there are two things in life that are impossible to avoid and common to all people – death and taxes. I would like to add another to this list: the idea (some would say rule, I would say fact) that sex sells.
It’s undeniable really. Take politics - sex wins elections. Don’t believe me? Just think Monica Lewinsky. Or how about that porn star Cicciolina was elected to the Italian parliament in 1987. Think about that!
Flip through any Vogue or Cosmopolitan magazine - it reads more like soft porn than a fashion monthly. Busty bikini babes on „page 3“ sell millions of daily newspapers the world over. And do you know what Sports Illustrated’s best selling issue is every year? I’ll give you a hint, it‘s not about football or hockey. It’s the annual February swimsuit edition.
Sex doesn’t just sell on the internet, it is the internet.
And where would rap music and Madonna be, or MTV for that matter, without booty shaking dancers, washboard stomachs and a lot of T&A?
Need more proof that sex sells? No problems, look no further than the porn industry…sorry, the adult entertainment industry. It’s a 15 billion dollar a year business. That’s a lot of very very satisfied customersJ
Which brings me around to sex and advertising. They’ve been linked together forever. They’re like best friends, who shag. Alot.
The use of sexually suggestive images to sell just about everything has been around since cavemen started drawing pictures on stone walls to pick up cavegirls. The scantily clad uber-babes of Lynx shower gel and Victoria’s Secret are just the modern day equivalent of dirty cave art. Make no mistake. Sex sells. Always has. Always will.
The question is why?
Well, basically people are fascinated with sex. We are hard-wired to love it – to have sex, to talk about it afterwards and of course to look at things which are sexy. It’s genetic. We are like moths to the flame of sexual innuendo. Especially men (but more on that later).
These days, the average person is exposed to thousands of advertising messages every day. How do we cope with this daily barrage of tantalizing offers and logo overkill? We shut most of it out. We barely give it a second glance. Because we learn from an early age, that the vast majority of advertising is absolute drivel. A boring insult to one’s intelligence and a waste of time.
Successful advertising is different, it stands out from the thousands of other ads we see everyday. It makes people stop and pay attention through the surprising use of visuals or humour or intelligence or…and that’s where sex fits in. People strongly respond to titilating imagery and the suggestion of sex. Sex creates controversy, which in turn draws attention to the brand being advertised. So in fact it’s not the sexual content itself that sells. It’s the controversy around it that does. Go figure.
What’s particularly ironic is that if you apply the same logic, you might think that people would eventually get bored of sex in advertising. Because social attitudes towards sex are loosening over time. Because we are inundated with sexual imagery pretty much everywhere. But au contraire, people seem to have an insatiable appetite for the proverbial flash of a nipple. Today advertisers are engaged in an endless game of sexual one-upsmanship to feed this lust.
Of course that is precisely why sex and advertising get a bad rap – because often there is absolutely zero connection between the product being advertised and the sex.
We have all seen this kind of pathetic advertising creature before. The curvy nubile blond in the wet t-shirt selling power tools. Or the handsome shirtless stud who peddles the latest washing powder. Yes people will definitely check out the sexy bits in your ad. But a month later they will not likely remember the name of your product.
A 2005 consumer research study done in the U.S., used eye tracking cameras to see how men and women look at sexually themed ads. The findings were not hugely surprising. 63% of the men studied said sexy ads have stopping power for them. They spent lots of time focusing on the erotic details (full breasts, long legs, pouty lips) in the ad, but at the expense of the ad’s content (i.e. poor brand or message recall).
58% of the women surveyed said there is too much sex in advertising. In the study, females largely avoided looking at the sexual imagery. They tuned it out. Instead their eyes focused on the ad’s product and headline but with only marginally better brand recall than men.
So the moral of the story is: men are and always will be suckers for an ad with a pretty girl in a short skirt. But if women are your target audience, beware! Use sexy ads at your own risk.
There are certain brand categories however, like underwear, jeans and lingerie where it makes 100% business sense to feature tons of hot chicks and guys with rippling muscles frolicking around in your ads. It suits the products. Calvin Klein, Victoria’s Secret, Wonderbra and Diesel are particularly good examples. These brands consistently use sex in a smart, humorous way to provoke and titilate their consumers to buy. And guess what, it works (e.g. Calvin Klein has annual sales of almost $10 billion).
High end fashion is another industry that has always been chock full of sexual advertising. No surprise really, clothing and perfume are all about making people feel sexy and attractive. And in the fashion biz - because of the need for brand hype with every spring, summer and fall collection - the more skin you show the better. It’s all about being controversial on purpose.
What this means for brands like Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and Tom Ford, is that they must constantly push the envelope of what is socially acceptable in their ads. And often they cross that line. Hence, it is perfectly normal to see fashion ads banned for depicting full frontal nudity, homoeroticism, group sex, S&M and so on. In the fashion game, being on the erotic edge is good for business.
It’s true that many of the world’s biggest companies do not use sexual imagery in their ads. That makes sense. If I was the marketing director of Walmart, Exxon Mobil, Allianz or CitiBank, I probably wouldn’t either. They happen to operate in industries that just don’t lend themselves very well to sexy advertising. Too bad for them.
But for every big bank or oil conglomerate there’s a host of other massive global companies who do stir the sexual pot. Squeaky clean Proctor & Gamble for instance – they’ve been showing women moan with orgasmic pleasure as they wash their hair with Herbal Essence shampoo. Axe body spray, one of the reigning heavyweight champions of gratuitous sexual advertising in recent years, is owned by Unilever. And pharmaceutical giant Pfizer depicts Viagra feuled men hopping down the street like bunny rabbits after getting some action the night before.
In the end, the choice to sex up a brand‘s image really depends on what it is and who’s the target audience. Unless you can explicitly tie sex to the product, it doesn’t usually pay off in the long run. But for the brands who can get away with it, God bless you!
And God…if you’re listening…I continue to pray each and every day that you will work some magic and get us Wonderbra, Axe or Victoria’s Secret as a new business client at Leo Burnett.
David Broder
Creative Group Head
Leo Burnett Prague