Sex - It Sells ...Or Not?

By Diesel 

In a few blogs back I spoke about how the role in genders have changed over time, and although there have been some positive changes for women overall, are we being seen as sexual objects when it comes to advertising a brand? After all Sex sells right ? Woman want to have the most sexy things and so do men, this could range from a car or even to the type of perfume you choose. Either way by buying things that appear to make you look sexy, it could mean that we are trying to come across as seductive as possible.

I hear adults, like my parents who are very religious and find sexual adverts to be unnecessary. Often I hear my dad say 'she could have sold that with her clothes on'. So before I challenge that statement, we will have a look at some products, and the way in which they are sold and whether or not the sexual implications would convince the consumer to purchase the product. After all that is the objective of adverts right ? To convince their consumer to purchase a product, or service.

Dolce and Gabbanna - 'The One' 

This is a commercial that I selected by Dolce and Gabbana, in this particular advert they are advertising 'The one' perfume, featuring Scarlett Johansson. This is a completely non-sexual advert, which is rare for perfume brands. This is simply an interview with Scarlett, except you do not hear anyone asking the questions, shes answering them, as the advert goes on you realized it is an interview although it appears as if she is talking to herself. She says ' Because I read it in your newspaper', indicating that it is a journalist interviewing her. The advert starts with her saying that 'She loves Italy and she had an Italian boyfriend once',this is a first indication of what the advert could be about, we assume it has something to do with fashion or fragrance because it starts with flashing lights as if someone is taking pictures of her, with a background setting as if she is in a studio about to do a photo shoot. She is also dressed very classy, looking pretty and modest, not exposing any inappropriate body parts. At the very first few seconds of the commercial Scarlett poses very professionally, as if she is a model, also indicating that she is someone familiar to the fashion and modelling industry. The entire vibe of this commercial moves quite fast, the background music is very calming and classical, it may get boring and being honest I would skip this advert if it came up on a 'YouTube' video. However actually giving this advert a change and watching it, listening to what she is saying, we learn that Scarlett is very experienced in the industry, she could be seen as someone who has a perfect life, with so many opportunities. At the end she doesn't show off the perfume, but humbly sprays it on herself and says 'Oh I'm not looking for a million things, just that one perfect thing'. This tells you that along with all the 'great' things she has in her life she also has this perfume- so if you want a perfect smell, then this perfume is for you ladies. This advert doesn't really speak about how this perfume can attract someone else, its more about feeling great within yourself, which is a great message but does it sell? Does it appeal to the public eye in the way D&G wanted it to? We can never measure how effective this advert is and how many sales it made for that particular perfume, but it seems like a classy perfume, appealing to sophisticated ladies. As I put myself in that category I would personally purchase the perfume, however this may not be the best way to appeal to the majority of females because they may not feel like they can relate to Scarllet in any way. 

Now lets have a look at another commercial that uses sexual seduction to sell to its consumers. 

Beyonce- Heat Fragrance 

This advert is very sexy and apart from that fact that it features Beyonce, it is still very sexy- I recon if another lady looked just as good and replicated her movements , the advert would be just at 'heated'. First of all this advert is simple, smart  but predictable, of course Beyonce would sell her own perfume brand - she's a brand herself and it wouldn't make sense to have someone else sell it for her, shes selling her image with the perfume. Beyonce is already seen as a sexual icon in the public eye, so this wasn't a challenge, from her billboard posters alone she would have had girls and even some gays running out to buy 'heat' to attract men. The background music goes very well with the entire theme, its Beyonce's soft voice singing fever, with the base guitar in the background dominating the tone of the commercial. Her moves correlate well with the dynamics of the song , at the points where she moves slowly; to engage the audience, the bass guitar and drums contradict her moves, they go very heavy and then drop back down to a subtle tone. She consistently moves slowly and seductively throughout the changes in the song. The advert is typically sexy from start to end, this is a main feature about sexual adverts that I do agree with, once it starts sexy, it needs to finish sexy- This commercial does this. A the very start her fingers grip onto the top of the perfume, slowly taking the lid off, we see what the product is at the very start. Furthermore her body looks like she is sweating, not sweating badly but glowing, this is an indication that she could possibly be hot- again this correlates with the entire 'heat' fragrance.The environment also looks like a hot steamy sauna, it has a reddish background with soft smoke all around.Theses small effects, make up the entire commercial, making it come across as a sexy advert. But all and all Beyonce is a role model to many women, young and old, when they see Beyonce has this new 'hot' perfume, in order to be as sexy as her they will buy it. She does many facial expressions and bodily gesture to suggest that the perfume is a turn on, the way she touches herself leads us to think that this is irresistible. It also has a slightly romantic theme, with roses, suggesting men should buy this for their other half. When Beyonce scratches the wall,it burns flames, this tells us how 'flaming hot' the perfume is because it has her touch. The soft female voice towards the end says 'catch the fever', followed by a sexy male voice describing the product, is a way to be direct and tell us exactly what this fragrance does- if you buy it -you'll catch the fever-the same fever Beyonce shows us in this commercial. Finally as she walks away, the camera zooms up to her feet and you see light smoke, the advert was successful already but that topped it off. This advert is what I call sexually appropriate, yes it used sexuality to sell the perfume but how else could you have sold it? 

Very contradicting to the first one, less talking, more visual, with perfect background music. They both sell but which one sells the best? The 'Heat' commercial- simply because we aim to be seductive in what we wear, we as women care about what men think of us- lets not lie. What we wear , what we do, how we move,most time its to look as attractive as possible to whoever we are attracting.

Sometimes adverts must have models in their under wear looking sexy to sell the brand. For example A Victoria's secret ad would inevitably have sexy ladies, because they want the lingerie to look good, likewise for a Calvin Klein ad. 

Just Like this M&S poster, many men would find this to be a sexual turn on, but its purpose is to simply show their range of underwear for ladies to buy. 

Nonetheless we can all agree also that sexual adverts can be unnecessary. Would the product still sell if they tried to do it differently without any type of 'seduction'? Lets have a look and see!

We all know that Calvin Klein are known for selling men's underwear, but in this particular ad they are not advertising underwear, they are advertising jeans. It shows a man and a woman lying down together on a beach, they are both only wearing the jeans, with the lady completely topless. The lady is lying back with her eyes closed, indicating she is in a comfortable position, her head is right in between the mans legs, resting on his groin area. The man is leaning up looking out with confidence, suggesting he feeling proud- either proud of his woman beside him or the jeans they are wearing. Their contact is typically a position that 'lovers' would be in before or after a sexual encounter. With the beach background and waves it tells us that the jeans are probably durable though wet weather, as well as appropriate for sunny days. Now the big question here is do the jeans sell more because its been advertised on half naked models? 

Still not sure ? Okay lets make a comparison ! 

So here we have an ad by Wrangler, advertising their jeans. Its simply a man dressed 'business casual',  looking down towards his jeans, at the back pocket. The fact that he is brushing the back of his blazer up to show the back pocket tells the audience already that the advert is most likely about the jeans he is wearing. However we're not sure , it could be his belt or shoes, but when we read the words beside, we then see that the ad is definitely for the jeans. This ad uses nice word play, the brand is called 'Wrangler' and a nice way of being distinct and making sure  everyone knows how to say it properly is by teaching them in the ad in a 'word play' way. The words in the ad give an instruction, they are telling us to look for the 'W', so straight away I look for it and see it on the back pocket. Now I know that's their signature mark on their jeans. This type of advert gives Wrangler memorable mark, their almost setting a trend, convincing people that it is cool to have this 'W' sewn onto the back of your jean pocket. The guy looks like he's a 'cool' type of dude, his body language suggest that he is showing off his jeans, he makes it look trendy and I would purchase them for my boyfriend or dad.

So comparing those two adverts which pair of jeans would you be more inclined to buy?

I would honestly go with the Wranger jeans, not just to be difficult, but because it has unique character, sexual seduction is played out so much that its not as eye catching as it was years ago when those type of ads came out. 

From this small analysis of sexual v non-sexual adverts we can see that when appropriate, sex can sell a brand, but sometimes when it is overplayed and used out, other techniques may be more effective.