Everyone knows the age-old saying: “sex sells.” The tactic of using sexual allure and erotic images to market products has been around seemingly forever, assaulting our senses and invading our media outlets. The theory seems to be that the desire for sexual passion attaches itself to consumer products, thus transforming a lust for physical intimacy into a lust for spending. “Sex sells,” the advertising giants clamour at us. “Sex definitely sells.”
However, the question lies in whether sex and sales are still compatible. A new wave of consumers brings a new outlook on sexual objectification and sexual marketing; there is a fine line between tasteful and perverse, and as a society we are becoming much more attuned to this difference. So: is sex truly still profitable?
Sexual advertising is in abundance in the twenty first century. Just last year, Calvin Klein released a campaign entitled ‘erotica,’ which essentially did just what it says on the tin. Images alluding to female masturbation, sexual arousal, and a very questionable use of a grapefruit (hint – it looks just like a vagina) make up the bulk of the campaign. Perhaps their use of overt sexuality is excusable. Surely as an underwear company they have to be sexual, right? It’s as if the lingerie industry (and by association its entire demographic) has one thing on their minds, and the campaign certainly doesn’t hide this.
It’s not just the underwear industry that uses sex to shift products. American Apparel has been guilty of this tactic for years, reveling in the media attention gained through its scantily clad models. The company has a long history of marketing and branding its clothes in a very specific way. A prime example of this is its advertisements for tights, which all draw attention to the regions of female genitalia and backsides, almost certainly playing on the sexual connotations of ‘tight.’ One advert even depicts orgasm to enhance the desirability of the product, although it’s difficult to remember what’s actually being sold when assaulted with this imagery. Luckily for us, there’s a nice bold title in case we forget; the whole advertisement is aggressively sexual.
However, what message is sexualised marketing truly expressing? Increasingly, sexual advertising is either being censored, or attacked via social media. We only need to look back to Protein World’s ‘Beach Body Ready’ campaign of last summer and the backlash this caused to see the impact of social media. Consumers have been given a platform to voice their opinions and no one is holding back; it’s a smoking bullet aiming straight for the heart of offensive campaigns. Protein World’s advertisement was attacked for its negative portrayal of the female body, and this is a theme that runs through a lot of sexualised marketing. Images of women in sexual positions or scenarios (because, yes, it is usually a woman), rather than alluring can instead be seen as downright degrading. Objectifying the female form to boost sales simply cannot distance itself from the distasteful connotations of commodification.
And here we must truly ask ourselves why it is that ‘sex sells?’ Whilst the traditional view held is that it makes products more tantalising and desirable, there is clearly an element of power play at hand. Utilising sex in marketing plays to a particularly animalistic side of consumerism, the side of unrestrained desire, maybe even lust. We want what we can’t have – except now, we can have it, and when linked to the female body there are some disturbing undertones. Sure, these adverts are eye catching, memorable, in your face, but does it really make you want to buy the product?
In the advertising and marketing world, we’ve transcended ‘sex’ and jumped head first into something much more manufactured, objectifying, and controversial. This article is not to suggest that sex should be shunned into the bedrooms, never to be talked about and desperately censored. However, it is just not convincing that this aggressive, abrasive form of sexuality can be that effective in marketing products, especially in a society now fully tapped into the use and abuse of the female figure. Sure, maybe sex sells; but it’s selling a harmful idea more than it’s selling any products.