Sex sells. And it’s everywhere.

Sex, as in the act of sex or sexualizing objects and people, literally sells everything – is it ‘right’? Probably not, but in a world where sex, violence and advertisements are an every day norm, I would have to argue that advertisers are pushing boundaries but we as the consumers are allowing it to happen.

I had to watch (listen) to this twice before I actually HEARD what he was saying. I was distracted, and I’m not ashamed! It’s exactly what he wanted and he proved his point. He isn’t trying to sell me anything, well, he is trying to ‘sell’ me to stop being distracted and use the internet to learn, but overall he’s trying to show me that it doesn’t matter what is being said or sold, if a half naked man is in front of me, I am distracted and distractions are good in marketing.

Sex is a primitive instinct, and from a marketing standpoint it does make sense as to why they use sex to SELL us products or services. Sex can have a biological, physical and emotional impact on consumers. Advertisers are smart. They know that men are visually stimulated creatures and that women are sensory stimulated creatures and they market straight to us.

According to Jean Kilbourne, advertisements sell us more than just products. They sell values, they sell images, they sell concepts of love, sexuality and success and perhaps more important, of normalcy. To a great extent they tell us who we and who we should be (Killing Us Softly 4).

When it comes to how SEX IS SOLD, many don’t realize or remember a time when everywhere they turned there wasn’t an advertisement selling products that many times don’t even relate to sex. I know I have a hard time remembering what it was like to not see images like this selling me a product, tv show or service.

                                   

The text on the bottom says "Men don't want to look at naked men"

Looks like nipples, but are bandaids from Vampire bites

I have never seen this ad, but it is playing on having to 'come out' as gay and being 'out on the town'

Miller/Coors has come under fire for this Miller Lite commercial:

What this commercial tells us is that to be a man, you have to act like a man. You can't have interests or traits that are considered feminine and that if you do, you can't take part in hobbies (beer drinking) that is considered to be masculine.

Then you have a commercial like this from Playboy:

It's telling us that Playboy influenced what women's pubic hair looks like. Because men would look at Playboy and had an image of what the pubic area was supposed to look like and that influenced women to make changes.

Advertisers are attempting one thing – get us to remember their product or service so when we go shopping next we will choose their brand. Their inscription devices are the people they choose to represent their image, the language they use and the story they want us to see.

Undoubtedly, the increased openness towards sex has allowed vast changes in education and acceptance, but as consumers and humans – we can and should change how we react and ‘see’ these ads, because if we continue allowing the messages we see everyday to cloud our minds and change our behavior – we will continue to show children that this really is ‘normal’.

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If you have 45 min, here is the movie “Killing Us Softly 4” by Jean Kilbourne.

http://vimeo.com/73446465