Sex Sells Concept in Advertising - Essay Example

Gender Roles and ‘Sex Sells’ Concept in Advertising One of the most wide spread techniques used by advertisers for the promotion of products or services is known as sex sells. In the majority of cases, it is a female body that is used as a medium to persuade the target audience to buy a particular product. With this aim in mind, advertisers tend to resort to stereotyping of gender roles and present women as sex objects rather than individuals. This catchy marketing strategy is widely used to promote Axe Body Spray, which is well-known for its overtly sexual advertisements, stereotyping of gender roles and objectification of women. One of its most famous commercial, with a slogan “Spray more, get more”, which, by the way, has more than 50 million views on Youtube, mat be regarded as the epitome of the utilization of the ‘sex sells’ concept and stereotyping of women. Axe is a brand that produces such hygiene products for men as body spray, body wash, and deodorant. The entire campaign of this brand is comprised of the commercials that have one common theme in all of them. More specifically, in all the commercials of the advertising campaign of the brand, the main character is a man who is chased by a great number of attractive women. The overall idea of the entire campaign is that once a man uses one of the Axe products, he will become desirable for all women he meets. Using such a template for the ads, the advertisers draw a distinctive dividing line between genders and present women as objects in order to target the consumer group. In other words, they tend to create particular stereotypes about genders and use the ‘sex sells’ concept to promote their products. Accordingly to the current studies, the sexual objectification (so-called fetishisation) of female body has become a tendency in modern advertising. Researches show that compared to man, women are portrayed in a sexual manner more often (Brodolini, Giomi, Sansoneti, and Tota 19). The advertisement chosen for the analysis follows the same common scheme of all the ads of the brand. In the very beginning, a young attractive woman feels a particular kind of smell, which is the smell of Axe body spray. She likes it, starts running towards the source of the smell and sees many other girls running through the wild forest in search of the source of the smell. Each of the girls tries to reach the source first. In their pursuit, they overcome a wide range of obstacles: they swim across the sea, climb to the top of the hill and then climb down and finally come to the sea coast. There appears a young man who sprays Axe body spray all over his body. As the girls come closer to him, it becomes clear that they experience sexual desire towards him. As women approach him, the man looks very satisfied, and, after that, the advertisement says, “Spray more, get more”. The main thing that matters about this advertisement is the way young women look in it. In particular, in the ad, all of them are slim, beautiful and extremely attractive. In addition to this, they are only partly dressed; specifically, they are barefoot and wear only bikinis. In fact, this is where the ‘sex sells’ concept comes into action. The fact that women in the advertisement are partly dressed is supposed to arouse a sense of desire in the target audience, that is in heterosexual men. By this, the ad suggests that a man can be attracted by women only in case the latter expose more body that it is accepted. In other words, women in the ad are presented as sex objects. This assumption fits in the framework of the research conducted on the use of gender stereotypes in advertisement with the aim to attract the target audience. More specifically, many of the studies show that one of the stereotypes created about women and used in ads is that they are more submissive, weak, feminine, and emotional. This is actually so because of the prevalence of patriarchal system in in advertising (Ifezue 15). In addition to this, these stereotypes are used in ads targeted at males due to the fact that sex really sells. In accordance with the research conducted by Dahl, Sengupta and Vohs, men, unlike women, do prefer sexual images in advertising (compared to the non-sexual images) (216). From this, it follows that the creators of “Spray more, get more” stereotype women just with the aim to appeal to the audience’s emotions and reach it. At the same time, the main male character of the advertisement is presented almost as the master of the universe. His facial expression and body language show that at first he is a bit surprised but then he experiences great confidence and pride. The ad suggests that using Axe products any man can rule the world and, more importantly, be desirable for all women he meets. In this case, the creators of the ad appeal to the target audience’s emotions as well. In particular, they create a sense of belonging to a particular group. By this, they create an emotional bond between the male audience and the male character in the advertisement and show how the male sex should behave and what men should buy to fell the way the male character in the ad feels. These days many of advertisements incorporate sexual aspects as well as gender stereotypes to entertain and at the same time engage the target audience. The advertisement under consideration, namely the ad of one of Axe products, uses the ‘sex sells’ concept and widely used and accepted stereotypes about women with the aim to reach the male audience. More specifically, by portraying women as objects in a sexual manner and presenting the main male character as the master of the situation, the advertisement appeals to the audience’s emotions, such as machismo and self-assurance, to create the connection between the character in the ad and the potential customers and, by this, influence their choice of hygiene products. Works Cited Brodolini, F.G., E. Giome, S. Sansonetti, and A. L. Tota. "Women and Girls as Sunjects of Media Attention and Advertisement Campaigns." The European Parliamnet. EU, 2013. Web. 20 Mar 2015. . Dahl, D., J. Sengupta, and K. Vohs. "Sex in Advertising: Gender Differences and the Role of Relationship Commitment." Journal of Consumer Research. 36. (2009): 215-231. Print. Ifezue, A. "What Makes an Effective Advertising for a Man and Woman?." Journal of Communication. 1.1 (2010): 13-18. Print. Read More