I personally am not offended with advertising that simulate sex or show an attractive man or woman representing a product. As Sigmund Freud as taught us, we are sexual beings. Companies use this to their advantage to get out attention to their product and I don't blame them! We look to buy products that will be beneficial to our appearance all the time. Men buy the body wash that will make them smell the best to women. Women buy the makeup that will attract men. A perfume company wouldn't use a puppy to sell their perfume. If you saw a puppy holding a bottle of perfume on a billboard, you'd probably just look the other way. But if you saw a racy perfume ad on a billboard, you would be more intrigued. I understand people getting offended by seeing racy advertisements but thats not the intention behind the ad. The motive for the ad is to get your attention (maybe negative or positively) so you remember their product.
As much as it doesn't offend me, I do think there is a limit. If a company was trying to sell a vacuum, the ad probably shouldn't look like this one below:
If the product to be sold is a razor then yes, showing a pair of women's legs in the ad is fine! It grabs the female customer's attention. The ad above is from Germany and maybe their have a different social norm with advertisements. I think this ad is a little too much but not offensive. The company just looks stupid and looks like they tried too hard to market their product as "sexy" even though it's a vacuum cleaner. Many people say that women are more sexualized in ads than men are and this is probably true but it's not in a negative way. Everyone knows the companies are just trying to get you to buy the product and not to offend anyone.
Do you think we use sex in advertisements too much?
It certainly does sell. Part of the problem has to do with the increasing need to shock and awe the viewer/participant due to the (over)exposure of this selling strategy. It does make one wonder if there is any upper limit to what is permissible. Another problem has to do with who is exposed to such advertising. Children are always a concern; it’s hard to control and limit their exposure. Children (and perhaps some adults) are simply not equipped to handle some of the messages and images.
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