Our society encourages sexual connotations and utilizes sex as a selling point. Advertisers follow the guide lines "sex sells" and exploit women in the process. These advertisements bring sex to the public eye at all ages and promotes many different sexual meanings. Female exploiting advertisements play to the male population's masculinity. The constant ads of naked females, sexualy posed females, or references to females during sex, cater to masculine sexual fantasies. While the sexual points are either overt or subtle, the advertising industry is constantly using women and their bodies as a marketable commodity. Sex selling was not simply created by the advertising industry; however, it is our society’s acceptance of sex appearing in the media that has made this idea such a popular phenomenon. In the age of consumerism advertisers look to make their ads stand out among the millions of ads bombarding audiences. In order to make their product imbedded in the consumer’s head, advertisers use sex. According to Sut Jhally in his essay Imaged Based Culture, “Sexuality provides a resource that can be used to get attention and communicate instantly.” (253) Jhally also further confirms that the popularity behind this advertising technique is based on our society. Jhally states, “The iconography of the culture, perhaps more than any previous society, seems to be obsessed with sexuality.” (253) This obsession with sex has enabled the advertising industry to flourish through broadcasting commodities in an erotic nature.
Advertisements like those shown above and to the left, play to a man’s arousal. Some ads portray women as overtly fulfilling sexual fantasies, while others are more subtle and have sex as an underlying message. The Armani, Gucci, and suit ads portray a woman dominating sexually over a man or in the Gucci case, a woman. While all three ads are supposed to be advertising clothing brands, in actuality, they are simply pseudo pornographic images which feed into the media frenzy surrounding male sexual fantasies.The milk ads above and to the left are less obvious; however, still carry sexual overtones. The images of a woman covered in a white creamy substance subtly creates an image in the audience’s mind relating the milk to either a woman’s breast milk or a man’s semen after ejaculation. The ad goes from promoting milk consumption to giving the illusion that the woman is covered in semen after a man has ejaculated all over her. The images again play to the heterosexual masculine arousal.
Even less overt is the Burger King advertisement for their new sandwich. While the image shows a woman with her mouth open, ready to take a bite of this long sandwich, the caption “BK seven incher. Fill your desire for something big and juicy,” implies oral sex. The ad implies the sandwich is a man’s penis and the woman has her mouth open and ready to fulfill his masculine needs.
Over all in the ads, the theme is sex and advertisers use women and their body to grab a man’s attention and sell him their “product.” The Audi advertisement at the top uses a woman’s breast to grab the man’s attention and persuade him to buy the car. The motor scooter ad play’s to a man’s desire for a sexy woman and relates a woman’s perfection to the scooter. The fur ad is also used to attracts a man’s arousal and persuade him not to buy fur. Sex is used as a tool to sell a product. The advertisers exploit the audience’s sexual desires and use their arousal to urge them to buy the product. However, the way in which sex is portrayed also follows a society based norm concerning women in a man’s masculinity.
In sex and sexual based advertisements, women are simply a tool. Their bodies and sexual aura are used for the sole purpose of a man’s pleasure. Take for instance the suit ad previously mentioned. The ad conveys the story of a naked woman entering a man’s office for sex. The only reason the woman is pictured in the ad is to be a tool to enhance a man’s sex drive when wearing this particular suit. According to Jane Caputi in Everyday Pornography, “The females wear fetish garb and are positioned to suggest vulnerability, stasis, and service.” (437) Therefore, sexually driven advertisements imply a woman’s role is to “service” or satisfy the male. Caputi also concludes that, “Gender-porn images point to defining components of masculinity.” (437) Although an ad might picture a woman showing her strength, like Eva Mendez in the fur ad, her naked body suggests she is simply a tool directed towards masculine nature to prove a point. The advertising industry consistently exploits women sexually either overtly or subtly to feed to masculinity. A woman’s body and sexual persuasion has become a marketable commodity.
Works Cited:
Caputi, Jane. "Everyday Pornography." Gender, Race, and Class in Media: a Text Reader. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2003. 434-450.
Jhally, Sut. "Image Based Culture." Gender, Race, and Class in Media: a Text Reader. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2003. 249-257.
Works Referenced:
"Sex in Advertising." [Weblog Versa Creations Blog] 28 Aug 2007. Versa Creations Marketing and Advertising Blog. Web.26 Jul 2009. http://www.versacreations.net/advertising/89/sex-in-advertising/
Audi RS4 V8 420 HP quattro. Advertisement. http://www.brandinfection.com/2008/10/19/sex-sells-use-cases-of-sexual-imagery-in-advertising/ . 19 Oct. 2008
Condomi Vienna ultra-thin condoms. Advertisement. http://www.brandinfection.com/2008/10/19/sex-sells-use-cases-of-sexual-imagery-in-advertising/ . 19 Oct. 2008
