Sex Sells

“Sex sells” has been a common theme in our society for some time now and it is illustrated throughout all of advertising. Models or people designated to represent products are chosen very purposefully and carefully. The purpose of the certain type of look the product’s advertisement is exemplifying is to show how the product should be perceived, such as sexy, masculine, feminine, or aiding in acquiring someone of the opposite sex. As best seen in magazine advertisements, women are used in male products to lure them into buying them for the reason of getting a girl who looks like the model in the advertisements and women are also used in female products to lure the women into buying them as a way to look like the model in the advertisement. Men are used in the same way to apply to the male and female consumer market. “Teen magazines make millions off of girls by assuming that girls need improving,” and this is the same principle used in advertisements. (Higginbotham 94) Women buy magazines in search of ways to improve themselves and they attempt to look like the models by using the products they advertise. Men on the other hand read magazines about such things as how to get women and therefore there are advertisements using men they would like to look like and women they would like to be with such as in the popular magazine Esquire which “has taken it as a given that the magazine would prominently feature erotically coded representations of women.” (Breazeale 235) Beauty, image, and body features are used in a myriad amount of advertisements and even the products that have nothing to do with sex are advertised with such things as sexy models. These products sell and continue to sell because the image of sex draws the attention of almost all consumers and gives them a reason to buy, proving that sex sells.

References:

Breazeale, Kenon. "In Spite of Women." Gender, Race, and Class in Media Second Edition: 230-243

Higginbotham, Anastasia. "Teen Mags: How to Get a Guy, Drop 20 Pounds, and Lose Your Self-Esteem." Learning Gender: 93-96