Open Wide, No, Wider

Sex in advertising -

we can’t escape from it, nor apparently, do we want to.

check out some of these and have a guess at what they are advertising,  and who they are aimed at…

| View Show | Create Your Own

Who’d have thought? the humble vacume cleaner – a symbol of a woman’s sexual control over men?

an advertisement for sunglasses – i think this one is pretty funny

You’ve got to love the ultra obvious sexual suggestiveness, i’ll never look at a bakery in the same way again…

Usually boobs on an add are a sure give away this is aimed at guys, and while guys will often buy lingerie as gifts for their girlfriends/wives etc. i think the caption reaches out to women,  saying – sure i’m not old fashioned like my mum, i don’t cook and clean and look after my household and all that, but i look hot in a wonderbra and nothing else matters.

ahahahaha love it – a change from the usual hot girl infront of the car campaign, this time the car is hotter than the girl.

Just a few more obvious examples to make you think… sometimes you have to read the captions to really get the joke, like the casas shoes ad!!

an example of a  little more ‘vintage’ advertising, but not any more subtle really.

a clothing line ad from a gay magazine

“Everything a man would desire. In shoes” – hehe

Yep – that’s right, these boots are so good you’ll have women jumping to the floor to lick them clean.

There is a huge debate over the effectiveness of sex as a technique for advertising. On one side of the fence its clever because what other thing can you think of which almost the entire human race has a common interest in? And hence, what could be a better tactic for advertisers to capture our attention than sex? On the other hand, companies that use sex to advertise are not necessarily remembered for their product – sometimes we are not ever sure what the campaign was advertising because we were too distracted by the images. Other times people can feel the ad has gone too far, pushed the ‘boundaries’ between acceptable and not acceptable public images, public backlash over an advertising campaign can ruin a companies reputaion and ultimately sales revenue.

Either way, its clear that as a technique for advertising almost anything – sex is still the obvious choice.

would love to hear your thoughts!

~ by Simone on April 27, 2009.