Does Sex Sell?
06/29/2016
It has been observed that most advertisement that use sex to portray their products have had an increase in sales. The sexual content ranges from actual nudity to sexual innuendos that vary depending on the product they are promoting and its target audience. This market strategy that is gaining popularity can be dated back to the 1900’s. In most of the advertisements, they primarily objectify and target women by using their body to portray them as fantasy objects. Advertisers spend millions of shillings to pay women celebrities or public icons that most people identify with. Women are mostly targeted, especially famous ones for they possess beauty and the ultimate sex-appeal that most men desire, thus making association with the product which increases sales. Advertises know that people will try to emulate or relate with a certain image they saw that’s why they use the sex innuendos to capture the population especially males that have fantasies with the women that are being used to run the advertisements.
Hooters a restaurant chain found in the United States of America rose to fame by employing waitress who would be dressed in tight fitting clothes to show off their bodies. The restaurant would only higher young and attractive women who would be dressed in orange running shorts and white t-shirts. The company relied on the concept of the natural female sexual appeal, the company would also urge its waitresses who were commonly referred to as “hooters girls” to sit and chat up the mostly male customers. The technique seemed to work for the company which began in 1984, with only one restaurant by 6 friends with no knowledge of the hotel industry rose to fame and grossed up to $300 million and a labour force of more than 25,000 employees within a span of 18 years. The success of the hooters restaurant is largely accredited to the use of women as waitresses thus portraying them in a sexual innuendo. Hooters at one point even used male models to sell their menu items with the hope that they would increase female patrons to go to the restaurant and pick their favourite foods thus boosting sales but the majority of waiter were women.
It is a widely known fact that sex innuendos in advertisements sells, most companies use members of all genders who are largely considered “good looking” to capture the attention of customers or to bring new customers to like their products. Research has shown that adverts primarily feature well known sex icons majorly women due to the fact that attractive women will increase visual product recognition which leads to higher purchase intention for men. Feminists worldwide have started crying foul that most advertisements use women more than men. Experts in the field have also outlined the fact that sexual advertisements are preferred as their nature will cause uproar thus making the advertisements get more recognition as more and more people try to figure out why the said advertisement is causing a commotion. This method of using sex innuendos can be risky to some extent as the use of sex innuendos can backfire as people may find it too racy and could choose to keep off the product completely. The advertisers that make the advertisements know this and that’s why they choose to keep the advertisements at a moderate yet eye catching level that will pull in audiences to view the advertisements thus triggering sales to an all time high.