Your brain likes sex. The deep down biological part of your brain likes sex. The conscious, socialized part may recoil at that thought, but it’s true.
We’re an evolved species, and the genes of those who didn’t like sex aren’t around anymore.
For this reason, naked and scantily clad people are arousing. In my lab, we put electrodes on participants’ palms to measure activity in the eccrine sweat glands, or skin conductance.
The formula is simple. When you see a naked person — even if they’re not real — your body prepares for action. Your sympathetic nervous system activates, your palms begin to sweat below the surface of the skin, and you have a cascade of physiological responses associated with approach.
So it comes as no surprise that advertising drips with sexuality. They’re betting that sex gets your attention, and then you’ll pay attention to the messages and ideally associate positive feelings with the brand.
But does it work?
That’s a tricky question, you see. If you want to see academic research that shows sexy ads to be ineffective, I can provide it. If, however, you’d like to see some data that supports your decision to use sex in your ads, I can show you that, too.
I teach an entire class on sex and violence in the media, and we spend a lot of time trying to figure this out.
The confusion isn’t with the sex. The confusion is with the question that you ask.
You are, after all, a complicated human being and not an automaton.
Although I can tell you that part of your brain likes sex in ads, that does not tell the entire story.
The average man and the average woman have very different ideas about sex. If you look at the work of evolutionary psychologists, they’ll tell you good reasons for this.
For most of our evolutionary history, there were no courts or child support. Thus, for the average man, sex carried relatively little risk. Basically, the man was out a few hundred calories worth of biological material.
The story was different for a woman, however. An errant sexual encounter led to a 14-year commitment.
Thus from the perspective of gene propagation, women needed to be choosy and find a mate who was going to invest in the offspring. Resources were key.
Men, however, had a different strategy. Quantity was most advantageous. If 20 different women were left to raise your offspring alone, surely some of them would survive.
Now, I’ve read a lot of books on evolutionary psychology, but I wasn’t actually around on the Savannah. So I’m not sure these “just so” stories are true.
But they sure fit with our stereotypes of promiscuous, womanizing men. They also fit with the stereotypes of women being interested in a man’s time commitment, resources, and attention.
And apparently they do a good job explaining our responses to sex in advertising.
Women preferred a sexually explicit watch ad when the watch was wrapped in a bow and described as a gift, according to a study in an upcoming issue of The Journal of Consumer Research, according to The New York Times.
That gift business actually hampered men’s enjoyment of the otherwise sexual ads.
Nothing like the idea of commitment messing up some perfectly good sex, eh guys?
Man, we’re the weak half of the species.
Dismaying as the data are, I look forward to reading the actual study. Well-designed experiments such as these give proper credit to the complexity of human cognition and appeal to more mature disciplines, such as biology and psychology.
Sometimes sex works in an ad. Sometimes it fails. But it always compels attention. Your target market likely dictates whether that attention is good or bad.
If your target market is narrow, then you don’t have to worry about these individual differences. But in every case, you need to know.
Sex does sell. To some of the people, some of the time. And just because everyone is tuned to pay attention to sex doesn’t excuse marketers and advertisers from the hard work of knowing their consumers.
Photo Credit: iStockPhoto.com, 123foto.
That’s what the data say. Now I’m curious to know what you think about sex in advertising. What do you say?
I'm a cognitive scientist and communication scholar who manages a psychophysiology lab at Texas Tech. I teach courses about the cognitive processing of media messages and research methods.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
You touched on some real key issues in terms of sex selling. Mainly, you have covered the point that what is sexy is different for different groups of people (men vs. women, or any other way of categorizing people).
One thing to add to the conversation is knowing the brand. Knowing a brand’s consumers is crucial. But it is also extremely important to know or have a really good idea of how those consumers perceive the brand.
Imagine a brand that has traditionally or at least recently been promoted in a relatively safe, unsexy way. But maybe a large percentage of the brand’s target market enjoys watching shows and movies with strong sexual content. But then the brand starts using sex to get attention. The intended audience, however narrow, will certainly notice (attention captured) but the unexpected departure from the brand could be viewed negatively.
That is just something to consider in this conversation. What does the audience consider sexy? How does the sexual content relate to the product or brand, if at all? Can sex be a part of the brand without being an awkward departure from consumers’ expectancies?
Hi, Tim.
Thanks for the thoughts. If only most advertising agencies were as right-minded as yours.
Sam
Just a few thoughts: Sex has been used so much possibly overused in advertising during the past 40 years that it may not bring the desired results it once did depending on the product being marketed. I also agree with Tim about knowing the product and does sexual content relate to it or to the brand.
We are intelligent and bright humans, but possibly a bit lazy with advertising campaigns. It seems that using sex to sell is a lazy strategy when there is so much more creativity available in the human mind–why not spend some more time developing some fresh new strategies that don’t include sexual content?
Hi, Kim!
Absolutely sex has become a crutch. It grabs eyeballs, so when lacking a genuine idea, throw in some skin.
I still think that Paris Hilton’s $6 burger ad for Carl’s Jr. is one of the worst ads ever. Their marketing folks claim it “worked,” but the short-term buzz generated does not appear to have translated into same store sales increases. I say, Fail.
Sam
I suspect there is not a definitive answer, but I wonder what else comes along with sex. In other words a brand that uses sex in communication, what other brand personality attributes come along for the ride.
When it works, it seems it has to be because the target audience feels it’s consistent with their brand perception or that it’s a marketers desire to make sex part of the brand personality for reasons that make sense.
I would also welcome the studies you indicated that discuss when it works and when it doesn’t.
Hi, Jack!
That’s a great study you’ve designed there. Why aren’t you an academic instead of running an advertising agency.
For sex does not work, I suggest:
Bushman, B. J. (2007). That was a great commercial, but what were they selling? Effects of televised violence and sex on memory for violent and sexual ads. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37, 1784-1796.
He provides a download link on his Web page.
For when sex might be effective, I suggest:
LaTour, Michael, and Tony L. Henthorne (2003), “Nudity and Sexual Appeals: Understanding the Arousal Process and Advertising Response,” in Tom Reichert and Jacqueline Lambiase (Eds.), Sex in Advertising (pp. 91-106). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
More difficult to come across as a PDF.
Keep doing great things in Columbus!
See also sex-in-advertising-guru Tom Reichert’s Web site at: http://www.sexinadvertising.com/Work/index.php
Many important questions remain unanswered related to sex in advertising. For example, what does it mean when we ask if sex works in advertising?
Most research indicates that sexual appeals promote brand recognition and recall. Most studies have also demonstrated positive feelings are associated with brands utilizing sexual appeals.
If you agree that memory and positive affect are desirable outcomes, then sex in advertising works—most of the time.
As Bradley said on this blog, “Effective brand advertising necessitates emotional connections” ( http://www.commcognition.com/blog/high-life-delivery-man-resonant-ad-icon/).
Sexual appeals may not show great initial ROI. In other words, sex may not sell. However, when sexual appeals are relevant and targeted, sex may help build strong positive emotional connections between consumers and your brand— a lovemark.
A question too often overlooked is “How does sex work?”
The question has been examined too generally in previous research, including my own. As Bradley’s post indicated, future studies should examine what is sexy to men versus what is sexy to women.
Also, what if the sexy content is in the audio, the visuals, or both? Visual sexual appeals may be sexier to men. Sexy audio may be more appealing to women.
When researchers determine what men actually find sexy, attention should turn to how sex influences emotion and cognition among men. When researchers determine what women actually find sexy, attention should turn to how sex influences emotion and cognition among women. Comparison and contrast should follow.
After identifying what is sexy to whom (men versus women) through which channel (audio versus visual) and to what effect (how sexual appeals influence emotion and cognitive processes), advertisers will be able to more effectively target sexual appeals in relevant contexts.
Advertisers may produce sexual appeals that target only men, target only women, or that target both men and women.
Based on my research and conventional wisdom, I believe that sexual appeals work, when they are sexy. Sexy appeals work by promoting positive feelings that foster emotional connections to a brand. Additionally, sexy appeals work through initiating automatic (reflexive, biological) approach and information intake dispositions. Automatic approach and information intake dispositions elicit attention. Attention promotes recognition and recall. Positive affect, recognition, and recall sell products.
When sex fails, sex fails because the appeal was not sexy to the intended audience(s).
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