Use of Sex in Advertising

The use of sex in advertising may create unrealistic ideals for men regarding women, however, it is a powerful tool for selling products. Through the years advertisers have shown through their advertisements that sex does sell products. Especially when selling to the male viewers. Sex is the second strongest of the psychological appeals, right behind self-preservation, and its strength is biological and instinctive, the genetic imperative of reproduction (Taflinger). Sexual desire is an instinctive reaction in animals, and a person?s perception of a suitable mate is the basis (Taflinger). That perception is usually a set of criteria that the opposite sex must meet, and those that meet and exceed those criteria will provide the chance for the highest quality offspring with the best chance of survival (Taflinger).

In time and energy, the male expends virtually nothing in sexual contact compared to the female, biologically, the best strategy for a man is to be promiscuous because the more women with whom he mates, the greater number of children containing his genes are possible (Taflinger). Thus, a man's biological criteria can be simple: ?she must be healthy, she must be young, she must be receptive, and she must be impregnable? (Taflinger). However, women have a greater physical, physiological and temporal stake in producing children, which means she is more interested in the quality of genes he brings and the help she will have while carrying, bearing and rearing the children (Taflinger).

The purpose of advertising is to convince people that products are of use to them in one way or another, and advertisers must do it very quickly, because they do not have the time or the space to go into detail or explanations. The sex...

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...ructed as objects to be viewed, either by men in the photograph or by the reader. Women?s bodies are used in ads as little more than props for selling products, such as the common photographs of a half-naked woman posing to sell jeans, cars, alcohol, and a myriad of other products (Jensen).

The few available studies suggest that the media does have an impact because of the fact that the media has kept sexual behavior on public and personal agendas, media portrayals reinforce a relatively consistent set of sexual and relationship norms, and the media rarely depict sexually responsible models (Brown). Overall, sex influenced advertisements affect both genders. This being said it also affects one gender more than the other. Knowing that this is a factor, will there ever be a breaking point to show that these sex driven advertisers and advertisements have gone too far?