Thursday, March 18, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Here is a commercial for Candie's fragrances that was popular among young people in a recent study done on sexual content in advertisements. The ad featured actress Alyssa Milano writhing longingly on a bed as her boxers-clad male friend searched for something in the bathroom, seemingly for condoms. During his search, the camera cuts intermittently to provocative shots of her as she sprays perfume on herself. The viewer soon discovers it's cologne he is looking for, which he sprays on himself, including a quick spray in his boxer shorts. The last scene is a close-up of the fragrance bottles rocking back and forth on the sheets of the bed.
Although this commercial is clearly targeted toward young people, some sexual ads are not. All of them, though, appear in mainstream consumer media like prime-time television programs, billboards, and magazines. As such, they are seen and absorbed by a diverse audience that includes young adults, teenagers, and children.
Who are the main targets for these ads, men or women?
Sex appeal is a powerful selling point that advertisers can use to attract the attention of males and females. As an essential survival instinct for our species, sex has a strong influence over our human brains. From a social standpoint, however, sex sells is a reality that also helps objectify both women and men. Modeling a product gives consumers an opportunity to see what they might like a product to do for them. Throwing in some sex appeal attracts the attention of the opposite sex while playing on the vanity of the same sex. Although expectations of consumers in sexiness may be entirely unrealistic, it is human nature to inflate our perception of ourselves and our allure, thus advertisements are designed to exploit our psychological weakness to want to be seen as more desirable to the opposite sex than what we are.
Most advertisements certainly do not degrade women as much as prostitution does, yet our society is saturated with these images valuing women by this one aspect of their beauty. The same is true for men. For those who cannot match such ideals, ads can deeply hurt them on a psychological level as well as a social level. Meanwhile, these advertisements also encourage an unhealthy preoccupation with an ideal image of sex that few individuals can live up to. Advertisements often use sex appeal to varying degree in order to sell their products. Whether simply including only supposedly beautiful people in ads or constantly throwing out images of sex, they exploit the tendency of consumers to degrade the opposite sex by focusing solely on the sex appeal of a person. When ads hurt self images of individuals or encourage us to objectify people beyond what we already do naturally, they can be very harmful to individuals and our society as a whole.
Most advertisements certainly do not degrade women as much as prostitution does, yet our society is saturated with these images valuing women by this one aspect of their beauty. The same is true for men. For those who cannot match such ideals, ads can deeply hurt them on a psychological level as well as a social level. Meanwhile, these advertisements also encourage an unhealthy preoccupation with an ideal image of sex that few individuals can live up to. Advertisements often use sex appeal to varying degree in order to sell their products. Whether simply including only supposedly beautiful people in ads or constantly throwing out images of sex, they exploit the tendency of consumers to degrade the opposite sex by focusing solely on the sex appeal of a person. When ads hurt self images of individuals or encourage us to objectify people beyond what we already do naturally, they can be very harmful to individuals and our society as a whole.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Introduction
Now here is a topic that many educators may not feel comfortable addressing in the classroom. But the expression "sex sells," is certainly one that many advertisers believe in. Many will agree that messages about sex found in the media certainly communicate and educate audiences. But what exactly are students taking from this message? Is the message always correct? And is anything important left out of the message? Sexually loaded media is, unfortunately, a fact of life. The solution then is to instill them with the knowledge they need to make the right decisions and protect themselves.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)