Marketing through Sexual Appeal

Paper Summary:

This paper argues that, while advertisers cannot be dismissed for using unethical marketing strategies due to their increasing reliance on sexual appeal, given that consumers do respond to them, they still can be labeled as irresponsible to the extent that the images that they promote establish stereotypical images of the female as a sex object. The paper shows that not only does this lead to the popular male perception of women as sexual objects, but also to female views of themselves as bodies that must reach ideal standards of beauty and perfection in order to successfully fulfill their function of attracting male attention. The paper also includes a literature review, which is not included in the word count.

From the Paper:

"As explained by both sociologists and psychologists, of all the methods used in advertising, sex appeal catches the attention best, because it is our second strongest drive, next to our drive for survival (Thoits). Consequently, when advertisers employ sexual appeal in their marketing and promotion of products, they can guarantee a response given that they are appealing to one of man's strongest basic instincts. It is due to the general appeal of sex that a great majority of print advertisements increasingly rely on the sexualization of products through images and text with a high degree of sexual content."

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