Sex in Advertising

 

  Sex in advertising is a complicated topic; and being a father (and thus a man) I have the unenviable vantage point of seeing and agreeing with points made by those for as well as those against.  Clearly the most common target audience is men, often age 18-35.  However, when enacted in a nationwide campaign sexual-oriented advertising is sure to reach people other than the targets.  As a parent, I find myself changing the channel when a commercial like a recent Hardee's ad comes on.

 

 

  To me it's a bit extreme.  The women are obviously gorgeous, and the man in me appreciates their physical beauty.  However, they're a scrap and a prayer away from being naked...not the kind of stuff I want my kids seeing even in passing.  I mean, it's got a bit of creativity (two beauties, two meats, "BBQ's best pair") but it certainly didn't take a Harvard-educated wit to come up with the idea.  In my mind the advertiser is entirely responsible for the content they use to promote their products. 

  I feel as though it would be quite easy to avoid this issue; provided the advertiser was willing to take the time to interview several focus groups.  For example, I consider myself fairly liberal and do not mind sex being used to sell up to a point...but it should either be relevent to the product or the commercial setting on hand (how often do models grill in daisy dukes and bikini tops?).





  Sexual appeals in advertising have one very obvious, very tangible redeeming quality.  They work.  As pointed out in the text, as long as something is effective there will always be people who utilize this sort of transformational ad campaign to sell their product. 

  I believe it is fine for advertisers to exploit consumer insecurities to sell a product, although I also believe it demonstrates a lack of ethics.  I think ultimately people need to rise above their imperfections and insecurities, although I find myself conflicted on this issue because there are many influences such as age, social class, physical disorders, etc. 
  In the end I believe advertisers should accept some ethical responsibility for their creation of unrealistic "aspirations", but then the question becomes what is the end result of that acceptence?  I stand by my earlier premise that it simply needs to be toned-down a bit and more situation applicable; also taking the time to ensure the ads miss non-targeted segments (kids, disapproving adults, etc) by airing them more responsibly (for example during the second half of a night NFL game rather than during each game all Sunday) is about the maximum we as an audience can expect in a country with the freedoms like ours.