Post #6 Sex Sells. . . and it Always Has
In 1969, Old Spice, another large competitor in current body spray production, released this ad, in Playboy magazine. The ad portrays a black and white photo of Maggie Perkins in a field, with the quote “Maggie Perkins thinks guys who wear Old Spice understand what women like.” This alone presents the assumption that by wearing Old Spice, Maggie Perkins will automatically think you understand what women like and in turn be more desirable by women. In small print after that statement it states “Girls like it. Is there a better reason to wear Old Spice?” Here the assumption is that since Maggie Perkins likes it, all girls do, so you should wear it, so that girls like you. Hai Karate, another Cologne / After Shave of the 60’s and 70’s chose the ‘Danger’ tactic typically found in product marketing today. The ad pictures a bottle of Hai Karate after shave and a disclaimer next to it bearing the warning “Don’t dare use Hai Karate… without memorizing this.” The disclaimer goes on to explain how to fend off and immobilize an advancing female that may have fallen in to a trance through your use of this intense scent. “Be careful how you use it,” the products main catch phrase, is printed at the bottom of the ad in an eye catching larger font. Through the use of outlets like Playboy Magazine, this type of advertisement was mainly directed at single heterosexual young men, especially those that just passed through puberty and were ready to start mingling with girls. If you wanted to get girls, this is what you wanted to be wearing. Recently the trend of sexual advertising has hit an all time high with ads like this, from Gillette. This particular ad depicts what seems to be a normal Christmas Dinner, with the exception that the son of the family is being mounted by a girl who is intoxicated by his scent of Tag Body Spray. In the background you can see that it is accepted by the father, seen decorating the tree, yet has a large grin on his face from what is happening. Accompanied next to the father is the mother, with a surprised / disgusted face, and in the foreground by grandma, who seems to be having a slight heart attack from what she is witnessing. We see the classic use of the ‘WARNING’ sign and disclaimer that was seen on the Hai Karate Ad from the past. Similarly this other Tag Ad, also uses the same classic tactic, but with a little twist. This Ad depicts a young man being tackled by an entire womens volleyball team. The warning claims that the company has no responsibility for the actions of women around you when you use their product. It also has a witty little cut out card that the ad advises you to carry around if you are a user of the body spray. The card states “If I am clinically injured in a TAG related pile-on, please notify my buddy ________ @ (___)____-______. (He’ll find it hilarious).” The general consensus of the four ads is pretty similar. If you wear the product, girls will like you and you will in turn probably get laid. Who doesn’t want to get laid?
Overall the marketing strategy of sex is one that has played a active role in advertising. It seemed to work well in the past and it continues to work equally now. Not only is sex a part of life that everyone knows about, but its an issue that manifests itself earlier and earlier in the lives of teens in todays society. Sex sells, it always has and it probably always will. Even though everyone knows that just because you use these products you won’t have the same results as the commercial, it still puts the product on a pedestal in your mind. The next time you go to the store are you going to buy a boring can of baby powder to keep you dry and fresh or are you going to pick up that ‘whoosh whoosh’ can of TAG that is advertised oh so well? The choice is easy.
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:49 am
Your post is by far the funniest and most interesting post i have read for our class. Your use of examples coupled with detailed descriptions made your post very good. I think your thesis statement is right on point, and you support it with your body paragraph and conclusion well. The only area i see that you could change is the middle paragraph. You could cut it into two paragraphs to make it a little clearer. But the post is still very good.
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:22 am
I really liked this post a lot. I think this is one of the better post that I have read in the class and really enjoyed reading it. I thought you did a good job of picking some specific and going with it. You had good ideas and opinions about how sex in ads are taking over how we buy things today. The influence of sex is something that keeps growing and seems to becoming more and more acceptable today because we are so used to it. You pointed all this out well and your ideas were great. I don’t really know what else to say about it. It was very well written with a good thesis statement where it made me know what you were arguing very easily.
I can’t really find anything negative about your post. Maybe split up your body paragraph into separate paragraphs for each ad that you are writing about to make it easier to read and know when you are done talking about one ad and moved on to another. Other then that good post.
April 3rd, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Thanks for the comments guys. I’m glad that you enjoyed what I wrote, its pretty much easy to see that companies like to make money and they will pretty much do anything for that to happen. I did try to split up the body in to two paragraphs, but for some reason the editor would revert it back to one paragraph. I tried fooling with it but it always saved and displayed like that so I gave up. The part where it begins “Recently…” is supposed to be another paragraph in itself contrasting and comparing the two past and two present ads and their content.
Greg
April 3rd, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Your post is very good, there is nothing I would choose to criticize. I thought the strongest aspect of it was your introduction, it immediately captured my attention, it is well written and it gives more information than one would expect from an intro paragraph. The body was good, completely supporting your thesis and using just enough information to not get too boring and lastly the conclusion, a good conclusion. For me, that is the hardest part, I’ve always been envious of people who conclude well.
April 3rd, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Sex does sell. I dont think that there is a truer statement out there. Even in the 1950 and 60, sex sold, just not as openly as we see in today’s advertisments. You had very good example that were back up by a plether of information. Your introduction drew me in to wanting to read the rest of your blog post. Good job!!
April 4th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Your post was an interesting read because it is true that sex does sell, there’s no denying it. You proofs and advertisements were helpful in arguing your point. You did a good job of getting your point across.
So far all the people who read your post seem to feel it was interesting and a good post. One reason I believe that is true is because the topic you wrote about has to do with sex and people like anything that has to do with sex.
One problem I thought was that the second paragraph was just one long paragraph that should have been divided into separate ones because its too clumped together and needs to be separated because you discussed various advertisements. You had a good conclusion that wrapped up the post well. Well written post.
April 4th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
You did a real good job comparing ads from the past and current ads. From the evidence you have given, it would be hard to argue against the fact that using sex appeal in ads is a tactic that has been around for a long time. I like your comment that “Even though everyone knows that just because you use these products you won’t have the same results as the commercial, it still puts the product on a pedestal in your mind”. I find truth in this because the commercials are so outrageous that it gets people talking. I actually think that it is the humor in ads like TAG’s that sell the product, not so much the sex appeal. Personally, I find it hard to imagine mass amounts of people buying the product because they believe it increases the probability of getting a date, but then again, people might be more optimistic than I think.
Overall, I think your post was good, particularly because it was entertaining. But, you didn’t prove that ads using sex appeal are more profitable than those that don’t. If you wanted to make your post really strong, you could have included some numbers showing profit increases due to the ad campaigns, or thought of some other way to prove your thesis statement. Also, it might have been good if you spent less time describing the ads, and spent more time explaining why the ads work.
April 4th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
I definitely agree with your opening statement that sex sells. Why would anything sell better than sex anyways, after all the basic instinct for all animals is to reproduce. Your explanation of the Tag body spray advertisement is very humorous and well written. I liked the way you used the Hai Karate advertisement to show where the “warning” label phenomenon originally came from.
April 4th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Your post was entertaining and easy to relate to. The last two lines of your post are the best. It leaves you thinking and makes you really relate to it. Everyone wants to be attractive to the opposite sex, so obviously one will want to buy a product that is portrayed as sexier and more provocative than another.
Of course men want to have a product that attracts the ladies and by advertising in places such as playboy, the company is really zero-ing in on males attracted to females. I completely agree with you that sex sells. It is obvious that todays ads are much more sexually explicit than those of the older times. A woman stating that “guys who wear Old Spice understand what women like,” is way less provacative than the boy getting mounted on the couch at christmas infront of his grandmother. Some ads of today are taking it a little too far. Your examples of Tag, Gillette, and Hai Karate are great. Those products really are insinuating that by using this product you will have girls all over you. This is something that every single (and even not so single) man wants.
Your thesis could have been a little more compact. Perhaps drop off the end, “because sex and being perceived as sexy is an issue that humans deal with everyday.” You did not prove your thesis in your paper. You only proved half, that ads that contain sex appeal sell more. You did not prove that companies that do not use sex are not as successful as the ones that do. Perhaps throw in a baby powder commercial like you spoke of at the end. And maybe some statictis with actual numbers showing how much more the companies did sell.
April 4th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
I really enjoyed reading your blog post. One of the most interesting posts that I have read in this course so far. I especially enjoyed how you started off the post. It caught my attention right away and got me interested and curious of what you were going to say in the rest of your post. You had very good ideas that proved your thesis statement and I also liked how you included your opinion as well. Not everybody does that and its a crucial part of this post. The influence of sex through television and advertisement’s is everywhere and you did an awesome job of explaining that.
I don’t really have a lot of critisism. The only thing I can say is maybe next time to break your body paragraph into more then just one long paragraph. It might only be me, but it was kind of hard to get through that long paragraph and was somewhat hard to read. If you were to break it down, it would be a lot easier to read and understand. Excellent job though!
April 4th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
I agree 100% with every point you made in this post. Sex sells, if people where able to use sex to sell food or medicine they probably would, it just gets everybody more into the item all of a sudden. But notice how all the ads that you used as examples and many more are directed mostly to men, because even though sex is less of a bad thing now a days it is still bad if a woman is known to openly have sex. For example if a man has many sexual partners he’s considered a “baller” but if a women has more than sexual partner she would be considered “bad”. Not that women dont advertise perfume using sex, but they are less aggressive ones.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
I agree with you that sex sells. Like you said sex has played an active role in advertising. Sex does sell because it is culturally acceptable here in US. Using sex in advertisement would not work in some other countries that are less open-minded.
I like the way you comparing different advertisements to prove your thesis statement. Your evidences are really support your argument. Your conclusion also good, summarizing all your idea. Your post is great and I really enjoyed reading it. But, it would be easier to read if you divided your second paragraph. This is only criticism that I could make for your post.
April 4th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
This is very interesting post, and I really enjoyed read it. I really learn a lot from your post. You have very good idea about your post and also use a lot of information to suppose your thesis. I really like how you compare those ads in different angles. That makes us to easier to understand your post. I aggress with you how you said sex sold, because no matter in 50, 60 even now, people use lots of sex ads to make people buy their products. Everyone like anything has something to do with sex. It’s well done post, a lot of information about ads. Even add ads links into your blog.
April 5th, 2007 at 3:30 am
I really liked your post. It’s obvious to anyone who watches any sort of television, reads magazines, or goes to the movies- sex sells. I think you used a great example in body sprays. Especially because just by the nature of body spray, you would assume there would be a picture of a guy with his shirt off or an attractive woman with the man. It’s hard to imagine another way to market this product. I also really liked how you used many examples from the past and present to support your thesis.
The only thing I could recommend changing is the body paragraph. Perhaps you should break that up into seperate paragraphs when you move to talking about another ad. Other than that, great post and really interesting!
April 5th, 2007 at 3:50 am
What I like about this post is that they discussed an ad from the late 19th and early 20th century. The ads that you saw from the 19th centuries are so different from the ads that you see in the early 20th century. I also like how the facts and information support the thesis. All the pictures that you found supported what you are trying to explain. What I didn’t like about your post is that they include whether how advertising today reflect current ideologies and value.
Reading this post, I do agree on how the post author has answer the question in advertising and cultural values in history. The post author has mention that the Proctor and Gamble has increased their sales in body sprays because of sex appeal. Without sex appeal, the companies wouldn’t be where they are right now. Sex appeal does sell and that is what these companies use to sell their products. The similarities that I found between my pictures and the authors pictures are that they used sex appeal. No matter what the product is, there is always a pretty girl or a cute boy in the picture.
April 5th, 2007 at 4:13 am
This was a really good post and i do agree with you that markeing people do use sex to sell their products. Like you mentioned the TAG advertisment is a classic example of it and so are many other advertisments these days. One thing that i did want to mention is that your second paragraph is too long may be cutting it down into two or three paragraphs.
April 5th, 2007 at 7:47 am
Your opening statement grabbed my attention, because it’s something i totally agree with. Sex does sell. People want to look sexy or be thought of sexy, so why wouldn’t it sell. I thought the examples you used were good examples and you really made the commercial seem intriguing. One thing that I found a bit confusing was your long paragraph, if you split it into two paragraphs it would’ve been easier to read and understand. overall enjoyed reading your blog.
April 5th, 2007 at 9:22 am
I like how you found such close similarities over the past decades of sex-appeal-based advertisements. It’s true, whatever else changes, gender and sex will remain.
You did a good job of analyzing the subtler implications and details of the advertisements. I would not have had the insight to read people’s expressions as well as the text.
I kind of wish the post was longer, so you could have analyzed the effects of taboo (how much sex was “OK” to portray) over the years.
April 5th, 2007 at 10:28 am
This post analyzed tag, and other body spray ads very well. I enjoyed the Hai Kai after shave ad, because I feel not all the creaters of “Tag” and “Axe” did was used older ads and give them a modern day twist. I feel one thing that could have been analyzed better was the images and ideas we get from the ads from 30 to 40 years ago, and the difference when it comes to the ads we see today. What I mean to say is, with the Hai Kai aftershave, we see a classy woman falling into the arms of a man wearing the scent. Of this time you would be ‘wooing’ one woman, and yes one could pull sex being sold from the ad. Today with the Tag and Axe scents, its not only one women but all of the women you want to have. The In the ad we see a girl dressed a little more sexy, not what the average girl would wear to a Christmas gathering, all over the guy next to her. Very different than the first ad, but since overtime men are constantly obsessed with ‘getting’ women and sleeping with them, these ads worked then and they do now.
April 5th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
I agree with your thesis, sex is definetly by far the most used technic for selling prodcuts today. Everywhere you look, there is some sort of ad that displays some sex symbol selling anything from clothes and lingerie to even diaomonds and jewlery. It is interesting how people now view “Tag” and “Axe” as the major sex sellers.
Your post was really good and actually kept my interest. I enjoyed the fact that you made the connection between ads now and ads then. It is weird, yet interesting how we are still using the same methods to sell our products. I can only say that I think that you could have touched base more on the “humans wanting to be sexy” part of your thesis.
April 5th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
It is obvious that sex sells, that’s why companies use half-naked or almost naked women in most ads. If you flip through a magazine, most of the ads have women in a bikini or dressed provocatively and men usually dress in normal clothes. I find it offensive that advertisements use women as sexual objects to sell their products. They need to understand that young girls and boys see these ads. Doing this definitely does not help to set a correct image for women. Your post was well written so I had a lot to respond to your topic.
Although I did think your blog was great, you could have divided your second paragraph into two or three separate ones. It seems run-on to all your ideas and statements you make to support your thesis. I think your blog could have flowed together better if it was divided because it didn’t seem organized with your thoughts. Overall, I enjoyed reading your post!
April 8th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Your post and your thesis were both well written. I think that you captured the reader’s attention in a great way. I do agree with you that sex sells but I think to a certain extent. If you are trying to sell something to impress the other sex, then I think sex will sell. But if you are selling something like cereal then I think sex will not make a difference.
The ads that you found showed how much sex that they do put in ads these days. Such as the Old Spice ad just showed a well known woman saying she likes men who wear Old Spice. Not like the new Tag ads where they are vey out there showing a girl on top of a guy. In a way they give that person hope that they might get that same reaction from wearing the Tag cologne.
April 12th, 2007 at 11:50 am
I think that your post showed some very valid points. Anyone that watches tv has seen the tag body spray commercials wear women fight for a guy just because he is wearing the body spray. I’ve always thought that these commercials were useless. I really think you’d have to be pretty stupid to think that a body spray will actually give off these effects. I find it interesting that these types of ads were used back in the 1960s. I didn’t realize that sex was used this way during this time.
April 13th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Very interesting post, i would say it is a very unique post. I agree with your post it made sense, and proved a very good point. In comercials todays you see alot of advertisements for tag and other body sparays, followed by a mob of girls trying to chase down the guy using it. The public as come a custom to this type of advertising, and it seems to be effective. Great job on the post found it very good, enjoyed reading it.
April 16th, 2007 at 11:47 am
I think that sex is the most effective product marketing technique that can possibly be used. Notice that most products that used sex are targeted towards men because men have more trouble controlling sexual urges than women. I think your post does a great job of pointing this out. I have always thought that those TAG ads were just shameless flaunts of sex which caused a subpar product to appeal to prepubescent boys. Thanks for bringing it to light