Human Sexuality and Advertising: Is There a Reason
This paper shall discuss the ubiquitous use of sexually-oriented content in advertisements. The objective of this paper will be to find the rationale behind the advertising industry's heavy reliance on this tactic. Some reasons include recall facilitation, associations formed between a product and sex strengthening recall, arousal moderation of pleasure associated with these advertisements and targeting gender-specific, sexually-related wants such as attractiveness, behavior and esteem in women and the assurance of more, and better sex in men. The subject matter will be restricted to the discussion of the groups that have become the target of these advertisements: males, females and teenagers. The latter is a special group, being in a globally stressful period, is more attentive to advertisements that target gender roles and thus reflect and shape their forming identities. The literature search revealed these three groups were not as susceptible to sexual suggestion as previously conceived. Sexually-oriented content was detrimental to all-important product recall. Teenagers were found in one study to be critical of the sexual content of commercials, regardless of gender.
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Filename: 22959 Human Sexuality in Advertisements.doc
