Sex Appeal In English Advertising

The intention of this study is to explore the possible advantages of applying sex appeal in advertisements and its application in China and Western countries. As this is a sensitive area, ethical and cultural caution must be taken to avoid clashes of culture and value.When human society has stepped forward into a digital era, there is one thing that remains unchanged: those sexy women models with ample breasts and masculine men are still the main focus of ads. Sex appeal is still where the selling point of ads lies.In the mid of late 1960s, advertising executives discovered the road to fortune -this road is sex. Especially in present-day society, it is abundantly clear that sex is what sells. We find it on television, in magazines, billboards and even the radio. It seems that everywhere we look, sex is right in front of us. There is a struggle among advertisers on whether to use the sure way to sell the maximum number of products or to be true to a sense of morality. More often than not, greed takes over and morality is lost.To sell products, advertisers target audiences and try to appeal to their senses and feelings. The problem is that sexual appeal seems to be showing up more often with a broader range of products and audiences. Females are more likely than males to be presented in seductive fashions or appear nude but males are now being portrayed as sexual objects more and more. Despite uncertainty over advertisement effectiveness, the use of sex appeal is still considered an effective method of selling products because of its ability to attract consumer attention to an ad. Advertising presents the images, ideas, and belief systems that a society holds. They have worked their way into media, social concerns, family values and moral ethics. Advertising is a social practice so the expression of sexuality continues to be an issue of social concern. Open-sexuality has spread throughout our entire society and has shown that there are very few limits. Actually, open-sexuality has become part of society.Daily life and observation shows that more and more ads focus on sexy imagesto help sell and promote products today while in the previous century sex was still a forbidden area to be utilized as a tool for selling or marketing. The effectiveness of sexual appeal is its ability to arouse and grab an individual's attention, which may affect a consumer's feeling about a product. Consumers' concept of consumption has undergone a critical change towards new aesthetic standard of bold expression, intuitional need and enjoyment. Therefore, it is justified to regard it as a revolution of humanity, which is aptly reflected in the products employing sex appeal in advertising.This thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter of this thesis discusses the history of sex appeal ads since the 1920s. The second part of this thesis analyzes male and female images in sex appeal ads and how these images affect information processing of target audience. The third part focuses on content analysis of sex appeal ads, which means how combined factors attribute to the sexual content of an ad. In addition, by summing up the characters, scenery, voice and storylines of sex appeal ads, this thesis formulates formulas about sex appeal ads. As for the business gaining of sex appeal ads, the author of the thesis mainly examines their function in getting attention, generating positive emotional reflection and forming favorable brand images. The last part of this thesis goes over the adaptation of sex appeal ads among different cultures, nationality and groups of people.The usage of sex appeal has been comparatively developed in Western countries, while in China, we still lag behind in this field. How we are going to cultivate aesthetic value as well as lucrative market gaining out of this strategy is of vital importance. In addition, due to the different personal taste, national mores as well as religious belief, this area is very sensitive. Different nation may show different tolerance towards sex appeal in ads. Ne...