Consumer Responses To Suggestive Sex Appeal Advertising: A Comparative Study Under The Culture Background Of China And North America

Although sex appeal advertisement has been proved to be an effective advertisingtype, studies show that, there are still many limitations of using nudity in advertising. Inthe previous studies, few scholars paid attention to suggestive sex appeal advertising.Cultural difference is the key variable in international advertising. Sex appealadvertisement may not be effective in all cultures.This research adopts the method of cross culture study. It discusses the psychologicaleffect of sex appeal advertisement differences between China and North America, the twokinds of representative cultural background. Two variables are controlled: one is theproduct types (high related product, low related product) and the other is advertising types(nudity in advertising, sex suggestive in advertising). The dependent variables includeattitude towards the ad, attitude towards the brand and buying intention. Further studyexplores the cognitive effects of suggestive advertising in China cultural background,including the brand memory and cognitive processing time. The results show that:1. The audience’s cultural background has a significant impact on advertising attitude,brand attitude and buying intention. Chinese young audience react more positive foradvertising attitude, brand attitude an buying intention than the North American youngaudience.2. Audience in Chinese cultural background evaluate sex appeal advertisement in a"two-dimensional" standard–where the product is related to sex and which sexual elementis adopt in the ad, nudity or suggestive sex information, are significantly affects theirevaluation of a advertising. However, audience in North American culture context only put"one-dimensional" standard into use--they only concerned about whether the product isassociated with sex. Whatever kinds of sex element is adopt, explicit or implied, there is nobig difference in their eyes.3. The cognitive effect of suggestive sex appeal advertisement is as good as the ad type which shows nudity, both have a better effect than non-sex appeal ad. There appearsno gender difference between the cognitive effects. However, suggestive sex appealadvertisement has significant better advertising attitude, brand attitude and buyingintention than nudity in ad. In a general view, to use suggestive sex appeal advertisement inChina will be a wise decision.