Using sex in advertising

The use of sex and sexy illustrations in advertising is a subject that has been shunned by writers in fields such as communications, psychology, behavioural sciences, and even in the specific areas of consumer behaviour, marketing, and advertising. Although the current literature on consumer behaviour and advertising considers sex in the Freudian or Maslow sense, its use in advertising has not been explicitly elucidated. This is somewhat surprising when one considers that Freud maintained that sex or libido is the most important of all instincts and that apparent motives for an act often can be found in the sexual drive exerting itself in an unconscious and devious fashion. Kassem, S. John, D. Report bugs here.

I like having sex. Sex, however, is a complicated subject. It's taboo. If you talk about it at the dinner table someone is bound to cough up their mashed potatoes or spit out their iced tea. Yet, last year in , PornHub saw So, while we aren't talking about it, we are most definitely thinking about it. Sex in advertising is a practice even more frowned upon than just strictly sex itself.

Advertising is about two things: attention and decision-making. Naked men, women, suggestive poses, implied sex - all of it. Not as much as it did twenty years ago, and, of course, not nearly as much as fifty years ago.

Noreen K. Moore student , The Pennsylvania State University. In recent years there has been an increase in the use of sexual themes and erotic stimuli in advertising.