I drove past a(nother) billboard the other day of a naked woman advertising for some random drink.
It got me to thinking – why the heck does sex sell in advertisement.
Of course it must work – somehow – because otherwise, why would the advertisement agencies continue to do it.
It can’t be because of the “shock value”. I mean nudity is so common place – at least in this country – that seeing it on a billboard is strangely familiar.
Television, Internet, Tabloid newspapers, Magazines and so on almost all feature nakedness and sexual suggestive content.
Even a gadget magazine features sexual inspired content with scantily clad women posing suggestively with a few of the gadgets placed in the picture.
Sometime I wonder what the magazine is actually about when viewing the cover.
Actually though – I do understand the psychology behind it, or at least some of it.
It is because “we” (supposedly) identify with the situation and wants to experience it, and think that by buying said item – we will.
So when Barcadi features beautiful people dancing on a nightclub set and wriggling their bodies in a somewhat sexual manner – it is because the advertisement wants us to believe that by drinking Barcardi we’ll experience the same.
But come on – wouldn’t most everybody know this by now. That it is such mechanics the adverts play on?
I’ve been on many a party in my days and nothing like that ever happened .... Just because somebody started drinking a specific brand of alcohol.
It is the same for these billboards adverts – it is the same for the gadget magazines – and it is the same for the tabloid newspapers.
If they feature sexual inspired content and suggestive images, somehow people must connect the - otherwise unconnected and irrelevant – dots and fall for this. I just can’t understand it. I specifically avoid brands when their advertisements annoys me, and I know I am most likely not special in that way – so does it still work?
And what ever happened to the informative aspect of advertisements, magazines and newspapers .... well okay – the newspapers are tabloid, so they’ve never been informative to begin with.
But when I crack open a gadget magazine I want to know about gadgets.
If I view an advert about a product I want to know why on earth I should spend my money on that advert over perhaps a competitor.
And seeing a naked woman in an advertisement somehow isn’t a convincing argument (anymore).
Now I’m by no means a prude or anything, frankly I don’t care as I am not affected – I just can’t understand why sexual (more or less suggestive) content still sells in this day and age.
Or perhaps it is simply because we’ve seen it all and those slick advertisement agencies have no clue on how to move forward.