In the words of Todrick Hall… “Do I have your Attention?”
So, what caught your attention, was it the headline or semi-nude Victoria’s Secret Angels posing for their photo?
The phrase sex sells is not unheard of especially if you work in advertising. The irony is that the subject of sex initself is still quite taboo, you would have someone choking on their food at the dinner table if your brought it up. Why is it acceptable to basically sell sex on the covers of magazines, movie posters on advertising campaigns and more?
In 2018, Victoria’s Secret held their annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. If you don’t think about it too much, it is just a colourful parade of stunning bra’s and other underwear on just as equally gorgeous models. However, if you were to look a little deeper you may know that the company only caters for small breasted women and not for plus-size women, they do not approve of curvier girls on their runway or even transgender women. Why? “The show is a fantasy” says Ed Razek, the chief marketing officer for the show. It is not something real. No one wants a bigger model displaying ther bras, it is just to put on to display the product in what they believe, the most desiable way and make you want to eventually buy it all. All the models are tall, perfect, have logged in hundreds of hours at the gym and completed weird one-fruit diets to get into that ‘toned’ shape. So, what is the fantasy? Am I meant to look at Bella Hadid in a bra that is already out of my price range and think that it will make me look as fabulous, tanned, toned and leggy as she does?
Savage X Fenty, is rapper Savage and singer Rihanna’s brand collaboration to deliver underwear for all shapes, colours and sizes. In their show they featured models of all heights, colour, shapes, hair colour, they even had an amputee model because a missing limb does not mean that she is not beautiful or sexy. How is what Rihanna sold to the public different from what Victoria’s Secret sells? Is what the Savage X Fenty show displayed not also a fantasy. As a viewer I saw people who looked like me and who I could potentially look like, it actually fulfilled a fantasy.
Calvin Klein have released their own campaigns starring a number of celebrities donning the famous branded underwear, however a number of celebrities refused to step out in just their undies in front of the camera. Billie Eilish who has mentioned that the reason she wears oversized clothing is that she hates people who objectify her body, was feautred in the campaign fully dressed.
Not going to lie, from personal experience sex does sell. Seeing Noah Centineo and Shawn Mendes, dripping in sweat, with their abs out had my jaw dropping a bit and back when I was in a relationship it made me think, “If I bought my boyfriend Calvin Klein underwear, will I have that same burst excitement when I look at him?” Short answer… No. My boyfriend did not come with a black and white filter, or with a lot of editing to define his, well let’s face it, barely-there abs, or the dramatic lighting, but the ad did it’s job. I was thinking of buying the product because I wanted to live the fantasy. However, how Victoria’s Secret fashion show delivered an unrealistic fantasy for women, did Calvin Kleins’ do that for other men and women?
In 2018, The Journal of Sex carried out a study which showed that men think about sex around 19 times a day that is twice as much as women do. So are brands trying to exploit that? But sex in product advertisement is not just the problem.
Perhaps even more distrubingly so is the poster for the television series Gossip Girl. The show at the time of its running was targeted towards audiences, mainly female, of around the ages of 13 to 18. So how does a poster of Blake Lively being kissed on the neck during an intimate moment appeal to a young audience. It’s the idea that these other 16-year-old girls on the show were constantly having sex with guys we all wished we could have at the time and the show sold us on the idea that we all wanted to be Serena (charcter potrayed by Blake Lively).
Ever notice a movie poster? A number of movie posters, even the ones featuring a female lead or a female amongst the main cast (with a majority of male actors), cut out womens heads leaving just the female figure. A lot of posters never feature a full bodied female actress or just her face unlike male actors. This happens in clothing ads, beer ads, food ads and so much more. Is it just because companies pay less if they don’t feature a womans face? The posters for Wonder Woman, one of the first female superhero’s to have her own film, majority of the posters featured silhouttes of her body. The film Confidence had four individual posters for each of their actors, all famous people but the female lead, Rachel Weiz, had a slightly different poster to her male counterparts. While the male leads had posters featuring their face, Weiz’s featured her chest.
So yes, sex sells. It might not be appropriate for all audiences, but from the moment we are barely legal to start having sex we are bombared with its images. It is a fantasy and companies know that, companies want you to believe that. We see something “pretty” and we want it, it’s the way our brains are wired.
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