Sex Sells, But How?
Irina Mishalov's Blog Review on Sex in Advertising: Gender Differences and the Role of Relationship Commitment.
Purpose of this Assignment:
When it comes to advertising, it is not all that simple; it doesnt involve just ideas of how to sell a brand or product. Advertising is almost like an art, mastering the art means knowing the psychology of advertising. Understanding the roots of how people think, learn and act upon is key to becoming a smart advertiser. The purpose of this blog is to dissimilate an article about the psychology of advertising, specifically sex in advertising. The title of the article is: Sex in Advertising: Gender Differences and the Role of Relationship Commitment. It is written by: Darren W. Dahl, Jaideep Sengupta and Kathleen D. Vohs. I will summarize the key points of the article and also state what it means to advertisers today.
Summary of Sex in Advertising: Gender Differences and the Role of Relationship Commitment
This article clearly states that when it comes to using sex as a tool in advertising, men and women respond differently; men evaluate sexually themed ads positively and women respond negatively. These completely different attitudes about sex in advertising falls on men and women's attitudes on sex itself. The article argues that the root of these tottally different attitudes are results of two theories associated with sexual psychology: the evolutionary theory (women are more selective in choosing their partner for investment reasons for offspring, while men are able to impregnant several women at a time) and the social (learnt) theory (men learn that it is ok to view sex as a recreational activity, while women learn that sex is used for expressing emotion). It is obvious that when it comes to sex in adverting the gender line splits infinitly because of the evolutionary and social theory men view sex in ads positively and women dislike sexual ads. Therefore, gender differences in sexual motivations suggest that when it comes to sex for women, unless they see relationship/commitment women will have unfavorable feelings when it comes to sexual activity; on the other hand men will engage in sex even if there is no promising relations in the future (recreational sexual activity). To give a deeper understanding of women's dislike on using sexual appeals in ads, furthering knowledge on how men and women respond to sex in advertising and understanding gender differences in sexual motives, the article becomes a study for it's readers. Based on four experiments the authors show how women's attitudes towards sex in advertising is improved when the ad suggest relationship commitment/emotional attachment. The first two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that women's attitudes towards sexually charged ads will change positively if the ad includes cues that the sexual behavior is linked to a commited relationship. As a result the hypothesis was correct; the negative attitudes towards sexual advertising was alleviated once the image was interpreted in terms of a relationship. The second experiment like the 1st experiment further proved the hypothesis that women's attitudes towards sexual advertising would stay negative unless there was a commitment portrayal in the image, this time using priming methods to heighten thoughts about a commital relationship. The female subjects that were primed with the idea of a commited relationship demonstrated more positive results towards sexually illustrated ads as opposed to the subjects that were primed with ideas of an uncommited relationship. To clarify the general versus directional theoretical perspectives (gender diiferences in motivations concerning sex, and the model of Sexual Economics Theory) experiments 3 and 4 were conducted and the results demonstrate if the direction of resource matters. Let's first discuss the Sexual Economics Theory (SEC) which states that because women have more power in the sexual exchange business, then women also have the power to demand resources from the man in order to complete the sexual exchange. Experiment 3's results were consistent with the SET view of sexual relations because the results suggested that women's attitudes improved once the ads showed directional thoughts of commitment from a man to a woman. To provide stronger support of the directional commitment in order for a women to increase positive attitudes towards se in ads experiment 4 was conducted. The results of experiment 4 concludes the fact that a directional-based influence of sexual advertisments from a man to a women helped increase positive female response. To summarize the four experiments; the first two were done to show that placing commitment related cues in the sex ads (experiment 1) and accesing thoughts about commitment prior to looking at an ad (experiment 2) both resulted in positive attitudes from women. Experiments 3 and 4 were done to demonstrate reactions from women and men while playing around with directionality in relationship commitments. Three and Four both proved that women felt more positive when the ads depicted men exchanging resources to women, than vice versa.
What Does This All Mean For Advertisers?:
While it is true that using sex in advertising captures attention we must ask ourselves if it works! The point of advertising is to remind consumers of the product/brand, and the job of an advertiser is to find ways to tip the balance beam, becoming aware of the psychology of advertising is a powerful tool, so when we use sex as a selling mechanism we must be aware of the sexual psychology and how men and women respond differently to it. Using the article, Sex in Advertising: Gender Differences and the Role of Relationship Commitment, it is true that because of women's dislike towards sex in advertisements we can also look at alternative ways to help alleviate negative feelings towards these ads. One way that advertisers can change the images of sex in advertising is by looking at the results of experiment 1. This experiment used two sexual ads: one with a man giving a women a gift and one without a gift. The ad with a gift represents the man exchanging a resource to a women for sex which results in a higher "like" rate for women. This means that advertisers should embrace SEC and give women their "power" in sex advertisements. The exchange that is discussed in SEC can be used in images like in experiment one's gift giving. Another way that advertisers can help improve women's attitudes towards sex in advertising is by looking at experiment 4. The idea that direction between men and women should be directed through a commitment signal from man to woman. There are many ways to incorporate the findings of the psychology of sex to advertising for women. Advertisers will see that the attitudes of women will be more favorable once they add cues which reflect commitment.
By: Irina Mishalov
Dahl, Darren W. and Sengupta, Jaideep and Vohs, Kathleen D (2009), "Sex in Advertising: Gender Differences and the Role of Relationship Commitment," Journal of Consumer Research, 215-230.
