The popular notion is, sex sells. Academic research suggests otherwise. However, Madison Avenue continues to use sex to sell products. The intriguing question that still remains unanswered is, how and why sex sells?
Freud said, `sex is everything'. We witness that sex is ubiquitous. Advertising is no exception. Advertisers either explicitly or suggestively use sex to sell products. Extensive academic research in this area till date reveals that using explicit sexual content in an ad does more harm than benefit to the brand. The belief is that the consumer out of his limited cognitive processing abilities, allocates maximum attention for processing and executing the elements of a sexy ad and, hence, can spare little attention to process brand information.
Another theory that attempts to explain the role of sex in advertising is the self-concept theory. According to which, a viewer identifies himself/herself in two states, `Actual' self-concept and `Ideal' self-concept when he/she evaluates a sexy ad. Based on the role of spokesperson (for example: a sexy model/actor), the viewer would `project' himself/herself like the model (actual self-concept) or `aspire' to be the model (ideal self-concept).
Developments in the field of neuroscience perhaps, help us understand how the brain responds (or reacts?) to sexual stimuli. In a study, "The psychopharmacology of pictorial pornography restructuring brain, mind and memory and subverting freedom of speech", by Judith A Reisman, 3 quoting Emotional Intelligence fame, Daniel Goleman says, "pictorial images have a more immediate and profound physical effect on the viewer than verbal or textual information, especially visual pornography" (explicit sexual advertising is often referred to as `commercial pornography').
Whenever the brain encounters such a stimuli, even 1/1000 part of a second exposure is enough to create a lasting impression. In a recent study by Dr. Chris Chambers of the University of Melbourne noticed that, the angular gyrus region of the brain is responsible for all attention dynamics. |
