This article attempts to throw light on the increasing usage of sex appeal in advertising and critically evaluates a group of nine ads featuring different genders and different aspects of sex appeal.

Sex appeal in advertising is increasingly being used nowadays in many countries. Though extensive research on this issue has been done in countries abroad, very little research has been conducted in this area in India. As we all know, India has become one of the most attractive markets in the world and advertising has become one of its fastest-growing industries. Although foreign brands from Western countries are flooding into India, yet research on the psyche of Indian consumers is inadequate. Hence, international advertisers often face an obvious dilemma when they introduce foreign brands into India: Should they adopt a standardized or localized strategy and to what extent if they choose either of them? To answer these managerial questions, international advertisers need to understand how the Indian consumers respond to different advertising strategies, including sex appeal strategies. As an advertising strategy, sex appeal is no longer just adopted in the West; it is becoming highly visible, if not widely popular, in the Indian markets also.

In a broad sense, sex appeals can be defined as messages, whether as brand information in advertising contexts or as persuasive appeals in marketing contexts, which are associated with sexual information (Reichert et al., 2001). To be more specific, sex appeal can be defined as the extent of nudity used in advertising. One of the most important features of using sex appeal in advertising is that many a times pretty men and women are used who typically have no connection to the product being advertised. The basic purpose of using such images is to attract the attention of the potential customers and persuade him/her to buy the products.

Sex appeal has been used in advertising since time immemorial. Initially, this appeal was in the form of using attractive young women in the ads for soaps. In the mid-1960s, the use of sex appeal in advertising was more in the Western countries and became evident as more advertisers attempted to use this strategy to breakthrough the media clutter (La Tour and Henthorne, 1994). Also, over a period of time, sex appeal has become one of the most popular and effective tactics in mainstream consumer advertising in most of the Western countries, such as the US.

Advertising Express Magazine, Sex Appeal Advertising, Advertising Strategies, Indian Markets, Consumer Advertising, Television Commercials, Advertising Campaigns, Electronic Products, Social Messages, Marketing Advertisements, Religious Sentiments.