Does sex sell? How persuasive is sexual persuasion in advertising? A recent presentation I gave on socio-sexual norms and how they're reflected in advertising. Material taken from, 'The Better Mousetrap: Brand Invention in a Media Democracy' (Kogan Page, 2012).

1. DRUGS
I wouldn’t recommend...
DRUGS or INSANITY
INSANITY
for everyone,
but they’ve always
worked for me.
INSANITY
Hunter S Thompson (1939–2005)

2. Men think about SEX
every seven seconds.
That‘s the popular
myth, buoyed by all
those rotating articles
in Maxim and Cosmo.
Research carried out in
2010 scaled it back:
‗the average male turns
their thoughts to sexual
intercourse 13 times a
day – a total of 4,745
times every year. In
comparison, women think
about sex just five
times day – or 1,825
times a year.)
Source: The Better Mousetrap (2012)

3. The adage ‗sex sells‘ is etched in the
earliest-inscribed tablets of advertising theory
to make their way down off Mount Madison...
But the perennial doubters and new-order thinkers
remain justly entitled to ask,
‘But does it?’
Does sex persuade purchase?
Source: The Better Mousetrap (2012)

4. Fashion
brand Sisley
‗doing a
Wonderbra‘
(2007).

5. And that Wonderbra poster, by TBWA (1995).
Market: UK

6. There‘s no question that
the use of semi-clad,
half-naked and evocatively
posed models is going to
cause strong physiological
and cognitive responses in
any viewer with a
heartbeat.
A rise in skin
temperature, pupil
dilation, increased heart
rate, all are quite likely
– and likely hoped for by
those responsible for
making the ad.
This flavour of
advertising very
consciously tries to put
its viewer ‘in
the frame’, creating
mental scenario and
inferred outcome.
Source: The Better Mousetrap (2012)

7. From adidas, the
close-to-surface
subtext:
Look what will
happen to you when
you wear
our trainers...

8. How much do you enjoy the ad
of the hot brunette in the
skimpy tank-top winking at
you?
How much do you enjoy that
image of the college hunk with
the cubed abdominals blue-
steeling into the breeze?
Once you make the link that
it’s American Apparel, or
Abercrombie, or whomever, how
do you then feel about that
brand?
Source: The Better Mousetrap (2012)

9. The more
suggestive, more
explicit, more
provocative, more
indecent, the stronger
the reaction, whether
favourable or negative.
A
scandalous, sensationali
st campaign can wake up
the world, get the
blogosphere
spinning, the whispering
classes whispering, the
tabloids in a tizz.
Create buzz, and you‘ve
got people actively
looking for ‗that ad...
with the guy...
with the enormous...‘Source: The Better
Mousetrap (2012)

10. While it‘s easy to
marvel and appal at the
social mores of decades
past, how many leaps
and bounds have we
truly made in the name
of sexual equality?
Source: The Better
Mousetrap (2012)

12. D&G had to be angling for Absolute
Outrage with this 2006 print
execution. This “Gang Rape as
Fashionista Fairy Tale” was later
pulled.
Source: The Better Mousetrap (2012)

13. Men and women don‘t, of
course, respond to the
same universal
set of turn-ons.
One man‘s ‗bit of
healthy fun‘ can easily
be a woman‘s lifetime
crusade for legislation
change.
As Billy Crystal put
it:
‘Women need a reason
to have sex. Men just
need a place.’
Source: The Better
Mousetrap (2012)

14. Life imitates parody...
CRAZY PEOPLE (1990)
―Jaguar — For men who'd
like hand-jobs from
beautiful women they
hardly know.‖
Right:
Print ad for the launch of
Jaguar‘s new XJ (Euro
RSCG, 2007).

15. Life imitates parody... CRAZY PEOPLE (1990)
For the Bahamian Tourist Board: ―Come… IN the Bahamas.‖
Above:
Aruba Tourism Authority won the ―Best Poster‖ category at the
2010 Travel Marketing Awards for their ―Oooh‖
campaign, inviting tourists to come to their ―happy island‖.

16. And maybe that‘s the thing with sexual innuendo and suggestion. It
doesn‘t work if it‘s too subtle. It can only be, by definition, Really
Rather Obvious.

17. In the case of advertising, the headline holds firm. Sex sells... so
long as you do it well. Life and advertising has many a parallel.

18. Material taken from ‗The Better
Mousetrap‘ (Kogan page, 2012).
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―Gloriously smart.‖
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wild cat than a mousetrap.‖
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