Sex Sells!

Sex sells a common phrase which turns out to be very truthful and also the title of Rodger Streitmatter’s book, Sex Sells! The Medias Journey from Repression to Obsession. It seems like no other human act drives “buying behavior” as much as sex appeal does. Therefore advertisers manipulate this human drive and than offer their products as a path of love, beauty and desirability which is their main purpose of advertising. In other words the main purpose of advertising is to sell products and what advertisers must do to get people to buy these products is to make products desirable to the chosen target consumers. The pioneering of bringing prurience to advertising was Calvin Klein, starting with women’s jeans going then to men’s underwear and ending up with perfume for both sexes at the end. Perfume advertising is a large contributor to sex appeal. In both ads for Opium and Dolce & Gabbana perfumes advertisers use sexual seduction and influence to sell their product. They use sex appeal to grab our attention and play with our fears and desires and they manipulate us by fulfilling our erotic fantasies and dreams.

Advertisers use whatever they can to attract the reader. From a sexual appealing look to a word. One of the most helpful approaches is sex of course which can capture anyone's attention. The ad for Opium perfume depicts a young brunet that has nicely shaped body and wears nothing but golden slippers, necklace and bracelet. Model is laying down seeming like she is enjoying herself and maybe experiencing orgasm. Again in Dolce & Gabbana ad, we see man and woman having passionate foreplay; with one hand he is pulling her bra strap down while with other touching her breast … and she is taking her panties off. In this ad, the naked female body and idea of sex is used to get the image of their product into the reader’s memory. “Newsweek…wrote: The strategy is that, while the consumer studies the picture, the designer’s name melts into the brain. And a big part of the message that was melting in was sexual.” (Streitmatter, pp. 123) Anyhow, both ads use sexual attention to grab reader’s attention. This is exactly what Calvin Klein had intended he wanted to “make sure, first and foremost, that anyone who was thumbing through the pages of a magazine would stop and look at the ads.” (Streitmatter, pp. 122)

In both ads it seems like the advertisers are trying to sell sex and associate their product (perfume) with sexual pleasures. Dolce & Gabbana uses two young people a man to represent a man’s fragrance and women to represent women’s. This was first created by Calvin Klein in 1985 with his perfume ad for Obsession, in which there was a male fragrance and a female fragrance. They are placed in sexual position and are extremely close together. His biceps are visible which suggests his dangerous side. He seems to be presenting every woman’s dream man. Every woman dreams of being with a dangerous man at least once. The advertisement allows woman to picture herself in the place of the female model, and by allowing the image to take place a woman thinks that by wearing the fragrance she too can experience the dangerous side of life. The men are also allowed to think of themselves as being in the advertisement. They can imagine themselves there in place of the male with the female. She represents every man’s dream woman. She is beautiful woman who is gazing into his eyes with look that says “take me”. She is allowing him to touch her breasts and kiss her passionately. They are very comfortable with each other and they give the illusion that they have been looking for each other and now when they are together they will have a night to remember. Opium advertisement also allows the mind to think that the fragrance is a sure way to accomplish sexual pleasure. The girl in the ad is seducing the camera with her tastefully curved body beautiful face, burning red hear and mouth slightly open with hot pink lip-gloss. She seems as though she knows what she is doing when it comes to seducing someone. She makes the whole seducing scene seem like anyone can be seductive as long as you wear Opium. Again this ad also suggests that she doesn’t need a man to give her happiness and pleasure. Being alone and wearing this amazing fragrance is good enough to satisfy her urges and desires.

In 1983 Calvin Klein ventured on a new path which contained the male sex object as an advertising tool. This path was used to sell men’s underwear because “women bought 70 percent of all men’s underwear.” (Streitmatter, pp. 121) Masculine, sexy looking model in Dolce & Gabbana ad is used to provide sexual stimulation’s towards a female audience while use of attractive female models catch attention of predominately male audience. Men love to see an attractive woman. Women typically see the female models as beautiful and attractive