Researchers: Sex does not sell

Portrait of woman. Photo: Pixabay

Researchers: Sex does not sell

Researchers agree; Sex does not actually sell products.

 

– The advertisers need to take this seriously,  says Amanda Oxell in the Advertising Council, a Swedish Facebook group with 8,000 women who have picked up the gauntlet in the fight against sexualized advertising.

Professor in advertising at the Illinois University, John Wirtz, has analyzed 78 studies of sexual content in advertisements published in the last 30 years. He concludes that the assumption that sex sells is incorrect.

The result of the survey shows, among other things, that the purchasing power does not increase by sexualized advertising. It also shows that people’s view of the products often get worse and that many consider them less credible.

Where is the limit?

Especially women are negatively geared towards advertisements with sexual content. Oxell believes that the study can be a contribution to gender equality.

Advertising researcher, Raoul Galli, believes that it will eventually be less gender-discriminatory advertising, but that advertising with sexual content never will disappear completely.

– What is sex really? To use Zlatan in a comercial for Volvo where he flexes muscles, is that sex? I think we will never see advertisements that are completely clinically devoid of love and power, and sexuality is a part of that. It’s very basic human phenomenon, says Galli.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today