MEDIA INFLUENCES INVESTIGATION

SEX IN THE MEDIA!

Daniel Batchelor

Media is the widest form of selling because it happens globally. Sex has been a form of advertising since it first began but only in the past decade has sex been introduced to sell products to younger people. In my opinion 10 years ago it was deemed unethical for a child under 16 to be introduced into sex. Now it’s the largest form of selling through the media. I am going to find out how media uses sex to sell products and how some adverts have been banned for being too sexual.

Using sex to sell is something that intrigued me because it provokes such a wide response globally. There have been so many different adverts banned because they were deemed too sexual or perverted and I thought this would be a good route to go down because it is something that won’t stop happening because it sells so many products.

Clothing ranges like ‘Calvin Klein’ has had multiple dealings with using sex to sell in there adverts. In 1995 a ‘Calvin Klein’ advert was banned. The campaign showed teenage models in provocative poses wearing nothing but ‘Calvin Klein’ jeans and underwear. This provoked people into making a negative response to these ads and later they were banned. Here is a link to the advert.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZVk21Pco-c

I personally think this advert was banned for good reason because I found it quite disturbing. I found the voice was horribly creepy and the way he talked to the actors was in a perverted manner. I think the person who came up with the idea for this advert may have seen it as a thought provoking advert but I don’t think people could look past the creepiness of the advert and I think that’s why it was banned.

One of the most famous pieces of advertising that was banned was the ‘Wonderbra’ advert. This advert was seen as a very provocative advert because of the way Eva Herzigova famously said “Hello, Boys” whilst she was looking down at her chest. I personally think that this advert is a fine advertising campaign and should never have provoked the response it got but this was widely seen as unacceptable across the world. This is the photograph that made Eva Herzigova a household name;

People thought that she was too young but the main stir behind this advert was of where her eye line was when she famously said “Hello, Boys”. This provoked a lot of people because they thought it was too sexually inviting but I think looking at it now there are a lot more adverts that are far more sexually inviting than this one and as for revealing too much flesh I disagree. The advert is to promote the sale of Wonderbras so I think that it is necessary to at least have a bra showing on the advert. I think people were quick to judge this advert and how sexual it actually is because I don’t think it is sexual enough to ban nowadays but it worked in selling the product because Wonderbra is still a brand today and I think often that because the advert was banned it gave Wonderbra more publicity so it worked in their favour having the advert banned.

One of the most recent adverts I’ve found to be banned because of explicit imagery is this one by ‘American Apparel’. The advert on the right is the advert in question. This advert is to promote a fleeced jacket.

In my opinion this advert was banned because the girl in the advert looks very young and the pictures are almost pornographic. This advert was only banned in the UK by the UK standards officials because it was deemed to be too provocative and child porn-like and I only agree with this for the bottom 3 pictures. I think those 3 pictures reveal too much of the girl who does look underage. I think this advert is more provocative and exposing then the advert on the page before of Eva Herzigova because that advert was promoting the sale of bras but this advert is only trying to sell a fleece so why does it have to be so revealing?

I don’t think this advert was intentionally made to seem pornographic but I think it does seem that way and because the girl looks underage it would kick up a bad response from people so I agree with the decision to ban this advert.

Another advert that was banned last year which I found was one by ‘Agent Provocatuer’.’ Agent Provocatuer’ is a lingerie company and the advert was banned for being too sexual because it gave off the impression of sex. This advert contained a familiar face to the public, Kylie Minogue. Here is a link to the advert. http://vodpod.com/watch/1224641-kylie-minogue-agent-provocateur-lingerie-banned-advert

I think although lingerie is for women this advert was reaching out to men in relationships. I think they did this on purpose and having Kylie Minogue in the advert reached out to men more because she is an icon and that is how they would imagine there partners in the lingerie.

I think this a fun and tasteful advert and in my opinion it wasn’t sexual enough to be banned but I think because it was Kylie and a lot of people look upto her that was the reason it was banned because she could influence people who aren’t at a legal age.

After all the adverts I have looked at I think that sometimes the more powerful adverts that stick in your memory sometimes contain sex in them. I found that not all of the adverts I looked at should have been banned but I think they were banned for a reason but sometimes the reason is too far-fetched and the people who ban these adverts read into the adverts more then the average person. My personal view on sexualising adverts is that it shouldn’t offend its audience and it should be tasteful. Some of the adverts I found that were banned years ago are even less provocative then the ones I found had been recently banned. I think this is because people were more sensitive to children being exposed to sex and people are more open to the term “Sex Sells”. I think this is a good thing just aslong as the adverts don’t influence children.