sex as a marketing strategy

so what responsibilities does the world of advertising have to the general population?
in a society where adverts are part of everyday life, we may not realize the impact that advertising actually has on us. sometimes it is obvious; you see an advert, you want the product.
sometimes it is not so.
for example, many pop stars and celebrities are blamed for giving young children [girls in particular] the 'wrong idea'. Britney Spears, who for much of her career towed the very thin line between attractive and provocative, has often been criticized by the press for influencing young girls to dress and behave in a more sexual and provocative manner. in using her sex appeal to sell her records and gain status and fame, her record company has also exposed her younger and more easily influenced fans to the idea of 'sexy'.
a single example off the top of my head [because i grew up listening to britney hahaha] she is not the first and most certainly not the last mainstream star to be marketed in such a way.
sex appeal has become a very popular [and often effective] form of advertising. certain products, such as perfumes, are particularly partial to using imagery with sexual connotations in their campaigns, as explained in this article.

ethical advertising

i just thought id post an interesting quote about ethics and advertising, which i found quite thought-provoking.

"What is the difference between unethical and ethical advertising;? Unethical advertising ues falsehoods to deceive the public; ethical advertising uses truth to deceive the public."

Vilhjalmur Stefansson, anthropologist, (1879–1962)


sums it up pretty well actually.

x sylvia

Viral Advertising

advertising has had to evolve over the years as people become immune to its effects. on average, a person will see anything between 30 and 3,000 adverts in a day, and most of those have very little effect on them. 'shockvertising' is one new form of advertising that has emerged to combat its ineffectiveness. another newer form of promotion is something known as 'Viral Advertising'.
in Wikipedia, it is defined as; Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. The basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable.

basically, viral advertising works via word-of-mouth, promoted by the fans themselves, because they get something out of it, often inciting the curiosity of the fans and allowing them to interact with the campaign.

one particularly successful example of viral advertising is the current promotional campaign for the new Batman film. this link leads to an explanation of part of the viral advertising campaign where fans had to promote the website and get as many of their friends and acquaintances as possible in on it in order to uncover a hidden picture.

so much cooler thn normal advertising methinks =]

x sylvia

More Shockvertising [warning: disturbing imagery]

shockvertising has proved in the past to be extremely effective. it operates on the assumption that the old saying all publicity is good publicity is true. the images are shocking, contraversial and often disturbing. iv included a link to a count-down of the top 50 shockvertisements.


they include a french anti-AIDS campaign


and an anti-whaling campaign


pretty, isnt it.

x sylvia

examiners report && brainstorming

right, just for my own personal benefit im posting a link to a copy of the examiners report on advertising in this post.
the following extract from it i feel is extremely important;
many drift into a general discussion of a variety of media forms (especially magazines and TV) and few stop to consider the aims and purpose of advertising itself.
now im glad i read this, because as i mentioned in my last post, we can all sum up the purpose of advertising; to make you spend your money. which may lead you to ask (and why is it that all my answers lead to more questions?!?) is advertising the driving force behind consumerism? and more importantly why? what is it that makes people want to go out and buy a product because they saw it on tv/in a magazine/on a billboard?
i think some questionnaires and things are in order...

x sylvia

Adbusters

when looking at advertising and in particular its links with consumerism, you cant help but look at the parodies found on adbusters.org, a non-profit, anti-consumerist organisation, who have described themselves as "a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age."
full of interesting articles on anti-consumerism, stopping global warming, making the world a better place and other such happy things. it contains many 'spoof ads' also known as 'subvertisements' which are a direct parody of real adverts.
although they are not adverts in a conventional sense, they can be seen as commenting on the ideologies that these adverts support or portray.
The following is an advert for Absolut Vodka, and one its adbusters counterparts


pretty cool =]
clicky for more subvertisements.
the subvertisement suggests many things; firstly it is saying VODKA MAKES YOU IMPOTENT. i think we all managed to see that. what it is also pointing out is that advertising does not tell you the whole story. in fact, advertising may not necassarily tell you any of the story. advertising tells you 'BUY THIS PRODUCT' and it does so to earn money. advertising does not care if you turn impotent because of something it told you to do. it brings to light the question
is advertising moral?
to which an obvious answer in this case, and in many cases that im sure you can think of, the answer will be no.
this brings to light another question;
CAN advertising be moral?
hmmm....

x sylvia

shockvertising

public health warnings and charity adverts are becoming increasingly graphic, using shock tactics and attention-grabbing images or taglines to get their message across.
THIS is the link to an article about new anti binge-drinking campaigns launched by the home office, which are to be shown in the evenings to capture their target audience.

THIS ARTICLE, although slightly older, talks about 'shockvertising', focusing on graphic, hard-hitting ads such as the barnados add showing a baby heroin addict.

x sylvia