Sex Sells?
Human beings are saturated with visual sensory input. This kind of competition makes it very tough to be a designer of the new, cool and memorable. Many designers of commercial advertising have turned to the old schema that 'sex sells'. Well the information I'm handing you today is going to make it even tougher for many advertising and commercial designers who may still be relying on these old stereotypes.
"People think sex sells. Advertisers 'know it', TV and film producers believe it and the internet was built on it. But does sex really help sell products, or is it just one of those expressions ad execs use so they can while away an afternoon choosing models?"
Sex Doesn't Sell (Neither Does Violence)
According to these two recent and accredited studies, sex and violence in advertising does the exact opposite of it's intended result. It proved that for most women - the larger part of our purchasing audience on the internet and in brick and mortar stores - sexual or violent depictions actually "turn off" the memory. The ones that were remembered were not liked by most women. And for men, although they are more likely to remember the sexual aspects, the brand recall is erased.
"Earlier work has suggested that sex and violence in television programmes deter people from paying attention to advertisements, but speculated that this may be overcome by using sex in the commercials as well. The new work suggests that this view is mistaken. It would appear that sex does not sell anything other than itself."
The big turn off
Ok so what do people like? What does stick in the memory and leave good feelings in the viewer toward the product or business you are designing for?
I will tell you a secret.
If you design as if you are designing for a child - you are on the money every time. Apple knows this. Other great designers know this. Don't get me wrong here. You can have a very sophisticated ad schema, and still retain important childlike elements in the design. This is not a 'dumbing down' recipe, but a design recipe for attractiveness and brand remembrance for the average viewer. Here is a simplified list to work from.
Solid blocks of "friendly' colors.
Larger, bold, easy to read text.
Curved or rounded shapes.
Rhythmic shapes or designs.
Smooth flow or impressions of smooth movement.
Funny or quirky, non-threatening elements or images.
Observe a child watching a professionaly produced commercial. They rock to the music, clap their hands, laugh out loud, sing. And when you take them to the store they see those brands and remember them (and want them) every time.
That level of excitement and joy is what you are aiming for in commercial design for adults. So insofar as your client will allow, leave out the sex and violence and bring back the fun, the simple, the cool. If you need to, show your client the results of these studies. You, your client and his business will all benefit greatly.
good job athyrius! i'm with you on thinking and creating for/like a child; i'm sure this simple list is going to be 'eternal'. But watch the marketers try to create a 'simple, bold, colorful, funny...SEXY' formula that will still push the envelope! They'll cheer and agree with your formula at first - but run back to the brainstorming sessions to see how SEX can work with 'friendly' colors!
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mark jaquette @
illustrationISM &
BAMmGRAPHICS
I agree with you and, perhaps surprisingly, I think you would find that most major agencies and their clients would too.
"Sex Sells" is an adage that seems to be confined to, for want of a better word, the "lower" end of advertising.
I have worked for over forty years in TV advertisng and sat through more production meetings with agencies and clients than I care to contemplate. My experience is that, for the most part, they are very sensitive to this issue. I have seen many a girl rejected in castings because they were too sexy. Most major clients and agencies fight very shy of it. They are only too well aware of its abilty to alienate large sectors of the market. If they do choose to use it they will tend to do so very circumspectly in a manner calculated not to offend.
In TV of course there are also watchdogs to whom the public can, and do, complain. You would be amazed how few complaints it takes for a client to voluntarily pull their own advertsing. They are for the most part extremely image conscious.
Print is much harder to control and there are many obvious exceptions. Sports car, biker and 'lad' magazines, trash DVD's, use it targeted exclusively at males in manner that is definitely unlikely to appeal to women.
Products such as cosmetics, lingerie (I don't mean mail order rubber) use it, but consciously designed to appeal to women. It is usually inoffensive - except to those looking for offense.
Obviously it does crop up everywhere often consciously and sometimes perhaps more in the perceptions of the viewer than in the intentions of the maker.
I can't recall violence being used to sell anything except violence.
I agree with you about Apple, but they are a major player with a major image to protect. I haven't seen Microsoft using it either. I think you will find this to be true of almost all major players, except perhaps some alcoholic drink manufacturers, whose advertising can be questioned on a number of levels aside from sex, particularly when targeted at younger consumers.
Sadly it is the smaller cheaper advertisers, who lack the advice of the larger more experienced and expensive agencies to guide them, who fall into the trap of overt sex.
And yes .. it is a trap .. you are quite right, except where it clearly and intentionally reaches a carefully targeted audience, it is more likely to alienate than attract.
I am with you all the way and so, i believe, are the bulk of major advertisers.
A great topic to explore, Athyrius. One place to see to what extent sex and violence are being used by agencies is on Graphics.com Network site AdsOfTheWorld.org -- a fascinating collection that's updated daily.
I was doing a research on advertising and came upon this forum and was interested on the topic "sex sells" and continue to read on.
I am quite disappointed however, that advertisers used sex to promote and sell their products. However, painful it may seem and in denial we are, it work!
If "friendly" colors, LARGER and BOLD text grab the attention of children, then what drives and gave the extra push for adults and teenagers these days?
Recently Bob Herbert of the New York Times in his op-ed column wrote a very succinct and honest article on the media renditions of women. He is absolutely on the money. I have worked in the event, advertising and print arenas in Nevada and have watched the long evolution of advertising on cable and the internet- in the eye of the storm so to speak.
I have sat in advertising boardrooms and event coordination offices of some of the wealthiest companies in the U.S. and heard women spoken about as if they were meat to be dressed up, (or undressed) photoshopped to impossible perfection and trotted out to attract the consumer market.
The point being here that these psychological studies have shown that yes, sexuality garners attention. But those viewers will not remember your product or your brand. Using sexuality to sell simply does not work. It in fact distracts the mind from your message.
And Sarah- these studies prove it does not work. And examples of what do work for adults, the larger text, friendly bold colors - in particular I can reference the Ipod commercials. Proven to be one of the most popular and effective commercial themes of today.
David, you mention "I can't recall violence being used to sell anything except violence" - maybe you're proving the point re: recall, or perhaps we're all getting numb.
There are quite a few television advertisers using violence, I noticed this starting last year (2007). The most stunning examples were using violent imagery to try to sell cell phones & fast food; obviously trying to appeal to a younger target audience. I can't help but hope they all go down in flames (ug, that's violent!).
Alpha, obviously people are getting numb. In the 1980's a horrifying designer trend of depicting top fashion models as dead became popular. Murdered, hyper-emanciated 'heroin' models were the rage.
This still continues today. See this article on 'Americas Next Top Model'; 'Beautiful Corpses' episode.
http://www.wimnonline.org/WIMNsVoicesBlog/?p=467
"The lithe lot of ‘em are arrayed in awkward, broken poses, splayed out in cold concrete corridors, lifeless limbs positioned bloodily, just so, at the bottom of staircases, bathtubs and back alleys, mimicking their demise via stabbing, shooting, electrocution, drowning, poisoning, strangulation, decapitation and organ theft..."
It took a whole army of creative artists to produce this episode. Graphic Designers, interior decorators, photographers, videographers, video and photo editors, etc.
What if these creatives had said "No. I refuse to work on a project that glorifies the public death, dismemberment, and rape of women like my mother, sisters, wife, and friends to fatten the wallets of television producers." Believe me, this episode could not have been produced without us.
As creative artists we have a lot of power in our hands. It's time to start using it in a positive manner for the sake of our children, our families and society.
And it is time for consumers to 'un-numb' themselves long enough to look closely at the message behind the images they are being fed on a daily basis.
What about Axe?
That's all they use is SEX.
It gets worse: Axe is owned by Unilever, which also happens to own Dove - remember the "Evolution of Woman" and "Real Beauty" campaign? I don't know who's in charge over there but apparently they don't care, they just want to play the market as best as possible. "Tell women that they're beautiful just the way they are - as long as it gets them to buy our product; tell young men and women that you have to be as hot as possible to be worth anything - as long as it gets them to buy our product."