Sex in Advertising

Sex in Advertising: Perspectives on the Erotic Appeal is the first book to thoroughly tackle important issues about sex in advertising. What is it? Does it work? How does it affect individuals and society? Well-respected scholars and popular writers answer these questions as they address the following issues associated with sex in today's advertising environment: gender differences and representation, unintended social effects, subliminal embeds, appeals to the homosexual community, and new media. The book contains a blend of perspectives, including original experimental studies, interpretive and historical analyses, and cultural critiques. The definitive source on sex in advertising, this book: *is centralized around a singular theme: Understanding how sex in advertising appeals work and why they are so prevalent; *includes multiple perspectives to capture the richness of sexual appeals; *brings together viewpoints from both well-known scholars and writers; *provides a wealth of ideas and research questions for those interested in the topic; and *contains discussions of sex in advertising from its roots in the 1700s to online advertising today and beyond. The book is must reading for advertising and gender researchers, scholars, and students. Anyone interested in mass media, consumer psychology, and popular culture will find this book an essential resource.

This book examines the representation, impact, and issues relating to the control and regulation of sex in the media. It covers work that has been conducted around the world on the depiction of sex in the mainstream mass media, especially the audio-visual media of film, television, and video, and the alleged effects that such content may have upon media consumers. In addition to reviewing the research on the effects of media sex, the book also examines what is known about public opinion concerning sex in the media. A key theme running through the book is whether the evidence about media sex can be taken at face value. Are the methodologies used by researchers to investigate media sex problematic? Have they yielded data that can be questioned in terms of validity and reliability? Media Sex questions whether media sex poses a serious problem for most viewers of mainstream media. It acknowledges that there may be serious issues relating to the causation of public offense and the cultivation of anti-women attitudes and beliefs that need to be addressed in productions where more extreme forms of sexual conduct are combined with violent and sadistic behavior. With the unrelenting growth of media, media consumers demand and are given greater personal control over the reception of media content. The notion of freedom of speech conflicts with the view that media content needs to be centrally regulated and controlled. This conflict creates problems for regulatory organizations and the legislators in nation states in which freedom of the press is legally protected. The book examines the debate surrounding this conflict.

Profiling such luminaries as P. T. Barnum, John Wanamaker, and Harley Procter, this book examines the contributions that several prominent individuals have made to advertising in America. The work opens with a discussion of Colonial advertising and the printers who created it and then turns to early advertising agents, such as Francis Wayland Ayer. The great promoter P. T. Barnum's contributions are considered, as is John Wanamaker's impact on retail advertising. The book then examines the advertising style of Albert Lasker, owner of the Lord and Thomas advertising agency, as well as Procter & Gamble and the advertising of "Ivory soap." Elliot White Springs's use of sex in advertising and the Spring's Cotton Mills advertising campaign of the 1940s and 1950s concludes the volume.

This volume synthesizes and advances existing knowledge of consumer response to visuals. Representing an interdisciplinary perspective, contributors include scholars from the disciplines of communication, psychology, and marketing. The book begins with an overview section intended to situate the reader in the discourse. The overview describes the state of knowledge in both academic research and actual practice, and provides concrete sources for scholars to pursue. Written in a non-technical language, this volume is divided into four sections: Image and Response-illustrates the difficulty encountered even in investigating the basic influences, processes, and effects of "mere exposure" to imagery. Image and Word-presents instances in which the line between words and pictures is blurred, such as the corporate logo which is often pictorial in nature but communicates on an abstract level usually attributed to words. Image and the Ad-contributes to our appreciation for the exquisite variations among advertising texts and the resultant variability in response, not only to different ads but among different viewers of the same ad. Image and Object-carries the inquiry of visual response over the bridge toward object interaction. Having traveled a path that has gone from the precise working of the brain in processing visual stimuli all the way to the history of classical architecture, readers of this volume has a new respect for the complexity of human visual response and the research that is trying to explain it. It is of interest to those involved in consumer behavior, consumer psychology, advertising, marketing, and visual communication.