Sex in Advertising

The men's hygiene brand "Axe" is well known for its somewhat racy advertisements which can be very persuasive, especially to young men. A recent commercial for Axe body spray begins with a beautiful woman in a bikini running with great determination through the forest. Soon after, hundreds of other women in bikinis are shown running with the same determination through all types of terrain, some of them even swimming through the ocean. Eventually all of the women gather around a man who is spraying himself with an Axe product. The commercial ends with the man smiling. This is what we would call sex appeal in advertising. Sex appeal is one of the strongest and most used tools in advertising. This type of advertising uses sex to grab the viewers attention and then draws this attention to the product being advertised. A common feature in commercials using sex appeal is nudity, and scantily dressed, attractive people. Sex appeal in advertising is based around the idea that "sex sells" and when a product is connected to sexuality, people are more likely to purchase it. This is true in the case of this particular Axe commercial (and basically for all Axe commercials). The idea being portrayed in this commercial is that because this man is using Axe, all of these beautiful women must have him. Along with the fact that everyone in this commercial is practically naked, it is very clear that this commercial is using sex appeal. This type of advertisement is persuasive to young men, because although it is clearly very exaggerated, it makes them believe that women are very attracted to a man who uses Axe. This type of advertisement also works on women, because it makes them believe that they should be attracted to a man who uses Axe.