Sexuality has been a major issue of concern in marketing and advertising. Sex advertising method is used to attract attention from the targeted audience. Consumers have been exposed to sexual content in advertising in the 20 th century more than before. Sex portrayal in advertising occurs in many forms, from nudity, sex-orientation themes, to attract the targeted audience’s attention (Alam et al., 2019) . However, sex in advertising has been under scrutiny due to its implication to certain consumer groups, such as children. Likewise, conservative societies deem these ads as offending, especially with the way women are portrayed in modern society. Therefore, there are ethical concerns with using sexually-oriented stimuli in advertising.
There are moral concerns about using sex to promote products. The use of sexually charged advertising influences the way societies perceive women. In contemporary societies, women are deemed as sex objects, which has led to sexual harassment. Likewise, sex ads have led to self-objectification, and this has affected women mostly. According to Rollero & De Piccoli (2017), “ self-objectification occurs when individuals treat themselves as objects to be viewed and evaluated based upon appearance ” (p.1). The use of sex models in advertising can influence the way people perceive their body image and can have a damaging consequence. Moreover, sex adverts can have a damaging impact on children.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Despite the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) passing the Parental Advisory Label (PAL) in 1985 to warn the parents that the content contains explicit content not suitable for children, advertisers are still bending this rule. For instance, Paris Hilton's ads contain explicit content but do not give parental advisory. Such ads corrupt the morals of the children within societies, especially when the models are well-known to these children.
References
Alam, Md. M., Aliyu, A., & Shahriar, S. (2019). Presenting Women as Sexual Objects in Marketing Communications: Perspective of Morality, Ethics and Religion. SSRN Electronic Journal . https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3595655
Rollero, C., & De Piccoli, N. (2017). Self-Objectification and Personal Values. An Exploratory Study. Frontiers in Psychology , 8 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01055
