Ethical Use of Sex in Advertising

The Ethical Issues of Using Sex in Advertising Today we live in a world where sex sells. Sex is used to sell everything. Advertisers use sex or sexual innuendoes in their ads to make a memorable impression on consumers. Unfortunately, many of those impressions are made on America’s children. Advertisers and marketers do not just create ads to promote their products; they also set a standard of what is attractive to the society. The public perceives sexuality as attractive and gives the attributions of an attractive person to advertisements with sexual images (Vega). Using sexuality to sell products has many ramifications to the companies and to the consumers themselves. Many advertisers use sexuality in a subconscious manner which does not allow consumers to actively think about the effect of an ad on their thought process. There are many instances where advertisements use sex to sell and because of this the question of ethics arises and must be debated. The marketing technique of using sex to sell products ranges from alcohol, to perfume, to clothing and portrays the increasing controversy that is arising over this issue in society.
Advertisements today are saturated with sexual images that affect every sex, race, and age group. Sex in advertisements affects the young because these ads teach them how to look and act sexy, which in the theory of the producer, will create positive reactions for the young people. The sexuality in advertisements may not exactly sell the product but it definitely grabs attention and forces the consumer to stop and look at the product closer. Much of the public has some sort of insecurity in their life. Advertisers play off of this in that they attempt to fill the consumer’s insecurities by their product and a fake sense of love and security. Dr. Moog, in her book Are They Selling Her Lips?, points out that when advertiser link products with sexuality, they lock in with people’s deepest fears of being