The Emergence And Effects Of Sex On Advertising - 2289 Words

John Gavin Mark Abraham HST 658 16 November 2014 The Emergence and Effects of Sex in Advertising When advertising emerged in the 19th century, sex was already being used as a tool to sell products, services or brands. The advertisements usually feature an image of a beautiful woman or man who is either nude or even suggestively sexual, which typically has no connection to the product being advertised. Advertisers know that good-looking models in advertisements serve as a reason to buy the brand. The first recorded use of sex in advertisements was during the 1890’s when a cigarette company inserted trading cards of women who were dressed suggestively sexual. Comic book companies in the 1950s were using violence and sexuality to sell their†¦show more content†¦Women are often used in advertisements showing some sort of sexual behavior to sell a product or service. The earliest known use of sex in advertising was in the 19th century in 1885, where James Buchanan Duke, president of W. Duke Sons, committed to using adv ertising as a means of increasing sales, he did this by inserting trading cards into cigarette packs that showed women who are dressed provocatively. After 5 years, W. Duke Sons became one of the largest manufacturers of cigarettes in America. (Porter 31) Even though the trading cards inserted in the cigarette packs were not related to the product at all, it just shows the effectiveness of using sex in advertising to sell a product. After this success more companies and services started using sex in their advertisements, where they would use men or women and expose them sexually even if it does not relate to the product they are advertising. The print advertisers are portraying women as a sexual object in order to gain more sales and readers, when the women in the advertisements did not relate to anything that was going on in the magazine. (Kerin, Lundstrom and Sciglimplaglia 39) During this time, a lot of women were already aware that women in advertising are being portrayed impro perly. In a study done by Lundstrom and