CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1             Background to the Study

Media and advertising in the 21st century are unavoidable to consumers. Many research studies (Mullen, and Johnson, 1990; Bauer, and Greyser, 1968; Mehta, 2000; Hawkins et al, 2001 etc.), have examined the profound effects of advertising and its influence on shifting attitudes, evoking emotions, and modifying lifestyle choices , and playing significant role in the consumption of goods and services, (Horne, 2006).

Over the years advertising has evolved into a powerful marketing tool that any business organization who want to succeed in their line of business must recon with. According to American Marketing Association, (1985) marketing is defined as: “The process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.” Advertising is one of the “promotional tools” used in marketing endeavors, as one means of communication between the seller (advertiser) and the buyer (consumer or organization). Hence advertising is defined as: “Any paid form of non-personal presentation of goods, services, or ideas by an identified sponsor (advertiser).” (Berkowitz et al., 1991).

This definition separates advertising from other forms of promotion, namely publicity and personal selling. Advertising is “paid” for, as opposed to publicity, which is “free”. Advertising is also “non-personal” implying no “personal selling” and is created for communication with a mass population. Advertisers play on several different tactics to get people interested in their products, the humor, self-esteem, peer pressure and many other things, but one tactic that is most popular and the most effective is using sex in advertising depending on the type of product, because it plays upon the biological needs of every single human being (Gallagher, 2016),.

No matter what the product may be, ranging from shampoo to beer, get a beautiful person in there, the audience will be tricked into thinking that may be they can be/have that beautiful person. The use of women and how they are posed is actually a very precise art, starting with human biology. For instance, in most feature and health magazines there is a gorgeous model staring at you with that ever so seductive appearance. Graphic artists have become the beneficiaries of this technological age: splicing and stretching, they can turn any woman into a ‘goddess’. Baudrillard (2004) correctly perceives that “advertising assumes the role of the female.” He argues that “consumers think they know what they want; advertisers offer that which they desire.”

The benefits of using physically attractive models in marketing communications is not limited simply to generating more attention and interest in the advertisements, but also can provide other advantages such as the continues usage of the product being advertised. Research has revealed an overall ‘beauty is good’ stereotype (Eagly et al., 1991), in which attractive female models are subconsciously associated with other, unrelated, traits, such as possessing a higher degree of social competence. Advertising effectiveness is also positively affected by the attractiveness of the models used (Halliwell and Dittmar, 2004). When the attractiveness of the model is manipulated, there is a significant difference in effectiveness, independently of whether or not the model is of an average or thin body size. In order that viewers like an ad and are pushed to make a purchase, it is essential to craft advertising messages such that they elicit the desired response. In doing so, when women are portrayed in ads, it becomes important the type of portrayal preferred by the viewers.

The media seems to give more equality to female images and female models are increasingly shown in advertisements to sell products that may/ may not be directly related to them (Kang, 2002). The media is generally charged with depicting women as “sex objects” that can grab attention and interest of viewers. The underlying messages emphasize sexuality, often presenting women as sex objects (Katharina, 2004). Sex is another emotion that has been successfully employed by advertisers in promoting jeans, perfumes, alcohol, watches, personal products and cars (Chatterji, 2006). Many psychologists believe that the skilled manipulation of sexual appeals in visual images, in copy or in both, may arouse subconscious desires that manifest themselves in the, purchase of the product or service. In other instances, such advertising proves to be damaging or simply ineffective but is still used because there are few appeals in advertising that equal its attention-getting value. However, sex appeals are interpreted differently from person to person, time to time, region to region, country to country and society to society. Even the same person reacts to them differently at different stages of his life-cycle. Therefore, the advertiser must be sure that the product, the advertisement, the target, audience and the use of sexual themes and elements all match up to make the appeal effective.

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