1. Selling Sex Survey
Results
1) Who would be the target demographic of these ads?
Males answered mostly men ages from 8-40 years old.
Females answered some women and men in there mid 20ʼs.
2) Do you think that these ads are effective?
Males answered 3 yes and 3 not al all.
Females answered 3 yes and 1 no.
3) Would you buy any of these product?
Males answered 3 yes and 3 no.
Females answered 2 yes and 2 no.
4) Do sexual images influence you when purchasing products?
Males answered 4 yes and 2 not at all.
Females answered 2 yes and 2 no, one also mentioned they just make her
feel bad about her body.
5) Does adverting with sexual images help sell products?
Males answered 5 yes and 1 no.
Females answered 3 yes and 1 no.
6) Do you think you would be more sexually attractive if you purchased any
of these products?
Males answered 3 yes and 3 no.
Females answered 1 yes and 3 no.
2. My objective of the Selling Sex Survey was to determine if sexually
explicit images influence people and their product purchases. This survey
was a difficult task to get started. When I asked people if they were
interested in taking a sex survey it caught them by surprise, maybe it was
my working in the question. After I explained what my objective was with
the survey, some felt better about taking it, others refused to take it (mostly
girls). In doing my research about this topic I used images from a divers
rang of magazines; from Sports Illustrated, Women's Health to locally
printed Salt Lake Under Ground. Finding the right pictures was easier than
I realized, sexually explicit images used to sell product is everywhere in
todays society, even to sell a slice of pizza here in Utah.
I saw the same concept in all the pictures. Advertisers have a way of
using a limited version of sex. People see a uniformed heterosexual
version that present men as active sex subjects and women as passive
sexually objects. Almost three times as many ads use sex as a selling
message, in many cases as a primary reason for buying or using the
product.
There were many things that males and females agreed on and a
couple things that showed greater differences. The greatest differences
3. were found in what men and women find acceptable in print media
advertising. In general the women tended to be more conservative on what
they though was appropriate, and men were more accepting of explicit
sexuality. In general as the ads became more sexual both males and
females were not more likely to purchase the products.
The one thing I found most interesting was, regardless of the sexual
content of the ad most people I asked did not know what the ad was selling
if it did not outright told them. Finally, I felt that overt sexuality in advertising
is very affective, extremely relevant, and generally accepted in todayʼs
society.
