Sexual Content in Advertisements

“This society turns everything it touches into a potential source of progress and exploitation, of drudgery and satisfaction, of freedom and oppression. Sexuality is no exception.” (Marcuse, 153)

It is common knowledge that advertisers use sex within their advertisements because it has been shown that sex sells.  However, this has been a controversial aspect of advertisements because sometimes these advertisements produce very sexual content that is degrading and harmful to those represented. One can also look at the history of advertisements and see how many of these sexually explicit advertisements would have never been produced or considered, as advertisers would have worried about the uproar that it could potentially cause.  However, Marcuse state, “It has often been noted that advanced industrial civilizations operate with a greater degree of sexual freedom – “operates” in the sense that the latter becomes a market value and a factor of social mores.” (Marcuse, 151)  This is a perfect example of how now a days our society views sexuality very differently then it use to and because of this sexuality is now used as a marketing tool and we as a society have accepted this as a social norm.  However, like stated above there are still many people who push back against advertisements that sexualize people.  But even with push back many advertisements that show sexual content are not deemed as being sexual, due to our change of stance as a society of what is too sexual and what isn’t. One area of sexual content in advertisements that the majority of people push back against is when children are portrayed in sexual ways. Below are a few examples of advertisements that portray girls in sexual ways.

            One of the reasons that there is so much push back against advertisements that show children in a sexual manor, is not only due to the inappropriateness of it, but also because they fear that children will see this and feel that that is the way they should look or act. For instance, I know that the way I dressed and how much make up I wore in middle school is very different to how middle schoolers dress now for the most part.  Marcuse looks at this idea of how we can change the way we perceive something through being exposure to them. Even if we recognize that they may not be necessarily right or true, however through this exposure we begin to except them and the reproduce these ideas ourselves. “Just as people know and feel that advertisements and political platforms must not be necessarily true or right, and yet hear and read them and even let themselves be guided by them, so they accept the traditional values and make them part of their mental equipment.” (Marcuse, 139) The risk that we run by having advertisements that show children in explicit ways is that these children will see these advertisements enough and they will except that this is the way they should look or act and put that into their “mental equipment.” 

            As one can see when looking at these advertisements the ones that are produced by Cadeaux and Beaute appear to not seem as sexual as the other ones.  However, they are still very problematic. They show these young girls appearing to be dressed and wearing make-up like an 18-year or older model.  As well as they are position in positions like that of older models. This would make young girls feel that they are suppose to be glamorized and appear like these young girls in these advertisements.  

The perfume advertisement, like the Cadeaux and Beaute advertisements show a young girl wearing heavy makeup and being glamorized.  However, this ad takes it a step farther by having the young girl wearing nothing and having the headline be “Tiny Treasures.” This shows a young girl being shown in a sense as a sexual object to promote a perfume. 

The last one for the advertisement “pop that” is extremely inappropriate.  The girls appear to be middle school age and are shown wearing revealing neon clothes.  This alone is problematic because they are shown in a sexual manor at a very young age.  However, this becomes even more problematic when you add the headline “Pop that.” This is highly inappropriate due to the fact that this makes these young girls represented in a sexual manor and that it is referring to losing ones virginity.

            As you can see there are a lot of problematic reasons for why we should avoid having children represented in sexual ways in order to sell products.  This can be harmful to children’s perception of themselves and the way that they should look and act.  As well as, this can be seen as an ineffective method of advertising since so many people are against exploiting children in this manor and so this can backfire on a campaign.  Due to these reasons and for the protection of children we should never show children in a sexual way within advertising.

Work Cited 

Herbert. Marcus (2008). One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society. Boston: Beacon Press.