A Study of the Effectiveness of Using Sexual Appeals In-store in the Fashion Industry

ABSTRACT Sexual appeal is one of the most common and widely used strategies in mainstream consumer advertising. The use of sexual appeals in advertisements seems to be increasingly popular today. Upon the effectiveness of sexual appeals elicit, an apparent fashion retail store has started to adopt this strategy and communicated in-store using posters and also decorative female and male models. However, there is lack of academic literature on sexual appeals being communicated in a physical store environment using models to attract attention, despite the growing trend. Therefore, this research aims to provide a holistic view of effectiveness of using sexual appeals in the fashion store as a medium. The research uses literature from advertising context and examined if similar results can be produced in a store medium. In-depth interview and focus group interviews are used to generate detailed information and responses. Findings showed that the use of decorative female models in suggestive dressing as in-store sexually appeal do creates initial attention. However, attitude towards the store, the brand and behavioral intentions varies by gender of respondents and at time individuals

A Study of the Effectiveness of Using Sexual Appeals In-store in the Fashion Industry

ABSTRACT Sexual appeal is one of the most common and widely used strategies in mainstream consumer advertising. The use of sexual appeals in advertisements seems to be increasingly popular today. Upon the effectiveness of sexual appeals elicit, an apparent fashion retail store has started to adopt this strategy and communicated in-store using posters and also decorative female and male models. However, there is lack of academic literature on sexual appeals being communicated in a physical store environment using models to attract attention, despite the growing trend. Therefore, this research aims to provide a holistic view of effectiveness of using sexual appeals in the fashion store as a medium. The research uses literature from advertising context and examined if similar results can be produced in a store medium. In-depth interview and focus group interviews are used to generate detailed information and responses. Findings showed that the use of decorative female models in suggestive dressing as in-store sexually appeal do creates initial attention. However, attitude towards the store, the brand and behavioral intentions varies by gender of respondents and at time individuals

Audience Responses to Gender Stereotypes in Advertising

Advertising has demonstrated linguistic, contextual, and sexual gender stereotypes since its inception; it seems poised to continue doing so as advertising’s presence in society proliferates. Upon analyzing these stereotypes, examples can be found throughout media, especially in television. All this begs the question: Are these stereotypes actually effective at selling products or services to their intended audience? Do men react positively to stereotypes of men or women; and vice versa, how do women react? If gender stereotypes are employed in advertising purely through force of habit and not evidenced prudence, then the advertising landscape stands to gain immensely from taking a more progressive view; otherwise, stereotypical advertising is defensible if only from a financial perspective

Ethical Judgments of Sexual Appeals in Advertising Image - Based Products to Teens

The use of sexual appeals in advertising is increasingly prevalent in the United States. Perhaps the use is in response to the preponderance of advertisements in everyday life. The advertisements most often featuring such appeals are for image-based products. Actual images in ads can often convey emotions powerfully, which may explain the frequent use in marketing image-based products. These products include: candy, liquor, cigarettes, jewelry, fragrance, cosmetics and fashion goods. It is advertisements for products such as, but not limited to these, that often use sexual appeals. The use of such appeals is constantly scrutinized in terms of ethics, regardless of the target audience. Considerable research has been done on ethics in marketing, partly because marketing is the business function most often charged with unethical practices. Ethical judgments are subjective and complex, and deal with cultural norms. Yet, there is another dimension of ethical questions when sexual appeals are used to promote products to teens. Teens (12 – 17 year olds) are an increasingly attractive market segment for advertisers, as their disposable incomes are growing. Also, teens have an ability to influence the purchase decisions of their parents and friends, and often develop a brand loyalty, which continues into adulthood. Sexual appeals have the ability to get the attention of teens, and may help to sell products to that market segment. In an effort to quantitatively analyze the ways that sexual appeals are used in media targeting teens, I performed a content analysis. Magazines were used because of their clear targeting from a marketing standpoint: with a wide variety of titles, across large demographics, advertisers can use magazines to hone in on their target market. Using the Media Research Inc. (MRI) database, which compiles magazine readership statistics much like ACNielsen publishes television viewership, I selected magazines with comparatively high teen readership. 600 advertisements in eight leading magazines that reach teens were reviewed: four publications targeted at females and four with high teen male readership were selected. The results were analyzed in conjunction with the ethical questions about the use of sexual appeals. While 20% of the ads used a form of sexual appeal, they tended to use light innuendo, humor, and degree of fantasy that create a disconnect with real sexual behavior. Only 0.7% of all the advertisements showed models engaging in erotic behavior. Because there is virtually no pornographic or offensive content, these ads will continue to be used to sell products to teens. Advertisers are currently protected under the interpretation of the Constitution’s free speech first amendment as commercial speech. However, the influence of consumer watchdog groups in this country has proven their effectiveness in the past, and will continue to play a role in marketing responsibility

Perception of sex appeal in print advertising by young female Anglo-Saxon and second generation Asian-Islamic British

The aim of this research, is to provide empirical data to either support or challenge the view that subculture has an impact on how sex appeal in advertising is perceived. It looks at young females of two specific British subcultural groups, Anglo-Saxon and Asian-Islamic British. It reveals that there are differences in the perception of sex appeal, since the Asian-Islamic British have a rather more negative attitude towards this particular appeal, while the Anglo-Saxon have a much more positive attitude towards it

Spreading the virus : emotional tone of viral advertising and its effect on forwarding intentions and attitudes

iral advertising has attracted advertisers in recent years, yet little is known about how exactly it works from an information processing perspective. This study extends knowledge by exploring how the emotional tone (pleasant, unpleasant, coactive) of viral video ads affects attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand, and forwarding intentions. Results indicate that pleasant emotional tone elicits the strongest attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand, and intention to forward. The effects were weaker for coactive tone and weakest for negative emotional tone. These results challenge the common approach of shocking or scaring online users to motivate them to forward a viral video

Regulating Sin Across Cultures

Using text analysis, this study compares the alcohol advertising strategy in Ukraine and the United States within the context of regulatory, historical, cultural, and economic factors. Results showed that Ukrainian magazine ads contained a larger number of violations than the American ads, which complied with the letter of the law, if not the spirit. The message strategies also told different cultural stories that reflect the different ideologies for the two countries, which means that specialized advertising approaches are needed for each country. American ads situate alcohol as part of normal life, whereas Ukrainian ads demonstrate conspicuous consumption and celebrate the change to a market economy. They must not only sell the product but also teach Ukrainians how to be part of the consumer culture

Pro-tobacco marketing and anti-tobacco campaigns aimed at vulnerable populations: A review of the literature.

INTRODUCTION:We reviewed research literature on pro-tobacco marketing and anti-tobacco campaigns targeting eight vulnerable populations to determine key findings and research gaps. Results can inform tobacco policy and control efforts and the design of public education campaigns for these groups. METHODS:Five journal databases in medicine, communication, and science, were used to identify 8875 peer-reviewed, original articles in English, published in the period 2004-2018. There were 144 articles that met inclusion criteria on pro-tobacco marketing or anti-tobacco campaigns aimed at eight US groups: women of reproductive age, racial/ethnic minority groups (African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native), Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) populations, groups with low socioeconomic status, rural/inner city residents, military/veterans, and people with mental health or medical co-morbidities. We summarized the number of articles for each population, type of tobacco, and pro-tobacco or anti-tobacco focus. Narrative summaries were organized by population and by pro-tobacco or anti-tobacco focus, with key strategies and gaps by group. RESULTS:There were more studies on pro-tobacco marketing rather than anti-tobacco campaigns, and on cigarettes rather than other tobacco products. Major gaps included studies on Asian Americans, American Indian/Alaska Natives, pregnant women, LGBT populations, and those with mental health or medical co-morbidities. Gaps related to tobacco products were found for hookah, snus, and pipe/roll-your-own tobacco in the pro-tobacco studies, and for all products except cigarettes in anti-tobacco studies. Common tobacco industry methods used were tailoring of product and package design and messages that were used to reach and appeal to different sociodemographic groups. Studies varied by research design making it difficult to compare results. CONCLUSIONS:We found major research gaps for specific groups and tobacco products. Public education campaigns need a stronger foundation in empirical studies focused on these populations. Research and practice would benefit from studies that permit comparisons across studies

Fighting Fire with Fire: Technology in Child Sex Trafficking

We map real articulation data for five Swedish phonemen sequences onto parameters of a biomechanical tongue model that produces movement and muscle activations from position data. The movement produced is broadly correct and could likely be improved by a more fine tuned mapping. The muscle activations were found to vary between simulations using the same data but matched well with previous studies on muscle activity for vowels