Tanya Batson, Staff Reporter
SEX sells. There is no if, but or maybe about that. Advertisers have 30 to 45 seconds in which to grab the audience's attention and force some information down their throats. Of course, as humans are such intelligent creatures, sex is one of the best ways to get their attention and some companies admit that this is exactly what they are doing.
Therefore, the appearance of sex in advertising, which is aiming to sell, is not surprising. Advertising has long since passed the time when it simply contained information. Actually, many of today's ads contain as little information as possible.
What they attempt to do is gain the reader/listener/viewer's attention and sneak something in while they are (not) looking. Thus they have become entertaining (actually most of the local ones aren't but let's not split hairs).
One of the popular perpetrators of 'sexual ads' are companies that sell alcoholic beverages. The Red Stripe calendar, which features next to nude women, sometimes next to a Red Stripe, is an example of this. Additionally, during their 'Choose Your Brew' promotion, the company selected an advertising campaign which more stated 'choose your woman', as each bottle had a matching woman beside it.
Target market
Karen Seham-Brown, brand manager for Red Stripe Light and Heineken, pointed out that the advertising campaign was selected because it speaks to the target market. "We're doing beer," she said, "and the main target is male. And when you ask men what they are interested in, the main interest is the opposite sex."
Nonetheless, the company maintains that the products they sell are not overtly sexual, with the exception of Guinness. The brand manager for Guinness also maintained that Guinness is attempting to expand the image of the brand, from its sexual limitations. Nonetheless, one cannot help but notice that Michael Power 'Man of Action' is also Michael Power 'Man who gets Action'.
Red Stripe is by no means the only company which does this. Lascelles, which has recently introduced an entire range of products, Magnum, Peenie Wallie, Mambo, and Mud Slide, has used sexually (sometimes explicitly so) tinged ads for all the brands.
The first set of jingles for Magnum made a pun on the wine in the bottle and the act of wining. Additionally, Magnum's bottle depicted a couple copulating, while the slogan is 'power when you need it most'. The Gleaner spoke to one of the company's managers, who asked not to be named, who pointed out that the 'phenomenal' sales that the product has achieved is directly related to the target market to which the ads speak directly.
The other Lascelles product that uses sexual explicitness close to Magnum's is Peenie Wallie. The jingle for this brand is based on an early 1990s sexually explicit dancehall song. Additionally, it was pointed out that the products usually have contents that are associated with sex, such as the tonic wine or the peanuts in the Peenie Wallie, which makes the sexual suggestiveness appropriate.
While this is true for many of the products, it appears to be somewhat contrary to the positioning of Mambo, which the company admits is being targeted at women. While the jingle for this product is not overly sexual, the poster, the same image as on the bottle, shows a woman who looks like Tinkerbell on Ecstasy wearing only leaves. This, the manager claimed, was used because the "melting chocolate woman is sexy and women like to feel sexy". Additionally, the manager pointed out that any sexual innuendo found in the advertising is inferred rather than implied. "The intention for the ads was to come across as just energy. We throw it out there and you take from it what you will," the manager maintained.
Bikini-clad
Real Rock beer has also decided to follow suit (or lack thereof) in their advertising. The most prominent piece of material currently in use features a young woman, of almost the same shade as the beer bottle, resting against a huge frothing one. She is, of course, bikini-clad. One doesn't have to have heard of Freud to understand the implications therein.
It is however, quite hard to pin down whether the ads, or what section of the ads, really work. One thing seems to be true however, the presence of the bikini-clad women at least gets men's attention. Patrick Mitchell, a staunch Heineken drinker said: "The ads don't really affect me, but the girls do get my attention."
Interestingly, most of the ads referring to condoms depend a lot on innuendo. While Slam ads deal explicitly with sex (but then the name dictates this), ads for Durex often almost hedge around the topic. For example, Durex had an outdoor sign which stated that they 'prevent morning sickness'. This is a slightly veiled reference to sex.
But it is not only companies that sell alcoholic beverages and condoms which are relying heavily on sex. In the Maggie chicken noodle ad, the woman in a voice very different from how she reads the rest of the script states "Yeah man. A big cock dat." This seems to be a blatant attempt to avoid the cerebrum and head straight for the groin.
Additionally, toothpastes also seem to be cashing in on 'sex appeal' advertising. Close-Up toothpaste has always had something of a sexy feel to it, which is not surprising, as their slogan is 'Close-up is for close-ups'. Additionally, last year when the company introduced Close-up Double, they chose to use the picture of a young nubile woman in a bikini, armed with Close-up at the hip.
The Gleaner was unable to get a comment from the company with regards to the decision to use this image.
In truth, some ads should have sex in it, because the product they are selling involves sex. However many advertisements which use sex actually have nothing to do with sex. So, it is not surprising that ads for condoms use sex. It's a given.
What may differ is the manner in which sex is used.
