SEX IN ADVERTISING: Its Relevance, Use, and Effects

The use of sex and sexy illustrations in advertising is a subject that has been shunned by writers in fields such as communications, psychology, behavioural sciences, and even in the specific areas of consumer behaviour, marketing, and advertising. Although the current literature on consumer behaviour and advertising considers sex in the Freudian or Maslow sense, its use in advertising has not been explicitly elucidated. This is somewhat surprising when one considers that Freud maintained that sex or libido is the most important of all instincts and that apparent motives for an act often can be found in the sexual drive exerting itself in an unconscious and devious fashion.