Advertising

Sex appeal for men

• Buy the product, get the woman
• Think of all those Axe commercials

Sex appeal for women

• For most female animals, genetic quality is the most important
• For women, it’s a good provider
• The ad shows he has money, cares about her as an individual, and will stick around
• It’s called “romance”

The use of sex appeal in advertising may appear sexist. That’s because it is – on a social level. But sex in advertising aims at instinct, and society is conscious, not subconscious.

Advertising often appeals to one gender at the social expense of the other.

Greed

• “Listen to me, I’ll make you rich”
• Human social life requires having resources, usually represented by money
• Instinctively, “greed is good”

Self-esteem

• Requires a social group
• Requires the individual to be able to make a comparison with other individuals in the group
• Thus, requires a sense of self as a separate entity from others

Self-esteem

• Again, there’s an instinctive gender link
• For men, it’s competitive
• Demonstrate he’s the best male around
• Self-esteem comes from a sense of superiority
• For women, it’s cooperative
• Make and maintain as many connections as possible
• Self-esteem comes from a sense of connection

Self-esteem for men

• Demonstration of superiority
• Buy the product, be the superior man
• Often shows a “loser” beating a “winner” because the loser buys the product

Self-esteem for women

• The product increases the number and quality of connections with others

Personal Enjoyment

• “Listen to me, you’ll have more fun”
• Humans, because of their intelligence, are often easily bored by routine
• The ad promotes getting out of the routine
• In other words, have fun