Sex Sells

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGVHdRfm2TI &feature=related

If you click on the following link, you will be connected to an Axe commercial, watch the video and then continue reading.

My first thoughts when I saw this commercial was that it would be a commercial for condoms, given the nature of the first scene which involved two people in bed. I quickly changed my mind when they started moving backwards and picking up clothes and putting them on. I was thinking, what could this commercial possibly about? Finally, the commercial comes to an end and the screen reads, “Because you never know when... Axe spray works 24 hours a day”. It is apparent now that the commercial is for an Axe spray, a cologne for men.

After I knew what this advertisement was about, my first impression is that it’s giving guys the illusion that if you smell like this, random girls will ‘jump’ you and drop what they are doing and have sex with you. In reality unless, you are a hooker, she will not. It is also telling you that you should always smell good because you never know who you could meet. This product tells us that this is the only way to achieve this attraction. It can also give a sense to women that you will want your man to smell like this- the purpose of the ad persuades you to do this.

This company use sex to sell their product. They know that this will appeal most to their age demographic- young teenager boys. Philip Hanes explains in The Advantages and Limitations of a Focus on Audience in Media Studies that “Different audiences use different media; both the audience that is assumed to be using the media...” (Hanes, 3). To sell a product they know you have to use what is on the consumer’s mind. Using these dreams of guys will most likely draw them into buying their product, and allowing them to stand out compared to their competition.

Ads are always there and the point is to persuade us to buy their product in a minute or less. It doesn’t matter how they do it just as long as it happens. Hanes explains about television that “The medium employs a wide range of techniques to address its intended audience...the scheduling highlights this view of the television audience; as television output is regulated so that there is minimal “adults” material, such as strong language, sex scene and violence, before the 9o’clock watershed” (Hanes, 3). Hanes has explained that television knows what to show and when to show to draw in different types of people. Most of us don’t take the time to really look at the ad and realize the tactics that they use to get us to buy their product.

Taking the time analysing an ad could save you a lot of time and money and will also allow you to be more aware of what the product really is and if in the end you really need it.

Till the next time,

Sarah Young

Works Cited

Phillip J. Hanes, “The Advantages and Limitations of a Focus on Audience in Media Studies” http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/pph9701.html.