This essay is be based around sex in advertising, it will comment on three different adverts, one of them is a moving media (television advert) and the other two are posters. Adverts are also found on billboard, the radio and magazines. Now days many companies are advertising in different ways, but the main theme which is used throughout advertising is sex, the main reason that sex is the main theme used is because the general public have a growing appetite towards sexual behaviour.
Young men and women are usually used to catch the attention of the public, as younger people are generally thought to be more attractive. The sexual theme is used to sell a large range of products, some of the main products which they sell are clothes, perfumes, food and alcohol. The first piece of media advertising which i will look at is off of the television, it is the Levis’ 501 advert, this advert was first shown in 1985 and the running time was about forty five seconds.
From researching into the advert i found that it not only helped to sell the jeans on the advert, but it also made a boost in the number of boxer shorts which where bought. The main technique which was used to sell the product was sex, this is because in the advert an attractive young male walks into a laundrette then strips his clothes off, throughout the advert there is close up shots of the males semi – naked body and the camera is mainly concentrated on him.
The advert is aimed a wide variety of people, but the main people are young women because they will find the man attractive, then hopefully buy a pair of the jeans for there partners also i think that it is aimed young men because they would want to buy a pair of the jeans to try and make themselves more appealing, or to feel like the male character in the advert. I don’t think that it is aimed at any sort of class because jeans could be worn by any one. The setting of the advert is in the mid 1980s, it is set in a small street, and the main section of the advert is in the local laundrette.
Within the laundrette there are a couple of young women which are sat waiting for there washing to finish and a few other people just sat around. To start the advert off the male character walks into the laundrette then seductively takes his shirt off, revealing his muscular upper body, the camera has many close ups and switches from the male to the group off people who are sitting down, the reactions on the crowds face are shocked and embarrassed, the two young women seemed to be the most embarrassed and they where also giggling.
When the male started to take his clothes off music slowly started in the background, the style off music went well with the advert because it was slow and romantic, it also played an important part to adding tension to the advert. The track which was used through the advert was Marvin Gays’ – Heard It Through The Grape Vine. Mean while the camera kept moving to different shots of the males body, then as the male provocatively slipped his belt off of his jeans, the camera then zoomed into the logo on the back of his jeans, it froze for a few seconds then the advert carried on, the logo was the Levis’ 501.
Through out the advert the Levis’ logo only appeared twice, the first time was on the back pocket of the characters jeans and the second time was at the end of the advert where a slogan appeared with it as well. The slogan which appeared at the end of the advert was ‘The original shrink to fit jeans’ the slogan wasn’t too big or too small it took up around a quarter of the screen and was easily readable. Sex is used in this advert to highlight the jeans which Levis’ are selling, the advert seems to make out that if you wear there type of jeans then you will be seen as being sexy, and that you could be like the male in the advert.
I think that using slow shots of the males body and using an young attractive male as the main character is what has made that advert successful. This advert was voted 6th best advert by the television program ‘ The 100 Greatest TV Ads’ which was shown on channel four. The second advert which i will analyse is a Calvin Klein advert, this advert was shown on billboards, in magazines, on bus shelters and posters. This ad is trying to sell a new perfume which they have brought out. Again the main technique which is being used to sell the product is sexual images, the picture contains a young male and a young female.
