The Today Show posted this photo on Facebook asking if the
ad went too far. My initial reaction was
YOWSA! My second was ewwww! The response to the Today’s Show’s posting
has been mixed. Some cheered. Some felt it was inappropriate. Others felt that it hadn’t gone far enough. The ad did what it intended to do. It garnered a lot of attention.
But does it sell cheese?
I am not going to run out and buy a Kraft product based on the ad. After my first reaction, I found it a bit of
a turn off. Unless you have some kinky
plans for the cheese, cheese and sex seem counter intuitive. One isn’t normally associated with the other,
hence my secondary reaction, Gross!
So when does sex sell?
A friend pointed out Victoria Secret uses sex to sell its products, but
that makes sense. They sell lingerie, a
product that is used in the bedroom. Beckham’s
ads for H&M were in the same context.
Sex definitely sells products that are associated with the body.
I wonder how often we are motivated to purchase products based
on advertising. Marketing firms will
tell you that we do. Do we buy a sport car because a shapely model is draped across it?
If you are wealthy you might, but the majority of us take a
more practical approach. Does the car
meet our needs and our budget? We might
fantasize about the hot car, but we buy the one we can afford.
Remember the Lucky Vanous 1994 Diet Coke commercial? As a woman I cheered, “Yea, finally one for our
side!” My peers agreed, but did we buy
Diet Coke? Cola customers are brand loyal. As a Pepsi fan, I didn’t change.
Sex will always be used in advertising. “Sex sells” is a marketing mantra. Some worry that saturating the market with
sexually oriented ads isn’t healthy, that it will have a negative impact on
younger viewers. I feel that it is an
easy way out. There are a lot of
intelligent, funny, and creative ways to advertise. In Kraft’s case, its ad distracts and
takes away from the product. Sex may
sell, but there are other methods.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete