While sex indeed makes ads more memorable, viewers are not any more likely to recall the actual brands or even the products advertised, a meta-study by the University of Illinois, Ball State University and the University of California-Davis revealed, after having examined 78 peer-reviewed advertising studies from 1969 to 2017, involving over 17,000 consumers.
Contrary to popular belief, the sexualization of advertisements didn't spur people into buying more things, which is the main goal of advertising. Rather a reverse effect was noticed, as the participants were also more likely to have a negative attitude towards the brands that used sex in their ads than those that didn't.
According to the report's leading author, John Wirtz of the University of Illinois, ads with sexual appeal provide no positive effect on a participants' intention to buy products. However, men on average were found to like ads with sexual appeals more than women, who were found to be more disapproving. Wirtz defined sexual content as fully or partially naked models, sexual contact or as partially hidden words or images that have a sexual message.
"This is something advertisers need to take seriously," Amanda Oxell, the founder of Sweden's Advertising Council, told Sweden's national broadcaster SVT.
According to social anthropologist and advertising researcher Raoul Galli of Stockholm University, the fact that sex ads work badly is no secret for advertising agencies.
"They are fully aware of the fact that there are completely other things that drive people to buy. But what is sex really? Today's ads tend to consist of beautiful and handsome people who are more or less dressed in more or less intimate situations. A Volvo ad featuring Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] playing with his muscles, is it sex?" Raoul Galli told SVT.
Accordingly, Galli does not believe that ads with sexual hints will ever disappear completely.
"While I believe ads where discrimination and sexism occur have been reduced, we'll probably never see ads that are clinically pure from love and power, and this includes sexuality," he said.
