Natalie Jamoua
English 1020
Sex Appeal in Today’s Advertisements
In today's world sex appeal is used to sell fashion everywhere. Fashion is sold to people on a daily basis. It's sold on-line, at malls, and through magazines and television. Most of these products are sold through sex appeal. Have you ever seen an advertisement where you don't even know what they are advertising because you are too distracted by a girl in a bathing suit or a guy with his shirt off? Designers like David Yurman, Ralph Lauren, and Dolce & Gabbana fall into that category. All three of these designers use different strategies to advertise their product, but they all have one common idea. Sex sells.
Let’s face it sex really does sell, it’s a very common tactic in the world of fashion. David Yurman advertises his glamorous jewelry with his main attraction, these young beautiful supermodels. Famous supermodels like Kate Moss, Naomi Watts, Daria Werbowy, and Naomi Campbell to draw attention to his advertisement. These models are in a towel with their finger in their mouth. Ralph Lauren advertises Romance perfume with young couples kissing or pressing up against each other. Dolce & Gabbana advertises their clothing with beautiful young girls laying around on top of each other with their legs open. All three of these designers use sex appeal in a different way.
Advertisements always gear towards an audience. David Yurman’s target audience would mostly be females around the age of late teens to early thirties that appeal to simple jewelry. Most of his advertisements display these females around that age group dolled up in jewelry. Ralph Lauren’s target audience would be both men and women because they both appeal to fragrances around late teens to mid twenties. His target audience is that age group because even though fragrances appeal to any age, his ads are geared more towards a younger crowd. Dolce & Gabbana target audience would be both men and women, but mostly women. The reason why is because most of their ads are of women. Dolce & Gabbana are geared toward a high-end fashion crowd. All three of these designers have a common target audience from late teenagers to mid-thirties. They all use sex appeal to grab these young minds attention. They see these young skinny beautiful women in jewelry or in expensive clothing or wrapped around a guy’s arm, which makes the person want to buy this product whatever it may be.
Fashion appears everywhere from billboard to magazines and even through songs. Advertisements are seen any place you go. David Yurman advertisement appears in high-end fashion magazines like Vogue and Elle. His advertisements also appear in Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus catalogs. Ralph Lauren advertisements appear in magazines like Vogue, Seventeen, Cosmo Girl, and Elle. His ads are also advertised in department stores like Macys and Lord and Taylor. Dolce & Gabbana advertisements appear in magazines like Vogue and Elle. Their ads are also displayed on billboards. Dolce & Gabbana also appear in Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus catalogs. Dolce & Gabbana also appear in many songs from artists like Fergie to P. Diddy. All three of these designers display different ads every couple of months in a new issue of a magazine. They all have a common approach to getting through to the audience. Another approach that these designers have is through commercials. One of David Yurman’s commercials is of famous model and actress Naomi Watts prancing around on an exotic island running through the shores of an ocean. Towards the end she has no clothing on but her hands are over her chest. David Yurman uses sex appeal in this commercial through Naomi. The problem with the commercial is that very little jewelry is shown. Another thing is you wouldn’t even know that it was a David Yurman commercial until the very end when the name appeared. Ralph Lauren’s commercial is of a guy undressing a girl and grasping her arm. He’s running his fingers through her hair while she is running her finger on top of his lips and chest. The problem with this commercial is that you would thing they are trying to sell the clothing, but they are really selling a fragrance that is displayed right at the end of the commercial. Dolce & Gabbana’s commercial starts of with a girl licking her lips and drifts off to a guy kissing a girl on her neck and a guy pressing his hand on the girls neck. These commercials use sex appeal to sell their product. These designers are so successful and well known because of these advertisements and commercials. They open up a world to the public that grasps their attention.
Commercials are such a great approach to the audience. It speaks out to the audience, which is such a great strategy. You can get so much more out of a commercial from thirty seconds to two minutes. Commercials could also be a distraction. In David Yurman’s commercial you are distracted by a beautiful women prancing around in a bathing suit that you don’t even notice the jewelry. You question yourself wondering what this commercial is really about. You barely see jewelry and the name pops up at the very end for a split second. In the Ralph Lauren commercial this young couple undressing each other distracts you. She is wearing a bathing suit top and jeans and he has no shirt off which contributes to this distraction. In the Dolce & Gabbana commercial you are so distracted by everything that is going on. From the girl licking her lips to the next scene where a couple is grabbing each other’s waists. You do not really know what product to concentrate on because so much is going on.
Appearance is a very important factor in advertisement. The way the advertisement is presented makes a difference. David Yurman’s advertisement is in black and white, which is very classic and elegant. You are drawn to beautiful Kate Moss lying down with her finger in her mouth with a ring and watch on. The only problem is you barely notice the tiny David Yurman label sitting there in the corner. Ralph Lauren’s advertisement is also in black and white. A guy’s forehead is pressed against hers, she is wearing a bathing suit top and jeans and he is wearing just jeans. You are so drawn to the couple that you don’t really notice the perfume in the corner of the page. The Dolce & Gabbana advertisement is a bunch of girls lying around on top of each other with the girls legs open. You don’t really see the detail of the dresses because they are all on top and once again the logo is in the corner of the page. In these advertisements are paying attention more towards the people then the product.
Fashion opens a door of desire into an intriguing world. These designers use sex appeal because it speaks out to the crowd. Everyone wants to feel young and sexy. No one wants to see an ad with a bunch of old people in layers of clothing. Sex appeal is key because it makes you feel attractive and noticeable. It gets through to any age group from as young as twelve to as old as forty-five.