Does sex sell anything?
How message involvement and incongruity between the advertised product
and sexual appeals influence consumer attitude change
Graduation thesis by Leanne van Nuenen Student nr.: 10592717
2 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
This document is written by student Leanne van Nuenen who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document. I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents. ABSTRACT
Using sexual appeals in advertisements is a technique widely adopted by marketing practitioners. Not only products for which sexual appeals could be considered highly relevant are advertised in a sexual context, products for which there seems to be no link with sexuality are as well. The studies on the use of sexual appeals in the advertisements of sexually-irrelevant products are however very limited. Moreover, what is compelling is that there seems to be hardly any research into what kind of products consumers actually find congruent with sexual appeals and why. This study explores the underlying reasons why certain products are considered sexual and others are not. Furthermore, based on the assumptions from the schema congruity theory, it is investigated what effect product-sexual appeal incongruity has on consumer attitudes. Additionally, it is tested how these effects are moderated by message involvement. Even though it became clear that incongruity has a significant influence on consumer attitudes, the predicted pattern based on the schema incongruity theory did not arise. Additionally, message involvement only had a significant effect on the outcome variable attitude towards the ad. The absence of a significant effect for message involvement can presumably be explained by a flaw in the manipulation of involvement. Finally, although in the congruent conditions sexual advertisements had a positive effect on attitude towards the ad, sexual advertisements did not result in a positive change in brand attitude or purchase intentions. Based on the results of this study it is therefore advised that markers are extremely cautious when considering using sexual appeals in their advertising.
3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Section A - Introduction 1. Introduction ………5 1.1 General introduction………..………5 1.2 Research gap………..……….……5 1.3 Problem statement………..………6 1.4 Research deliminations………..……..………6 1.5 Contributions………..……..……….8 1.6 Outline………..……..………9 Section B – Study 1 2. Sexual arousal………..……..………..10
3. Sexual appeals in advertising……….13
4. Conceptual framework ……….21
4.1 Research objectives ………21
4.2 Conceptual framework development………...………..….21
5. Methodology……….………...………..….24 5.1 Research design……….………...………..…..24 5.2 Procedure……….……….………...………..…..25 5.3 Materials……….……….………...……...…..….25 5.4 Sampling……….……….………...……..…..…..29 5.5 Measures……….……….………...…….…..…..29 5.6 Data analysis……….……….………...…..…...30
6. Results & Discussion……….……….………...…..…..32
6.1 Dominant products……….……….………...…..…….32
6.2 Categorization……….……….………...…..……...32
6.3 Inappropriateness and ethical issues…….……….………...…..……...38
6.4 Additional findings…….……….………...…..……...38
6.5 Findings related to study 2……….………...…..……...39
Section C – Study 2 7. Incongruity & Involvement……….………...…..……...40
8. Conceptual model and hypotheses……….………...…..……...46
8.1 Hypotheses development……….………...…..……...46
4 9. Methodology……….………...…..……...51 9.1 Research design……….………...…..…...51 9.2 Pretesting.……….………...…..…...51 9.3 Procedure.……….………...…..…...53 9.4 Materials.……….………...…..…...54 9.5 Sampling.……….………...…..…...56 9.6 Measures.……….………...…..…...57 9.7 Data analysis.……….………...…..…...58 10. Results .……….………...…..…...59 10.1 Data preparation…….………...…..…...59 10.2 Response analysis…….………...…..…...59 10.3 Reliability analysis…….………...…..…...59 10.4 Condition similarity…….………...…..…...60 10.5 Manipulation checks…….………...…..…...61 10.6 Control variables…….………...…..…...68 10.7 Hypothesis testing…….………...…..…...70 10.8 Additional analyses …….………...…..…...87 11. Discussion …….………...…..…...94
11.1 Effect of sexual appeals on consumer attitudes………...94
11.2 Sexual appeals and schema congruity theory………95
11.3 Attitude towards the advertisement………97
11.4 Attitude towards the brand………...97
11.5 Purchase intentions………98
11.6 Message involvement………99
11.7 Additional findings………...100
Section D – Conclusions 12. Overall conclusion ……….101
12.1 Overall conclusion study 1 and 2………101
12.2 Connections study 1 and 2……….101
12.3 Research question………...102
12.4 Contributions………..……...103
12.5 Limitations & Future research suggestions………..………..104
References……….109
5 1. SECTION A: INTRODUCTION
1.1 General introduction
Like humor or celebrity endorsement, using sexual appeals in advertising is a common way for marketers to get their brand to stand out in the crowded advertising landscape. Although the general public sometimes seems to think so, using sexual appeals in advertising is not just a phenomenon of this day and age. The first known company to discover that ‘sex sells’ was tobacco company W. Duke, Sons & Company in 1887. The company started to place small cards with women in, for that time, very daring outfits in its cigarette packages. The cards became very popular among the male dominated customer base of the company. By the end of the decade, W. Duke, Sons & Company had become the largest American manufacturer of cigarettes (Reichert, 2002).
Image 1: W. Duke, Sons & Company cigarette cards (Vintage Browser, 2015).
Ever since W. Duke, Sons & Company, brands have purposely linked themselves to sexual appeals in advertising. Nowadays, sexual appeals are present in many advertisements for a wide range of brands. The use of sexual imagery in advertising in mainstream magazines has increased from 15% in 1983 to 27% in 2003 (Reichert, Childers & Reid, 2012). A great deal of firms include sexually provocative imagery or suggestions to lure viewers or readers into their advertisements. However, unlike the customers of W. Duke, Sons & Company in the 1880s, consumers are now very used to sexual appeal in advertising and it has become harder for companies to attract their attention with it.
1.2 Research gap
Most studies that have examined the effects of sexual appeals in advertising on consumers have focused on sexually-relevant products. There is a very limited number of studies that has actually tested the effectiveness of using sexual appeals in the marketing of
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products that have a very weak link to sexuality, or even no link at all. Interestingly, there has been even less research into what kind of products consumers actually find congruent with sexual appeals and why. In everyday life there are many completely non-sexual products that we can still regard as sexual when placed in a sexual context. Think for example about a banana, because of its shape; or a lollipop, because we lick it; a photo camera, to capture nudity or sexual activity. Many products, when seen in a sexual context, can be regarded as sexual even though their use or purpose has nothing to do with sexuality. For products that can be regarded sexual in a sexual contact, an advertisement can be more than merely a tool to attract attention. Sexual appeals can serve as a message argument and consequently become part of a more integrated selling strategy (Reichert & Lambiase, 2003). There has however been only one study to find out for which products consumers actually have direct or indirect associative links to sexuality and might therefore be relevant to use in an advertising context including sexual cues (Richmond & Hartman, 1982).
The most interesting about this gap in academic research, is that in practice a lot of organizations actually do try to sell products that are completely unrelated to human sexuality by using sexual appeals in advertising. Some examples of products for which organizations have used sexual advertising are cat food, opera tickets, liquid plumber, animal welfare organizations, hamburgers or even coffins! Looking at the endless list of seemingly irrelevant products being advertised in a sexual context makes you wonder whether these advertising efforts have the desired effect on marketing related outcomes like attitude towards the ad, attitude towards the brand and purchase intentions. Furthermore, it comes to mind that it might be useful for marketers to have some sort of framework to identify for what kind of products it is wise to start an advertising campaign with a highly sexual content. 1.3 Problem definition
1.3.1 Problem statement
The aim of this research is twofold: to find out what reasons consumers have to consider certain products congruent with sexual appeals and others not. And secondly to find to what extent message involvement and incongruity between the product and sexual appeals have a positive effect on consumer response. The first study will aim to develop a categorization of the reasons why consumers find certain products congruent with sexual appeals and others not. This categorization of consumer’s associative links between products and sexuality will represent a grid of congruity, which can be divided into four levels ranging from highly congruent to highly incongruent. Taking this categorization into account, the
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second study will aim to empirically test which of these four levels of incongruity have the most desired outcome in terms of attitude towards the ad, attitude towards the brand an purchase intentions. In order to provide a contribution to the current research on this subject, the research question of this study is as follows:
What is the influence of message involvement and incongruity between the features of the advertised product and sexual appeals in an advertisement on consumer attitude?
1.3.2 Sub-questions
To provide a clear answer to the main question of the study the following sub-questions are discussed in upcoming sections of the paper:
1. What is sexual arousal and what are the (visual) triggers of sexual arousal?
2. What are the types of sexual appeals in advertising and what is their prevalence and effectiveness on marketing-related outcomes?
3. Why are some products considered congruent with sexual appeals and others not? 4. How does incongruity between the advertised product and sexual appeals influence
evaluations of the ad, brand attitude and purchase intentions?
5. How does message involvement of the consumer moderate the effect of incongruity between the advertised product and sexual appeals on consumer response?
1.3.3 Research deliminations
Given the distinct complexity in regard to sexual appeals and the advertising of sexually-irrelevant products and the lack of elaborate research in this area, it is important to note that the nature of this research is highly exploratory. The main delimitation of both studies is therefore that the objective is not to provide the reader with a definite answer, but rather to contribute to the greater understanding of this topic.
The outcome of the first (qualitative) study of this research will be a list of ‘reasons’ why consumers link a certain product to sexuality, these ‘reasons’ will henceforward be referred to as ‘associative links’ between a product and sexuality. An example of an item from this list of associative links would for instance be ‘product use creates an attractive personal image’; an attractive image can lead to a higher possibility of engaging in sexual activity. An example of a product that creates an attractive personal image would be an expensive car. The idea behind the list of reasons will be that any product can be placed into one of the ‘reasons’. A delimination of this research is however that it will not give an extensive list of products for each reason, but rather a few illustrative examples of products that would be fitting to that reason.
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The second study will, based on quantitative rather than qualitative data, test whether a distinction can be made between four levels of product-sexual appeals incongruity. Furthermore, it will test whether these four levels of incongruity all have a different effect on attitude change in consumers. Study 2 will also test how message involvement moderates the relationship between incongruity and attitude change. An important delimitation of study 2 is that it will not go into ad recall and brand recall. This study will focus purely on what effect incongruity between the advertised product and sexual appeals has on the advertisement, the attitude towards the brand and consumers’ purchase intentions. How the advertisement or brand are stored in memory after seeing an (in)congruent advertisement will not be part of this study.
1.4 Contributions
1.4.1 Theoretical contributions
This study aims to find the reasons why consumers find certain products ‘sexually-relevant’ and others not. So far no guiding framework has been developed as to why some products are regarded as a logical fit to sexual appeals and others are not. In the first part of this research this framework will be developed.
The second part of this paper explores the differences in consumer attitude change when advertising products that are highly or moderately congruent with sexuality versus products that are highly or moderately incongruent with sexuality. This second study extends the few existing studies on this subject by looking at a broader range of products, distinguishing between multiple levels of incongruity (instead of a dichotomous distinction between ‘congruent’ and ‘incongruent’) and taking into account the different ‘reasons’ consumers might have to consider a product either sexually-relevant or sexually-irrelevant. This way a more generalizable conclusion can be drawn instead of only using one sexually-relevant and one sexually-irsexually-relevant product. Moreover, this study challenges the idea that congruent messages in advertising generate more favorable consumer responses than incongruent messages. It adds to the growing body of research that shows that incongruent messages can lead to more detailed processing of the advertisement. Finally, study 2 will investigate the moderating effect of involvement on the relationship between incongruity between the advertised product and sexual appeals on consumer evaluations.
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1.4.1 Managerial implications
Many companies use sexual appeals in their advertising. A study by Soley & Kurzbar (1986) found that the sexual illustrations used in advertisement had become much more explicit between the 1964 and 1984. Furthermore, Reichter, Childers & Reid (2012) showed that the use of sexual appeals saw a steep incline from 15% of advertisements in 1983 to 27% of advertisements in 2003. Sometimes sexual appeals are used even when the advertised product does not have the slightest link to human sexuality. It would be useful for marketers to know which products consumers actually think do fit with sexual appeals and to what extent a ‘misfit’ actually influences the effect the advertisement has on consumers and in which way. From experience marketers might have a pretty good idea about which products do or do not fit with sexual appeals. However, a guiding framework which is empirically tested would give marketing practitioners tool to make a more informed decision on whether or not to use sexual appeals in their advertising campaign. Moreover, there has been substantial debate on whether or not sexual appeals (Wylly et al., 2014; Reichert, 2002) and incongruity between the advertisement and the brand (Sjödin & Törn, 2006) positively influence attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the brand and purchase intentions. The managerial contributions of this study will help to answer three questions: when and why is a product considered congruent with sexuality? How do sexual appeals in your advertisement influence consumer response? How does incongruity between the advertised product and sexual appeals influence the consumer evaluations? It would be useful for marketing practitioners dealing with these discussions, to have some more straightforward answers.
1.5 Outline
This paper is divided into four sub-sections: the upcoming sub-section B relates to study 1. In the next chapters the existing literature is reviewed on the subjects of sexual arousal and sexual appeals in advertising. It is followed by a chapter on the development of the conceptual framework, the methodology and the results and discussion of study 1. Sub-section C is comprised of all chapters related to study 2. It goes into the existing literature on incongruity and involvement, followed by chapters on the hypotheses and conceptual model, methodology, results and discussion of study 2. Section D covers both studies in an overall conclusion, including an answer to the research question, contributions and limitations and suggestions for further research.
10 2. SECTION B: SEXUAL AROUSAL
2.1 What is sexual arousal?
There has been substantial debate on what ‘sexual arousal’ actually is. Up until now, researchers have not reached consensus about what is necessary for someone to be ‘sexually aroused’. When thinking of sexual arousal, most people consider mainly the physiological responses. However, sexual arousal has multiple components; psychological (cognitive and affective), physiological and behavioral (Janssen et al., 2000).
About the psychological component, or cognitive response of sexual arousal, a lot is still unknown. What is known is that the cognitive response to sexual arousal involves the appraisal and evaluation of the stimulus, the categorization of the stimulus as sexual and the affective response to the stimulus (Rupp & Wallen, 2007). Psychophysiological research has revealed that the genital responses and the subjective sexual arousal of men are not always in line. For instance; providing men that are exposed to a visual sexual stimuli with false feedback during the experiment by telling them their erect penises where smaller than those of other participants, decreased their genital response, but did not affect their subjective arousal. Furthermore, through the process of habituation, repeated exposure to a sexual stimulus decreased participants’ subjective arousal, while genital responses actually increased with the number of exposures (Janssen, 2011). When using varied instead of constant sexual stimuli, both genital response as subjective arousal rates remain higher (O’Donohue & Geer, 1985). The results of several studies suggest that men do not always have an erection when feeling aroused, nor do they always feel aroused when having an erection. In women, inconsistencies between physiological and subjective measures of sexual arousal are a lot larger than in men. More research is needed to infer conclusions about the specific relationship between physical and cognitive arousal (Rupp & Wallen, 2008).
Besides the psychological (subjective sexual arousal) and physiological (genital response) components of sexual arousal, studies have also found an additional behavioral component. The behavioral component of sexually arousal arises from behavioral studies of animals and mainly refers to the frequency of exhibited reproductive behavior. This behavioral measure is less frequently used in human sexuality studies and is mainly prevalent in animal studies since measuring subjective and genital response poses a challenge in this field (Janssen, 2011).
Sexual arousal is conceptualized by Janssen et al. (2000) as “a complex triad involving physiological, psychological (cognitive and affective), and behavioral components”. The
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authors also suggest that these three components are, at least to some extent, controlled by different mechanisms in the body and brain (Janssen et al., 2000). In a later study, Janssen (2011) describes sexual arousal as “an emotional/motivational state that can be triggered by internal and external stimuli and that can be inferred from central (including verbal), peripheral (including genital) and behavioral (including action tendencies and motor expressions) responses”.
2.2 Triggers of sexual arousal and sex differences
There are several triggers of sexual arousal. These triggers can be both internal (fantasies, thoughts) and external (Jones & Barlow, 1990). External triggers of sexual arousal can be any possible stimulus perceived by the senses. There are vast differences between the sexes when it comes to triggers of sexual arousal. Where the relationships between genital arousal and sexual interests in men are quite strong, women’s sexuality appears to be more complex.
The sexual interests of men differ by the preferred category of target and by the preferred activity. By category of target is meant what men’s sexual interest is directed toward. In a normally functioning male this will be the preferred gender of the target (male or female adult) and the preferred age of the target (Chivers & Bailey, 2005). Thus, both in genital response as subjective sexual arousal, heterosexual men respond with higher rates to sexual stimuli including lesbian or heterosexual sex, than to stimuli depicting homosexual sex. Homosexual men on the other hand, respond more heavily to homosexual stimuli, instead of heterosexual or lesbian stimuli (Mavissakalian, 1975). Sexual interests also include specific types of sexual activity with the target of the sexual interests. For instance, incarcerated rapists show greater genital response when they are confronted with stimuli that depict sexual aggression (Chivers & Bailey, 2005). Findings from several studies suggest that it is difficult for men to separate sexual interest from sexual arousal (Janssen et al., 2008).
For women sexuality appears to be more complex. As explained above, the sexual interests of men are dependent on the preferred category of target and on the preferred sexual activity and there is a strong relationship between genital arousal and sexual interests. In contrast, the genital arousal of women does not correspond to their stated sexual interests. For instance, women show significant genital responses to sexual stimuli depicting either their preferred and non-preferred gender or sexual activities. Whereas for men, genital arousal is strongly linked to their sexual interests, for women this is not the
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case. Women’s genital response seems to be nonspecific and stimuli that evoke genital response do not have to include their preferred target or activity (Chivers & Bailey, 2005).
Besides the differences in sexual arousal between the sexes, it is important to note that individuals respond to arousal-producing stimuli in different ways (LaTour, Pitts & Snook-Luther, 1990). Even in normally functional males and females there are great individual differences in what is regarded as sexually arousing and what is not.
2.3 Responses to visual sexual stimuli
Since in an advertising context visual sexual stimuli will be most relevant, this section will focus on human’s responses to visual stimuli. After touch, vision is the most important trigger for sexual arousal. Visual stimuli produce a strong response in the brain. This response can even occur before the brain has been able to identify the content of the visual stimulus accurately (Rosenthal, 2012). While both sexes respond to visual sexual stimuli and imaging studies show that many of the same brain regions are activated in both sexes as a response to sexual stimuli, the male brain seems more responsive to visual sexual cues (Rupp & Wallen, 2008). When viewing sexually arousing stimuli, both the amygdala and hypothalamus show a stronger activation in the brain of men than in the brain of women. This phenomenon occurred even when women reported a greater subjective sexual arousal (Hamann et al., 2004). Even though men show a stronger reaction in the brain, the subjective ratings and viewing times of men and women that were exposed to visual sexual stimuli in an experiment, do not show significant differences. It is therefore not proven that men find visual sexual stimuli more interesting than women (Rupp & Wallen, 2009).
When studying what stimuli are considered the most attractive, researchers stumble upon similarities and differences between the sexes. Such as; while both sexes evaluate sexual images of the preferred sex more favorably, females evaluate sexual images of women more favorably than males evaluate sexual images of men. However, the sexes respond similarly to images of heterosexual couples engaging in sexual behavior (Reichert, 2002). Furthermore, both men and women had a subjective preference for stimuli in which a member of their own sex was receiving, rather than giving oral sex. A possible explanation of these similarities and differences is that men and women use a different cognitive processing strategy when looking at visual sexual stimuli. It is assumed that women use ‘projection’ strategies when looking at sexual stimuli, whereas men use both an ‘objectification’ as a ‘projection’ strategy. Another difference that has been found is that women value contextual factors in the visual sexual stimuli more than men (Rupp & Wallen, 2008).
13 3. SEXUAL APPEALS IN ADVERTISING
Despite the fact that sexual appeals are widely adopted in advertising, there still has been relatively little debate on what is actually meant by sexually oriented appeals in advertising (Reichert & Ramirez, 2000). Reichert, Heckler & Jackson (2001) describe sexual appeals as messages, that can be both brand information in advertising context as persuasive appeals in a social marketing context, that contain sexual information. This sexual information is generally presented as either images, verbal elements or both. There are many variations as to how sexual information can be integrated in the message elements (Reichert et al., 2001). In research, most studies have operationalized sexual appeals as nudity. In practice, a lot more more types of sexual appeals are being used (Reichert & Ramirez, 2000). These different types of appeals are described in the sections below.
3.1 Types of sexual appeals in advertising
Sex in advertising appears in many different forms, the majority of research has however focused on nudity or body display in advertisements (Reichert, 2002). Meant by the term nudity is the style and degree of clothing by models that play a role in the advertisement. A lot of the research on sex in advertising, has used the level of clothing as a measure of the level of sexual appeals.
Often used are the following four dimensions of dress: demure dress, suggestive dress, partially clad and nude (Soley & Reid, 1988). Content analyses show that nudity is indeed a very widely adopted way to use sexual stimuli in advertising (Reichert, 2002). An example of a commercial using nudity is the Budweiser commercial.
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A second type of sexual stimuli in advertising is sexual behavior: provocative behavior performed by one or more models in an advertisement. These provocative behaviors can take many forms, but do mostly include body movements that indicate flirting; making eye contact with the camera, seductive smiling, showing the neck, giving a sensual look, pursing the lips, erotic dancing, etc. Provocative behavior also includes sexually explicit language and a sensual use of tone and voice. Finally, sexual behavior includes sexually explicit contact between two or more models. Sexual contact includes for instance kissing and sexually explicit touching (Reichert, 2002). The Calvin Klein commercial on the left is a good example of a commercial that includes sexual behavior.
Contextual factors are another type of sexual appeals in advertising. Contextual factors are settings that add to the sexual feeling
accompanying the advertisement. Contextual factors are often used in combination with nudity or sexual behavior. Some contextual factors include sensual music in the advertisement or a location that can be sexual in nature (e.g. bedroom, sunset on the beach). Not much research has however focused specifically on sexual contextual factors (Reichert, 2002).
A fourth type of sexual appeal is double entendre. A double entendre appeal is used when a comment or sentence has a double meaning and one of the meanings is sexual in nature. Often a double entendre is accompanied by a picture which makes the alternative meaning more obvious (Bello, Pitz & Etzel, 1983). An example of a double entendre is the Burger King commercial on the left, in which the word “blow” can be interpreted in multiple ways.
15 Finally, there are types of
sexual appeals that are summarized as sexual embeds and symbolism (Reichert, 2002). A sexual embed is a small, hardly noticeable image of human sexual parts or a complete naked person included in an advertisement. Sexual symbolism is based on the Freudian symbolism theory. This type of sexual appeal
includes certain objects, that because of their shape (e.g., a banana) or function (e.g., key in a lock), can trigger unconscious sexual associations (Ruth, Kramer & Mosatche, 1989). An example of sexual symbolism used in an advertisement is found in the Volvo advertisement on the right. When also taking the text in the lower left corner of the advertisement into account, the advertisement can also be considered as being a double entendre.
3.2 Prevalence of sex in advertising
The use of sex in advertising has always been a topic that elicits social commentary and controversy. The study of Soley & Kurzbard (1986) looked at the difference in prevalence of sexual content in advertisements between 1964 and 1984. A period characterized by the sexual revolution, which led to increased sexual freedom. Soley & Kurzbar (1986) found that the percentage of advertisements with a sexual content remained constant, but the absolute number of sexual advertisements had increased. They also found that the sexual illustrations in advertisements had become more explicit. Reichert et al. (1999) studied the degree of sexual explicitness in magazine advertising from the 1980s until the early 1990s. In this study it was also found that sexual advertising had become significantly more explicit. Furthermore, Reichert et al. (1999) found a significant increase in sexually intimate behavior in advertisements. In 1983, only 21% of the advertisements displaying a man and a woman, contained sexually suggestive contact, while ten years later this percentage had increased to 53%. Finally, a more recent study has shown that visual sexual imagery in magazine advertisements had increased from 15% of advertisements in 1983 to 27% of advertisements in 2003 (Reichert, Childers & Reid, 2012). The results of these studies clearly indicate that the use and explicitness of sexual content in advertising has experienced a sharp increase in the past decades.
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The prevalence of sexual appeals in TV commercials differs from that in print advertisements due to the broader audience that can be exposed to the advertisement. This concerns especially children, but also elderly people who might be might be less accepting of nudity or other sexual appeals in commercials. Furthermore, television is generally bound to more strict legal guidelines when it comes to sexual appeals in advertisements (Paek & Nelson, 2007).
3.3 Effectiveness of sex in advertising
Although marketing practitioners seem to be firm believers of the notion that ‘sex sells’, studies on the effectiveness of the use of sex in advertisement have yielded inconsistent results. Empirical studies in the advertising literature have shown both positive and negative effects of the use of sexual appeals on consumer response (Wyllie, Carlson & Rosenberger, 2014).
Several studies indicate that sexual appeals attract attention and will retain this attention for longer periods of time than advertisements without sexual appeals (Liu, Cheng & Li, 2009). Furthermore, it has been stated that advertisements that include sexual content are regarded as more interesting and engaging by consumers than advertisements without sexual content (Reichert, 2002).
Conversely, some studies have found negative effects resulting from the use of sexual appeals in advertisements. For instance, Peterson & Kerin (1977) found that the use of explicit sexual appeals evoked unfavorable evaluations of the advertisement, advertised product and the brand of the parent company. Furthermore, Severn et al. (1990) state that sexual appeals in an advertisement interfere with the message comprehension, especially when the advertisement includes a lot of information.
Especially in terms of brand recall, the findings in this area are very contradictory. Some researchers state that although sexual appeals improve the attention that is paid to the advertisement, brand recall actually decreases with the use of sexual appeals (Weller, Roberts & Neuhaus, 1979). Other researchers however found that sexual appeals actually enhance brand recall (Severn et al., 1990), ad recall and the recall of main message points, because sexual appeals are often easy to relate to and memorable (Liu et al., 2009). Severn et al. (1990) even found that purchase intentions of the advertised product were stronger in the case of an advertisement using sexual appeals.
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3.4 Factors influencing the effectiveness of sexual appeals
When assessing the effectiveness of sexual appeals in advertising, many factors need to be taken into account: the gender of the model in the advertisement (Simpson, Horton & Brown, 1996); the attractiveness of the model in the advertisement (Baker & Churchill, 1977); the gender of the viewer (Peterson & Kerin, 1977); the ethical views on the use of sex in advertisement of the viewer (LaTour & Henthorne, 1994); the personality of the viewer (Black, Organ & Morton, 2009); the explicitness of the sexual appeals (Wyllie et al., 2014) and the advertised product (Richmond & Hartman, 1982; Simpson et al, 1996; Peterson & Kerin, 1977). The impact of these factors on marketing effectiveness will now be explained. The effect of the advertised product on the effectiveness of the use of sexual appeals in advertising will be extensively addressed in a later chapter.
The gender of the person viewing the advertisement is of obvious importance in regards to effectiveness of the advertisement. In addition, whether a male or female model is used in the advertising can make a great difference on advertising effectiveness. Whereas the use of female models in advertising, has been traced back to 1887, the use of males in sexual and provocative roles in advertising is still relatively new. Simpson et al. (1996), investigated the effect of the sex of the model in the advertisement. Their research concluded that participants of the opposite sex of the model had overall more positive advertisement evaluations in all conditions of the experiment. In other words; women prefer to see advertisements depicting men, whereas men prefer advertisements using women (Simpson et al., 1996). However, women evaluate sexual images depicting other women more favorable than men evaluate sexual images depicting other men (Reichert, 2002). It is therefore suggested that male nudity in any degree, should be avoided in advertisements targeting a male audience (Simpson et al., 1996). Moreover, Peterson & Kerin (1977) found that men, in each condition (all degrees of nudity) respond more positive to sexual appeals in advertising than women. Marketers targeting a male audience will therefore encounter more positive consumer response then marketers with a female target audience.
Baker and Churchill (1977) researched how the physical attractiveness of both female and male models in an advertisement affected the evaluations and behavioral intentions of the advertisement. They found that males reacted negatively to a high attractiveness of the opposite sex model when the product was sexually-irrelevant, whereas they reacted positively to the attractiveness of the opposite sex model when the product was sexually-relevant. Thus, when trying to sell a sexually-irrelevant product, an unattractive model might create a higher behavioral intention than an attractive model. It is therefore wrong to
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assume that using an attractive model will always be better than using an unattractive model.
LaTour & Henthorne (1994) state that both men and women may have ethical concerns regarding the use of explicit sexual appeals in advertising and that these concerns may negatively influence advertising effectiveness. Whether the use of sexual appeals is perceived as ‘unethical’ does however also depend on the sensitivity of the specific person regarding these issues. Furthermore, older people generally respond more negatively to sex in advertising than younger people (Torres, 2015). This phenomenon might have to do with different ethical perspectives, but can also be caused by differences in upbringing or a difference in the availability of sexual cues in daily life.
The results of the research by Black et al. (2009) show that personality has a significant influence on how consumers respond to the use of sexual appeals in advertising. Consumers that score high on the personality dimensions ‘extraversion’ and ‘openness’ have a more positive attitude toward the advertisement when sexual appeals are used, than do consumers that score high on the ‘introversion’ dimension. It is therefore advised by the authors that the use of sexual appeals is avoided when the target audience consists of mainly introverted consumers
A final important factor regards the explicitness of the sexual appeals. Whereas the evaluations of men become more positive when the level of nudity and the explicitness of the images increases, women evaluate images with high levels of nudity and explicitness more negative (or even offensive) than images with moderate nudity and explicitness (Reichert, 2002). Moreover, Wyllie et al. (2014) found that even though highly explicit sexual stimuli positively influenced the emotional and attitudinal response of men towards the advertisement, their purchase intentions actually decreased with the increased explicitness of the advertisement. These results were however contradicting to the results of earlier studies (Wyllie et al., 2014). More research in this area is needed to draw a valid conclusion on this point.
All the above explained factors and interactions between these factors influence the effectiveness of a specific advertisement. It is therefore very difficult to assess whether sexual appeals in advertising on its own, are effective or not. The inconsistent results of multiple studies and the complexity of the issue, generally lead to the recommendation of researchers to be extremely cautious when considering the use of sexual appeals in an advertisement (Judd & Alexander, 1983; Wyllie et al., 2014).
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3.5 Prevalence of sexual advertising in different product categories
Research suggest that sexual appeals in the advertising of sexually-relevant products have a different effect than in the advertising of sexually-irrelevant products. Relevance or congruity is described as “the appropriateness of the link between the product category and the use of sex” (Reichert, 2002). Reichert (2002) suggests that sexual appeals are more common in advertisements of product categories that depict positive purchase motivations, such as beauty, clothing and entertainment. A study into magazine advertising by Reichert et al. (2012) found that the product categories that contained the most visual sexual content were health/hygiene, beauty, drugs/medicine and clothing. Sexual imagery was the least prevalent in advertisements for high-involvement products such as financial services, computers and home appliances (Reichert et al., 2012).
Paek & Nelson (2007) also found that advertisements for products they perceived as congruent with sex contained higher degrees of nudity. The researchers used product categories that Reichert (2002) stated were perceived as being congruent or incongruent with sexuality. The categories perceived by the researchers as congruent were personal care, alcohol, fashion and cosmetics. In the other, incongruent category, were cars, food, financial services, furniture and home appliances. The advertisement for products in the congruent categories did indeed contain higher degrees of nudity.
3.6 Reasons why certain products are more sexually relevant than others
A study by Richmond & Hartman (1982) tried to categorize the associative links between certain products and sexual appeals in advertising. The researchers came up with four categories; functional, fantasy, symbolism and inappropriate. The ‘functional’ dimension is when there is an obvious link between the sexual appeal and the product that is advertised. The ‘fantasy’ dimension can be interpreted as when the product advertised can be linked to a romantic wish fulfillment. The ‘symbolism’ category is labeled as an extension of culturally shared meanings in society. The ‘inappropriate’ dimension is described as when the use of sexual appeals in an advertisement is purely aimed at getting attention and when there is little to no relationship with the product. Richmond & Hartman (1982) tested eight advertisements, two belonging to each category. The researchers tested whether participants actually placed the advertisement in that category, which they generally did well, except for the ‘symbolism’ category. Furthermore, the researchers tested the recall of the participants. They found that the two ‘inappropriate’ advertisements had the lowest
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recall rates and concluded that products with little or no link to sex should not be used in sexually suggestive advertisements (Richmond & Hartman, 1982).
This study however, has important limitations. Firstly, eight different advertisements for eight different products were used; to assume that the recall is the lowest for the ‘inappropriate’ advertisements, just because the congruity with the sexual appeals is low, is a conclusion that is fairly oversimplified. Many factors could influence recall, for instance, prior knowledge of the brand; six advertisements contained consumer products, whereas the two ‘inappropriate’ advertisements were B2B service companies (a large contractor and a council for rice farmers) that the average consumer has probably never heard of. Furthermore, the researchers asked the consumers about the product class of the eight brands in the advertisement; obviously this is easier to do for an alcoholic beverage, fragrance or cigarette brand than for a council for rice farmers and a construction company.
This categorization by Richmond & Hartman (1982) is the only study that has empirically tried to answer the question of why certain product categories are considered sexually relevant and others are not. Study 1 of this research will attempt to extend the research that has been done in this area.
21 4. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK STUDY 1
4.1 Research objectives
A very limited number of studies has tried to determine what kind of products consumers find congruent with sexual appeals and why these products are supposedly considered congruent with sexuality. The purpose of this study is to improve our understanding of why certain products are considered congruent or incongruent with sexuality in the minds of consumers. When it becomes clear why consumers would consider a certain product congruent with sexuality, sexual appeals in advertising can be used as an integrated message argument instead of just a way to attract attention. The ‘reasons’ for considering a product as congruent with sexuality or not, are described as ‘associative links’. The aim of this study is to explore what these associative links between certain products and sexuality are in the minds of consumers and more specifically to:
1. Identify which products consumers most dominantly link to sexual appeals in advertising and why they believe this link is logical (or not).
2. Explore what the ‘reasons’ or associative links are that consumers use to justify the link between a certain product and sexuality.
3. Discover how these associative links vary in strength. Which of these reasons do consumers regard as absolutely logical and which are considered less logical.
4.2 Framework development
In order to develop an effective interview script to discover these associative links, it was necessary to gain more insight in for what kind of products sexual advertising is actually used. An extensive internet search was undertaken. On the web, several articles can be found that list a wide array of, for instance “ridiculously sexual ads for totally unsexy things”. Although the products itself stated in these advertisements would generally not directly evoke a link to sexuality, some of the advertisement actually seemed to make this link quite distinct and in some cases even logical or natural.
A preliminary attempt was made to classify products that varied from obviously sexually-relevant to products that one would without doubt regard sexually-irrelevant. This initial classification is divided into eight ‘reasons’ why certain products can be linked to sexuality. This initial categorization (table 3.1) served as the basis for the interview script and the chosen stimuli used in the qualitative study.
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The initial categorization was formed after much consideration about the different categories. The underlying themes of the categorization were often debated and played a large role in the creation of the final categorization. There was for instance much discussion on whether ‘product use’ should play such a central role or whether more transcending terms should be used, similar to the distinction made in the study by Richmond & Hartman (1982). Richmond & Hartman (1982) divided all uses of sexual appeals in advertising into four categories: functional, fantasy, symbolism and inappropriate. In the end it was decided that basically every associative link can be brought back to product usage, since product usage can be referred to as the actual use of the product (e.g. “use helps to get sex”), the symbolic use of the product (e.g. “product use reminds of sex”) or the context in which the product is used (e.g. “used in an environment that easily leads to sex” or “used after sex”). Another underlying theme of the categorization that has been discussed was chronology (used during seduction, used in preparation of sex, used during sex and used after sex). Chronology was however soon dismissed as an appropriate underlying theme as it would mean that the vast majority of the categories would fall under the ‘seduction’ phase, whereas the other phases would only include one or two categories. This would therefore make the categorization very unbalanced and this theme did therefore not seem to be the right fit.
Finally, it has been decided that the most fitting underlying theme seemed to be incongruity. This became more clear during the interviews and focus groups when the participants’ strength of the associations with the different categories became more apparent. It was only then when it was discovered what an important role incongruity plays in the relationship between sexual appeals and the advertised product.
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Table 3.1. Initial categorization of associative links
Category Explanation Example products
Use helps to get sex
Products in which sex is used as an argument to buy the product.
Clothing, healthcare
products, fragrances, beauty products, cars, lingerie Used in an
environment that easily leads to sex
Products that are generally used in an
environment that may lead to sex or in which sex or seduction play a large role.
alcohol, cigarettes, sunscreen, hotels, dance events, gyms
Products that can be used during sex (related or unrelated)
Products that are specifically created for sexual purposes and/or have a purely sexual content. Products that are not designed to be used for sex, but can be used in a sexual context. Products that have to do with (better) vision and are in advertising linked to the role of sight in a sexual context.
Sex-toys, sexual magazines, Viagra, condoms, ice cream, strawberries, chocolate cream, sausages, bananas, photo- and video cameras, binoculars, television Used in
preparation for sex
Products used to prepare for sex. Shaving cream, condoms, lingerie, chewing gum, energy drink, alcohol
Used after sex Products that are used after sex. Cigarettes, water
Use reminds of sex
Products that are touched by the lips, that are used when (almost) naked, that have the shape of a sexual body part, or that involve actions that are similar to sexual acts.
Lolly’s, lipgloss, cigarettes, icecream, body oil.
Sex to shock* Products/services that use sex in
advertisements to shock. Generally used to show the negative effects of sex, but also just to attract attention.
Anti-STD campaigns, anti-sexual intimidation
campaigns, PETA campaigns (to encourage veganism, to discourage wearing fur, etc.)
No link No link between the product and sex can be
thought of.
Hamburgers, coffins, opera tickets, cat food
*The ‘sex to shock’ reason was taken out before conducting the study, since after some consideration it was decided that advertisements with this reason had a very specific, generally non-commercial objective which is subject to a different discussion than this study.
24 5. METHODOLOGY STUDY 1
The following section describes the research design that is used and the rationale behind the choices for this particular research design (study 1 and 2 combined). The chapter goes on to discuss the chosen methodology for study 1. Furthermore, this chapter describes which materials and stimuli were used for study 1 and why these specific instruments and stimuli were chosen. Finally, the sampling methods, procedures and data analysis methods of the study are discussed.
5.1 Research design combined research
The research is an exploratory sequential mixed methods design. The reason for choosing a mixed methods research design is to both expand the research and to enhance the usefulness and relevance of the results. Since there was no guiding framework or theory available when it comes to associative links between specific products and sexuality, it was necessary to first gain a deeper understanding of these associative links through a qualitative study. Where the qualitative study develops a theoretical framework, the quantitative study explores the implications of this framework and makes it applicable for marketing practitioners. Furthermore, the quantitative study generalized the findings of study 1 through a much larger sample. The two studies are interactive, as the hypotheses of the quantitative study are partially based on the outcome of the qualitative study. Furthermore, the quantitative study empirically evaluates the outcome of the qualitative study.
5.2 Methodology study 1
The objective of study 1 is to find the reasons why consumers think certain product categories have a link to sexuality. These reasons will also be called associative links. In chapter 3 an initial framework is proposed, the goal of the focus groups and interviews is to confirm, adjust and/or extent this framework based on the input of the participants.
5.3 Research design
An exploratory qualitative research has been conducted in the form of focus groups and interviews. These qualitative research methods were used to explore the associative links that people make between certain products or product categories and sexuality. To clarify this, consider the following example: fragrances can be linked to sexuality because when a person puts on a fragrance, he or she will smell better and therefore be more attractive. This enhanced attractiveness may increase the chances of engaging in sexual
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activity. The associative link between a fragrance and sexuality, is therefore that the use of the fragrance, makes you more physically attractive.
5.4 Procedure
For the qualitative study, two focus groups and four interviews were conducted. Both the focus groups as the interviews were semi-structured, which permitted participants’ comments and explanations to arise unexpectedly. The interviews took approximately 30 minutes, whereas the focus groups took 45 minutes to an hour. Before commencing the interviews, complete anonymity and confidentiality were assured to the participants. The main objective of both the focus groups and interviews was to explore the associative links between a certain product or product category and sexuality. To determine which products are most strongly associated to sexual appeals in advertisements, participants were asked which products or product categories they immediately think of when thinking of a sexual advertisement or commercial. Consequently, the participants were asked per product they mentioned whether they found it logical that this product was advertised in a sexual context and why they did or did not find this logical. After doing this for the product categories the participants came up with themselves, eighteen print advertisements were shown to the participants to evoke links between less obvious products and sexuality. Advertisements for products that the participants already mentioned in the first questions, were taken out. 5.5 Materials
The stimuli that were picked were all print advertisements that included sexual appeals. A lot of internet research was conducted to find the right stimuli, as the advertisements were required to meet a number of criteria to be selected for the study. The first criterion was that the advertisements were sufficiently sexual. Since this was the beginning of an exploratory study, it was hard to determine beforehand what participants would actually (very) sexual advertisements. During the interviews and focus groups it became more clear what participants actually considered a sexual advertisement and what they did not consider a sexual advertisement. To illustrate this, three advertisements used in this study are depicted below. Most participants did not consider the Nivea advertisement o be sexual, whereas the Bueno advertisement was considered mildly sexual and the Chupachups advertisement was generally considered as highly sexual (and was in some cases even described as offensive).
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Image 5.1: Nivea lip balm Image 5.2: Bueno chocolate bar Image 5.3: Chupachups lollipops
A second requirement was that the product depicted in the advertisement belonged to one of the ‘reasons’ of the predetermined associative links categorization. The specific stimuli were picked because the product categories shown in the advertisements belonged to one of the seven types of associative links that were predetermined by the researcher. For each category there were at least two relevant advertisements. An overview of the advertisements per reason can be found in appendix 3. Below are two examples of advertisement used in the study that clearly depict the specific associative link.
Image 5.4: “Often used after sex”-category: Fin e-cigarettes Image 5.5 “Unrelated products used during sex”: Nikon
The advertisements were used as a trigger and it was therefore not necessary that the advertisement always specifically depicted the associative links in relation to sexuality, participants were encouraged to come up with these links themselves. The advertisements that did depict a specific associative link, like the Nikon and Fin advertisements, were discussed early on in the interviews and focus groups, so the participants got a clear idea of what the objective of the study was. Later on in the interviews and focus groups there were
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sexual advertisements that did not specifically depict a link, so the participants were encouraged to associate more freely. Below there are two examples of these advertisements.
Image 4.6: “Use helps to get sex”: sports car Image 4.7: “Preparation for sex”: Monster energy drink
Finally, the advertisement used should not be too complex. Participants should not be too focused on the message or other distracting aspects of an advertisement. Therefore several advertisements did not comply with the requirements to be included in the study. Below there are some examples of advertisement that did not make the selection. All three advertisements include too much text, which would distract the participants. Furthermore, especially the Nivea advertisement is considered not sexual enough for the selection. The Cowboys advertisement is mainly left out because it does not directly become clear what it is advertising. Finally, the Tipalet cigarette advertisement is left out because it is quite old and in this day and age cigarettes are not advertised in such a obvious fashion anymore.
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Eighteen advertisements were selected for the interviews and focus groups. Below is a description of the stimuli including their category of associative links. In appendix 1 and 2 the interview scripts and the actual advertisements that were used as stimuli can be found. Table 5.1. Description of selected stimuli
Category Stimulus 1 Stimulus 2 Stimulus 3
Sex as a
consequence Dolce & Gabbana clothing. Two couples laying in haystacks with arms around each other. The men wearing nothing but jeans. The women staring at the men sensually.
Gucci fragrance. Shows head and shoulders of a naked man and woman. Man looks at the camera, while women stares longingly at the man.
Sports car advertisement.
Expensive, yellow sports car is driving past a woman wearing only yellow lingerie. Used in an
environment that easily leads to sex
Calvin Klein swimwear. Man and woman wearing swimwear laying on a bed, staring sensually at the camera.
Bacardi advertisement. Man with Bacardi in his hand has two women dancing against his body.
Axe showergel. Woman in bikini is holding her breasts so her bikini will not fall down. States: “the clearer you are, the dirtier you get”
Products that can be used during sex
Nikon photo camera. Two women in underwear are lying on a bed in a sexual position and are being photographed.
Kinder Bueno chocolate bar. Woman with chocolate on her lips stares sensually in the camera. States “not only for kids”
- Used in
preparation for sex
Monster energy drink. A can of Monster is stick between a woman’s backside and her tiny g-string.
Roberto Cavalli lingerie. Women in lingerie is sitting on a couch, staring into the camera sensually.
Nivea labello. Woman and man are almost kissing, but there is a snowy window in
between. “Be kiss-ready” Used after
sex Fin e-cigarette advertisement. Woman in lingerie is smoking a cigarette in bed while looking into the camera.
Perrier water. Woman in bikini on the beach is opening a bottle of Perrier, while everything around her is melting.
- Use reminds
of sex Magnum ice cream. Woman is sensually licking ice cream of her finger while holding a Magnum
Chupachups lolly. A part of the breasts and the belly of a woman are shown. A lollipop stick is stuck to her breast. “For adult”
- No link Carl’s Jr. burgers
advertisement. Woman is lying in car, eating a burger as if she is having sex.
Toilet paper ad. Almost naked man and woman are in a dressing room. Woman stares at man’s crotch. “Toilet paper and pleasure”
29 5.6 Sampling
In an exploratory sequential mixed methods design it is common to use a small, purposeful sample in the first (qualitative) phase of the research. For the focus groups the main goal was to select one focus group that was comprised of older participants, whereas the other group included younger participants, since according to theory older people respond more negatively to sex in adverting than younger people. Another important selection criteria of participants for the interviews and focus groups was to have participants from both genders, as the literature states that men and women differ in the processing and evaluation of sexual stimuli.
Table 5.2: Participant demographics interviews
Participant Age Gender Nationality Education
Participant 1 23 Male Dutch WO bachelor
Participant 2 24 Male Dutch HBO bachelor
Participant 3 25 Female Dutch WO master
Participant 4 21 Female Dutch WO bachelor
Table 4.3: Participant demographics focus group 1
Participant Age Gender Nationality Education
Participant 1 21 Male Dutch HBO bachelor
Participant 2 25 Male Dutch HBO bachelor
Participant 3 22 Male Dutch HBO bachelor
Table 4.4: Participant demographics focus group 2
Participant Age Gender Nationality Education
Participant 1 60 Male Dutch HBO bachelor
Participant 2 58 Female Dutch HBO bachelor
Participant 3 57 Female Dutch HBO bachelor
5.7 Measures
The main objective of study 1 was to categorize the associative links that participants made between a certain product or advertisement and sexual appeals and to compare this with the initial proposed framework. At the start of the interview, it was attempted to measure which products were most dominantly associated with sexual appeals in the minds of the participants. Therefore the first questions was “Are there certain products or product
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categories that you immediately think of when you think of a sexual advertisement or commercial?”.
Afterwards several questions were posed to determine how congruent participants considered certain products with sexual appeals. Participants were asked the following question on both the products they named themselves, as the products that were evoked by the eighteen advertisements: “Do you think it is logical to advertise [product] in a sexual context?”. This question measured to what extent the participants found certain products congruent or incongruent with sexual appeals, in other words: the level of incongruity.
To determine what reason participants had to consider a product either congruent or incongruent, they were asked: “Why do you think it is logical to advertise [product] in a sexual context?”. The answers to the previous question were the most important for the first study, as they were used to develop the associative links categorization. To explore the breadth of the category the participants came up with, the following question was posed: “For what products do you think a sexual advertisement would be effective for the same reasons?”. To determine whether there were perhaps other categories that the advertisement belonged to that were less dominant, the following questions was asked to the participants: “Are there any other reasons why you would link [product] to sexuality?”.
Some control questions were asked during the interviews and focus groups. These control questions were mainly helpful for the creation of the questionnaires of the second study. To measure the ‘degree of sexuality of the advertisement’, in other words; whether participants considered certain advertisements to be sexual, the question “To what extent do you think this advertisement is sexual in nature?” was posed for each advertisement. A final control question was asked to check the participant’s understanding of the advertisement and the advertised product: “Could you tell me what product this advertisement is for?”. 5.8 Data analysis
The analysis of the tape-recorded data from the interviews and focus groups focused on generating common ‘reasons’ why products could be associated with sexuality. But at first the products that the participants mentioned at the start of the interview were counted. These were the products that were the most top of mind for the participants when thinking about products or brands that are associated with sexual appeals in advertising. Many of the answers the participants gave overlapped. A listing of the most dominant products was therefore made by taking into account how many participants mentioned a certain product and the timing of when they mentioned the product (first, last, etc.).
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To find the associative links necessary to make the categorization, for each interview or focus group the reasons that participants came up with for the products they mentioned at the start of the interview or the links that came to mind after seeing the stimuli where noted down. Afterwards the lists with associative links of all interviews and focus groups were compared with each other to find common explanations. Several links were described differently by the participants but the meanings of these descriptions appeared to be very similar. Therefore, the analyzing the interviews and focus groups recordings was a dynamic process as each analyzed interview provided a basis for further interviews. Finally, lists of reasons deriving from each interviews were comprised into one categorization of reasons. This categorization was compared to the predetermined categorization of the researcher. To assure objectivity, the two categorizations (predetermined and composed after the interviews) were shown and discussed with a fellow student who assessed the interpretation of the researcher.
The outcomes of the interviews and focus groups ensured several adjustments to the predetermined categorization: several categories were adjusted, deleted or added. The results of the comparison between the predetermined categorization and the categorization composed as a result of the interviews will be discussed in further detail in the next chapter.
32 6. RESULTS & DISCUSSION STUDY 1
Two focus groups and four interviews were conducted, forming an exploratory qualitative research. These focus groups and interviews were used to explore the associative links that people make between certain products or product categories and sexuality. The following section describes the outcomes of the first study and the conclusions that can be drawn from these results.
6.1 Most dominant products
After a short introduction, participants were asked which product or product categories were the first to come to mind when thinking of sexual advertising. This questions was posed in order to determine which products are most the most dominantly associated with sexual appeals in advertisements. A striking finding was that the brand Axe was mentioned in all focus groups and interviews, often even as first brand. The participants mainly referred to the Axe deodorant, but also the Axe shower gel. Other products that were mentioned were fragrances (mentioned in both focus groups and three of the conducted interviews); lingerie (stated in both focus group and two interviews); condoms (mentioned in one focus group and three interviews); and alcohol (expressed in one focus group and one interview). Shampoo, swimwear, sextoys and cars were mentioned in one of the focus groups or interviews.
6.2 Categorization
A categorization of associative links is made. At the end of this section an overview of these categories is given. In this section categories are described and it is discussed how these categories with ‘reasons’ or ‘associative links’ were developed from the qualitative data. Products can fall into more than one category, but there is generally one dominant category per product. As a result of the interviews and focus groups, several adjustments were made to the initial categorization. Some categories were divided into multiple categories and some categories were added or extended. Since the stimuli were only used to evoke certain reactions from the participants, but the main objective of the focus group was free association, all adjustments made are considered conceptual adjustments and not based on methodological limitations.
The first category is the most obvious category, which is “Sex products”. These are products that are specifically created for use in a sexual context, for sexual purposes and/or that have a purely sexual content. Examples of products that fall into this first category are
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sex toys, porn, lubricants/pleasure gels, condoms, lingerie (lingerie was also mentioned in the second category) etc. All participants described this category fairly similar and generally mentioned the same products that belonged to this category. An interesting debate was whether condoms belonged to this category. In one of the focus groups a participant brought up condoms, but another started debating this. He stated that condoms were not something fun you buy when you are going to have sex, but he described it as a ‘necessary evil’. After his argumentation the other participants agreed. After this discussion the group was asked in which category they would place Viagra and they agreed that it, like condoms, belonged in the “product often used in preparation for sexual activity” category.
The second category is “Product use makes physically attractive”, meaning that the use of the product makes the consumer more sexually attractive, which possibly has sex as a consequence. This category was at first called “product use helps to get sex”. After analyzing the interviews and focus group it became clear that this initial category was too broad and it was divided into two categories that make a distinction between physical attractiveness and attractiveness through a personal image. The “product use makes physically attractive” category is widely adopted in advertising and generally the first category participants discussed in the interviews when asked about the first products that came to mind. Examples of products participants believe belong in this category are fragrances, shampoo, deodorant, hair gel, make-up and clothing (although clothing was more dominantly mentioned in the “product use creates an attractive personal image” category).
“You put on a fragrance and fix your hair to get positive attention from girls” (Male, 22) “If someone smells nice that person becomes a lot more attractive” (Female, 25)
Category 1 and 2 fall under the ‘highly congruent’ level of incongruity. The third category falls within the ‘mildly congruent’ level of incongruity with sexual appeals. This category is “Products used in an environment that promotes sex”, which is described as products that are generally used in an environment that may lead to sex or in which sex and/or seduction play a large role. For instance products that are used in clubs, on holidays, at festivals, in a hotel, etc. This category generally came up with most participants when they were shown a Bacardi advertisement. Participants also linked this with cigarettes (since they are smoked when going out) and swimwear (holidays, beach). Two surprising products that were mentioned were lollipops and coffee. When seeing the Chupachups advertisement, one of the interviewees mentioned that lollipops remind her of festivals since many festival-goers eat lollipops and on a festival it is easier to seduce people. Coffee was mentioned by
