using sex appeal in graphics???

JohnB77JohnB77
edited September 2008 in Hardware
Do you think that the use of sexual appeal in graphics is appropriate? On all levels.. it doesn't have to be pictures of sexy women or men, what about using curves, lines, colors, sounds, etc to implement the sexual sub-consciousness?

I know this is risque but I think it should be addressed....

Comments

  • ZuntarZuntar North Carolina Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    It depends on the demographic that is addressed. Sex is a powerful weapon and will almost always work to get the initial attention, but IMHO if you need to put a picture of a seductive or well endowed women on your product, then your trying to make up for some inadequacy.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    Reminds me of Soul Calibur. In every installment, the women become more well endowed.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    I'm not complaining.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited September 2008
    It doesn't bother me. I'm not any more inclined to by a product because of it. But I certainly don't mind seeing it. I'm not even talking about having sexy woman in your advertising. But clean curvy lines or sounds that hint at something, not complaints at all.

    Every form of advertising is going to try and spin some angle, be it sex appeal, comedy, shock value, generally obnoxious whatever. So it's a matter of picking your poison.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    Sex appeal is one of the most powerful standard tools in advertising. From cars to soap you see it regularly used.
    The comment about demographics is right on. That is what determines how much is too much. Once your target audience in consciously aware of the ploy then they are no longer hearing your message.
  • AnnesAnnes Tripped Up by Libidos and Hubris Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    I will buy anything with a hot man on it.
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    I personally don't like it. It's annoying to me, especially in the tech field, when marketers are using sex on a product where it's not at all applicable (but honestly, how often is it applicable after all?).

    Sometimes it's used to such a dramatic degree that it provokes nothing but nonsense. That's where I become increasingly frustrated with it.

    For instance, Sony has an ad out for the PS3 (tried to find a link, no luck) that has a man in 3 parts, taken apart at the waist and the top parts lying on the ground. - much like those wooden toys where you take the top half off of the oval shapped figure, and inside theres a copy of that figure, only smaller. It keeps going until you have one the size of your thumbnail. In this ad the center third part was a woman with a top that might as well have been see-through. And at the top left corner of the ad?

    Playstation 3â„¢

    What is that crap? Seriously, that's absurd and communicates nothing of the actual product. I'm sick of this trend of sexy confusion that so many people use.

    Show me the product. Convince me that it works. No extra bullcrap.

    Concerning graphics, if they subtly use sexual methods, be it smooth curves and the like, I'm fine with that as long as your communicating to me that the product is good - not to mention you communicate WHAT the product is. Anything else is just garbage to me.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    You know why it's not crap, Lynx? Because you remember that ad was about a Playstation 3.
  • GnomeQueenGnomeQueen The Lulz Queen Mountain Dew Mouth Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    You know why it's not crap, Lynx? Because you remember that ad was about a Playstation 3.

    ^
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited September 2008
    Remember what it wasn't isn't always key though to making a sale. I remember that those short run and horrible Seinfeld/Gates MS adds are about microsoft but there is nothing compelling me to buy the product.

    By the same toke sex appeal in adds that have no bearing on the product won't make me want to buy the product more often it's a product I'd never get in the first place. All I can say is if I'm going to be stuck watching a commercial ore seeing another tire add in a magazine - I'm not going to complain if there is a half naked hot chick in it.

    So I guess back to the OP I don't think it's appropriate, I don't think it's key to generating sales. But if I'm stuck seeing adds I'll take sexy over obnoxious.
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    The OP is a shill.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    You know why it's not crap, Lynx? Because you remember that ad was about a Playstation 3.

    There has been, for years, a concept in marketing that the most important thing is to make sure that people remember the name of your product. I believe that with today's media conscious audience, that's not good enough anymore.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    Bah, the shill has given us good fodder for conversation, at any rate. :D
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    Agreed, but chances are we'll never hear from him again, especially since I deleted the spam-a-riffic links from his sig. A quick Google search revealed "he" signed up at several different sites over the last few days. The MO was the same. Post something marginally relevant, edit the post, then spam away.

    Oh, and boobies in ads FTW.
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    You know why it's not crap, Lynx? Because you remember that ad was about a Playstation 3.

    Kryyst said it. To me - and perhaps this is more exclusive to me - I won't buy anything Playstation as a result of the ad. I don't care if I remember the name 'Playstation 3' as a result. In fact, I'd almost say I'm less likely to buy as a result.

    See, I'm a bit of a different breed. Ads do very little for me. I think our internet generation is in the same boat for the most part. We're bombarded by ads wherever we look when we flip on a computer. I don't even see them any more, let alone click on them. And I typically remember names/products when I do see them, I could name off a bunch of products and companies as a result of ads. My memory just works that way.

    How many sales have resulted from that memorization? Very little.

    I need to be convinced that a product is great and that it would be useful to me in some way before I buy it. I'm a shrewd shopper. And seeing an ad for PS3 that is logically asinine and has no relevance whatsoever to the actual product is going to do everything for me BUT generate a sale.

    So maybe mine is an exclusive case, but that's a terrible ad for the PS3 and it is completely ineffective in doing what it's supposed to do - promo a product and generate sales.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited September 2008
    [BLOCKQUOTE]"but that's a terrible ad for the PS3 and it is completely ineffective in doing what it's supposed to do - promo a product and generate sales."[/BLOCKQUOTE]

    That's not always what ads are supposed to do...

    Ads are very important in building brands. There are tons and tons of ads that do not try to sell anything. They're important in building an emotional response in a certain target demographic.

    You probably weren't the target demographic for that particular ad. But for those who were, it sticks.
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