Gender Portrayal in Fragrance Advertisements One of the strongest psychological appeals is sex. There have been hundreds of studies done that prove that sex sells. Advertisement agencies would not use this technique of sexual imagery if it did not sell products. The earliest known use of sex in advertising is by the Pearl Tobacco brand in 1871, which featured a naked woman on the package cover. That proves that sex in advertising has been used for almost a century and a half now. The theory that prompted my research on the popularity of sexual imagery in print advertisements in magazines was the notion that sex sells. Why sex sells cannot truly be answered through observations thus, that is not the focus of my paper. What this paper challenges is the over-sexualization of women in fragrance advertisements as compared to men. My research showed that there were more non-sexual advertisements than sexual. However, within the advertisements classified as sexual, my hypothesis was proved correct because more women were portrayed as erotic and seductive than men. Nonetheless, as with any other study, there are sources of potential bias in this research as well as other weaknesses and limitations. The theoretical implication of this study remains the…show more content… It opened up the idea of looking into why gender role is important when developing an advertisement campaign. It also provided information on the trends in advertising over time, which I can look at when determining just how successful sex is in selling a product. The article does focus on the portrayal of women in advertisements, which is one focus of my research paper therefore; it will help to support my argument. Epure and Vasilescu explore the responses to particular advertisements of both men and women. That is an important exploration in determining if sex really does sell and at what
