The highly sexual art of selling perfume

Feminine sexuality has become an increasingly popular theme in advertising, including commercial advertisements, billboards and especially advertisements in magazines. The interesting thing about this is the fact that not only is feminine sexuality used in advertisements targeting men but has also alarmingly become extremely popular among women’s products advertisements. Ultimately, the use of feminine sexuality has become so prominent in advertising through popular culture, that it is even successfully used for products marketed to women (Brittan, 2010).

Source: yesterdaysperfume.com

Perfume is one product widely used among the female population and therefore is also a highly advertised product throughout various forms of the media. Through suggestive poses and seductive looks, the models in these advertisements epitomize a sense of beauty that many young women who would purchase this perfume desire (Conway et al., 2006). This in itself suggests femininity through the eyes of popular culture and therefore beguiling the society with this mentality as well.

The phrase ‘sex sells’ has become increasingly popular when it comes to effective marketing and advertising strategies. Though sex itself does not literally sell these specific products, any sexuality in an advertisement will ultimately attract consumers to the product. The women portrayed in these advertisements are close to naked in several instances and that along with seductive poses apparently create beautiful and successful women (MacKinnon & Catherine, 2007).

Source: thesocietypages.com

The depiction of women in this manner has also lead to issues concerning eating disorders in order to look like the women who are seen in these advertisements. According to experts, women are believed to feel depressed and have lowered self-esteem as a result of these advertisements (Moult, 2009).

Source: gizmodo.co.uk

In conclusion, advertisements today, especially concerning fragrances have given women of societies everywhere an entirely skewed perspective of what an actual woman should be like. In perfume advertisements, the woman is not portrayed in an immoral fashion but they are typically seen to be submissive to a man overpowering her (Schmidt & John, 2003). The society that we live in claims to teach that nothing is less attractive than a woman who needs a mans approval to be empowered but most of the popular brands sell the direct contrast portrayal of a woman. Based on this, a serious change should be at hand but how many of these large and established companies are willing to take the first step towards a global risk?

References

1. Brittan, A 2010. Sexism, racism and oppression. Blackwell. p. 236. Retrieved June 26 2012

2. Conway et al. 2006. Status, Communality and Agency: Implications for Stereotypes of Gender and Other Groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 71, No. 1, pp. 25-38. Retrieved June 26 2012

3. Moult, J 2009. Women's careers more tied to weight than men -- study. Herald Sun, Retrieved June 26 2012.

4. MacKinnon, C & Catharine, P 2007. Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. 147. Retrieved June 26 2012

5. Schmidt, J & John, H 2003. Veiled and Silenced: How Culture Shaped Sexist Theology (Macon, Ga.: Mercer Univ. Press, esp. pp. 124–129. Retrieved June 26 2012