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Study on Sex Appeal in Advertising: Does it Effect Consumer Purchase
Decisions?
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· Februar y 2018
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Ibn Zohr University
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Study on Sex Appeal in Advertising:
Does it Effect Consumer Purchase Decisions?
Ibrahim Sameer, Walid Simmou
Abstract
Each and every single day consumers are bombarded with eclectic assortments of commercials,
each of this advertisement use distinct kind of appeal in order to clutch the attentions of customers,
among them sex appeal advertisement is most common. The main intension of this study is to find
out whether sex appeal advertisement is effective or not and does it influence customer purchase
decision or not. In this research purely, secondary data has been used & more than 28 published
journals has been reviewed after 2010 on this topic. Finding suggest that “sex sell” marketing
philosophy doesn’t not hold true in 21th century and sex appeal advertisement cannot influence the
purchase decision of customers.
Key Words: Sex appeal, Purchase decision, Culture, Sex Sell
Online Published on 11 February 2018
pg. 1
Introduction
The core intention of this research is to find out, does sex appeal in advertising help company to
influence consumer purchase decision or not. In late 1960 onwards, organization have been using
sex to sell their product or brands and this have been the mainstream form of advertisement in
western culture (Jones et al., 1998). For the purpose of this research sex refers to use of both men
and women in different sexual contexts or state of sexual pose in order to impress interests of
customers. According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory using sexual content in advertisement can
attract customer attention more because unconscious mind in human pushes and that stimulate
people to act in a certain way.
In the current competitive world business organization success depends on how effective
advertisement, due to the said reason most multinational companies as well as local companies
heavily invest in promoting its products. Most of the companies used various kinds of advertising
appeal to attract target customer group, the different types appeal that are normally used include
such as sex appeal, humor, romantic & adventure etc to lure clients and to grab greatest market
share.
Among all the type of appeal in advertising most of the time marketers used sex appeal
advertisement in luring the customers. There is marketing philosophy stating “Sex Sell”, according
to this philosophy marketers believe that if sex is used in advertisement then it is easy to entice the
attention of customers. The main intension of advertisement is to attract customer attention at any
cost and it can influence the buying behavior of final customer. If the advertisement is interesting
for consumer then there is high chance that consumer will buy product or consumer will have
preference over the other products.
In recent years there has been controversial debate on using sex appeal advertisement in promoting
the product/brand, specifically using nudity in sex appeals advertisement. When designing
advertising campaign marketers need to take into account the cultural belief, customs, norms and
religious values in particular society, because the religious belief that entail in the society is critical
part in forming the social behavior of customers, if not that may lead to consequences for
organization such as boycott of their product in that particular society.
In the past decades there has been lots of controversial advertisement that are on air around the
globe from mainstream media regarding sex appeals advertisement and those advertisement has
been banned in telecasting from mainstream media such as TV. One such advertisement was
pg. 2
Bollywood famous actress Sunny Leone “Manforce condom” advertisement in India. In this
commercial she poses very seductively showing her cleavage with male actor in beach. Soon after
it on air in the mainstream media it has been criticized CPI leader Atul Anjan stating to ban those
commercial and due to such commercial increases rapes in India, and he states that advertisement
as “shabby, ugly or immoral” and it has been banned in India (TOI, 2015). Another such
advertisement was “Nice day! Coffee’s commercial” in 2014. In this advertisement actress Ellen
Adarna pose in a very provocative positioning in order to promote the coffee brand she is
endorsing. This advertisement has been banned in broadcasting in mainstream media due to its
sexual appeal (Filipiknow, 2016). The sex appeal advertisement has been criticized and lots
government has been taking lots of stringent action on such ads. Recently Chinese government has
issue regulation to ban all type of sex appeal advertisement in mainstream media (radio &
Television) in China.
Research Methodology
This research has been conducted based on literature review of 2010 to 2017 on this subject.
Information has been gathered from various secondary sources mainly from academic journals and
has reviewed more than 28 academic journals on this subject.
Previous Studies
Previous studies on this topic broadly can be categorized into two broad spectrums that are
researchers who are in favor & against sex appeal advertisement.
Favor in Sex Appeal Advertisement
Researchers that are in favor of sex appeal advertisement (Dianoux & Linhart 2010, Sawang 2010,
Grazer & Kessling 2011, Groza & Cuesta 2011, Thiyagarajan et al., 2012, Sugiarto & Barnier
2013, Khan & Munoz 2015, Sharma & Gupta 2015, Sari et al., 2015, Chang & Tseng 2015 &
Lascus et al., 2016) results suggest that sex appeal advertisement help marketers to grab the
attention of target customers more easily, customers perceived those advertisement more
interesting, entertaining, customers spend more time in viewing sex appeal advertisement hence it
help customer to develop closer bond with product therefore it leads to developed stronger
pg. 3
recognition of brand/products & also leads to word of mouth advertisement. The subsequent part
of this paper look into details of researchers that are in favor of sex appeal advertisement.
Dianoux & Linhart (2010) examined the effects nude print advertisement in the context of Czech
Republic, Spain & France. In this study researcher shows an advertisement that carry woman face
or topless body of woman. It reveals that men are more fond of nudity ads than woman but with
regards to country it does not appear any significant influence on advertisement that carry nudity.
Sawang (2010) explore consumers’ behavior towards use of sexual content in advertisements
among various cultural groups. This research was conducted in Oklahoma City in USA with
sample of 78 participants and sample includes different ethnicity group such as Asian, American
and North American. This study concluded that American & North American are more likely to
prefer sexual content in ads but Asian reported less cultural acceptability of sexual contents in
advertisement.
Grazer & Kessling (2011) examined effects of sex appeal ad in print advertising on brand recall
and purchase intention using only male gender. In this research more than 230 samples was
included and researchers found that consumer are able to recall jeans brand when organization
used moderate level of sex in advertisement and more than 70% of respondent like to buy jeans
once they watch ad which include moderate or high level of nudity in the ads.
Groza & Cuesta (2011) studied consumer perception about sexiest humor in advertisement in
Spain. This research was carried out in Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona and includes 38
samples. Result suggest that customers perceive sexy appeal advertisement as funny, harmless and
credible and also it reveals that customers feel more positive sense and less unpleasant after
watching sexy humor advertisement.
Thiyagarajan et al., (2012) explore Indian youth perception towards use of sexual appeal in
advertising & its influence on effectiveness of advertisement. Researchers conducted this study in
Chennai city by employing 280 samples comprise of both male and female in equal numbers. The
authors find that 61% have favorable perception towards sex appeal ads in TV. Furthermore, if ad
has wild sexual appeal 50% responded its effective conversely if ad has mild sexual appeal 73%
responded its effective. Hence researchers concluded that sex appeal in advertisement play
significant role in promoting product if the target audiences are liberal towards these types of
sexual stimuli ads.
pg. 4
Sugiarto & Barnier (2013) examined perception of Indonesian consumers towards sex appeal
advertisement as well as how consumers think about such advertisement. This study employee
snowball sampling methods & it consist of 319 Indonesian from different age group. The results
of this study suggest that Indonesian people are quite moderate in practicing Islam. The author
find that Indonesian customers are quite moderate in accepting sex appeal advertisement if
advertisement contain mild sex appeals. Furthermore, Indonesian customers are quite accepting
“demure” sex appeal advertisement than overt sex appeal ads.
Khan & Munoz (2015) done research on examining the role pay by culture in determining whether
sex appeal in advertising affects female consumers’ attitudes and final purchase decision. In this
study researchers have used primary data collection method and employed sample size of 164 and
data has been gathered through online and offline questionnaires. The results suggest that when
selling luxury product specifically perfumes then using sex appeal advertisement can affect female
consumer attitudes mostly to final purchase decision.
Sharma & Gupta (2015) conducted research on “semiotic analysis of Indian TV: advertisement &
its impact on consumer.” The authors find that in India men like more erotic & sexual ad than
woman.
Sari et al., (2015) examined consumer perception towards sex appeal advertisement & purchase
intention towards such products in Indonesian market. This research was conducted using
quantitative methods, used descriptive statistics for data analysis and have employed 120 samples
that include 120 heterosexual men at the age group of 15-24. Descriptive statistics indicated that
sexual appeal use in AXE product advertisements are very effective and after watching AXE ads
consumers take those advertisements in positive sense and it help consumers to make purchase
decision. The results suggest that sexual appeal advertisement have statistically significant positive
preponderant on Indonesian consumers’ purchase decisions.
Chang & Tseng (2015) explore on the topic can sex sell bread? The result suggests that explicit
(nudity, full exposure of sexual activity) sexual appeal is very successful for promoting sex related
product on the other hand non-sexual related product implicit sexual appeal is more effective.
Lascus et al., (2016) studied online fashion magazine advertisement effectiveness in France &
USA in terms of needs appeals, emotional appeals & sex appeals. The authors find that emotional
appeal is more effective in France but in USA sexual appeal advertisement is more effective.
pg. 5
Against Sex Appeal Advertisement
Researchers that are in against of sex appeal advertisement (Ifezue 2010, Akhter et al., 2011,
Walker & Ziad 2011, Amyx & Amyx 2011, Wagh & Miller 2011, Wazir & Ezaz 2012, Bayraktar
2012, Klug & Ellis 2012, Ismail & Melewar 2014, Nooh et al., 2014, Moses & Charles 2014, Ajay
2014, Raghuram et al., 2015, Lull & Bushman 2015, Li & Rodriguez 2015, Djambaska et al., 2016
& Fidelis et al., 2017) results suggest that sex appeal advertisement is used only to grab the
attention of target customers group and in the long term the benefit for the organization is not
possible, sometimes depends on target audience customer developed strong dissatisfaction on such
brand when organization used sex appeal in their commercials, the sex appeal advertisement grab
attention of customers for sex only not for the brand itself and some researchers argue that sex
doesn’t sell any longer now. The subsequent part of this paper looks into details of researchers that
are in against of sex appeal advertisement.
Ifezue (2010) conducted research on what make an effective advertisement for men and woman in
South Africa and it was reveal that there is no significant evident suggesting that sex appeal ad
attract attention of customers in South Africa.
Akhter et al., (2011) explore ethical aspect of sex appeal advertisement in Pakistan, this research
was conducted in COSMATS institute of Pakistan & it includes 200-sample size. The results
suggest that cultural norms play pivotal role in shaping the attitudes of customers. In Pakistan sex
appeal advertisement that include indecent language, nudity and sexy images in advertisement can
create very offensive thoughts in the mind of customers for such brands or products; hence
customers reject those kinds of products.
Walker & Ziad (2011) studied effects of sex appeal advertisement in printed and video media on
memory retention and purchase intention. Researchers reveals that there are no statistically
significant effects on sex appeal ad on consumer purchase preference.
Amyx & Amyx (2011) explore puffery & sex appeals advertisement effectiveness and consumers
behavior towards such commercials. The authors find that sex appeal advertisement have not effect
on consumer buying behavior. In the concluding remarks authors’ reveals that marketers should
not reckon the power of sex appeals advertisement even if it is associated with sexual based
product, perhaps influence of sex isn’t what it used to be now a days.
Wagh & Miller (2011) conducted research in China to find out sex appeal advertisement influence
for cheap product purchase decisions. This study employed more than 47 Chinese young adult
pg. 6
ages between 18-26 years. The authors’ find that low involvement product in promoting sex appeal
advertisement does not have any influence in China market.
Wazir & Ezaz (2012) examined attitude of consumer towards sex appeal advertisement and
whether those commercials are acceptable in Pakistan society. This research was conducted in
Peshawar employing 150 samples. The results suggest that main both male and female don’t like
sex appeal commercials & it leads developing negative perception about brand in the mind of
consumers.
Klug & Ellis (2012) studied gender differences attitudes towards sex appeal advertisement in print
media. In this research was conducted in University of KwaZulu-Natal Pietermaritzburg Campus
employing students from different age group that is 18-25. The authors’ finds that in general
customers developed negative attitudes towards sex appeal advertisement especially if commercial
include sexual explicit contents.
Bayraktar (2012) studied Muslim consumers reactions to sexual content in advertisement. This
research use exploratory research techniques and was conducted in New Jersey USA. This paper
documented that Muslim consumer develop very negative attitude towards sex ads. Further
researcher reveals that sometimes consumer develop negative attitude towards even the brand and
organizations and consumer take precautionary action on such ads seen by their children even.
Ismail & Melewar (2014) conducted research on Malaysian consumers’ behavior towards sex
appeal advertisement. In this research it includes 384 participants that comprise of 23% male and
77% female and among them 45% are Muslims and 55% are non-Muslims. The authors’ finds that
Muslims consumer attitudes towards high sex appeal advertisements are significantly lower than
non-Muslims. Therefore, this finding signal that for Muslim community the old marketing saying
of “sex sells” perhaps not hold true.
Nooh et al., (2014) investigated relationship between religiosity & controversial product and
offensive nature of advertising appeals in South of Peninsular Malaysia. Researchers used 278
samples and employed descriptive statistics for analyzing data. The research suggests that in terms
of advertising appeal in controversial products, sexist image and nudity shows 70% & 62%
offensive and extremely offensive respectively, indicating customers don’t like those ads.
Moses & Charles (2014) examined five related research on sex as an advertising appeal focus on
ethical views of target customers. They have reveal that sex appeal advertisement degrades the
value of female gender in the mind of customers and society as a whole. Moreover, advertisement
pg. 7
should portray true information to end users of product when organization use sex appeal
advertisement in ad leads to deception among customers because sex appeal ad main intention is
not sell “sex” rather products. Finally, researchers concluded that when organization use sex appeal
ad in promoting products leads to generate tension among opposite sex due to that sexual
harassment, rape and various sexual assaults witness in Nigeria.
Ajay (2014) explore Indian customer perception about advertisement specifically print & TV
advertisement. It is documented that half of Indian advertisement use unethical ways of inducing
customers to products. Furthermore, deodorant advertiser like Fogg & Zatak use sex appeal in their
advertisement and respondent believe 90% of their ads are totally unethical and they don’t like
those ads.
Raghuram et al., (2015) examine sex advertisement influence on customer buying choice and
impact on product brand in India. Researchers employed random sampling method of
questionnaires form in collecting data and include 84 as sample size. Researchers concluded that
58% of customers don’t care about sexual advertisement & more than 90% customers responded
that sex ad doesn’t influence buying choice of products, this indicate that sexual stimuli ad is less
significant among customers and its impacts of customer buying choice in India.
Lull & Bushman (2015) explore whether sex can sell product or not using Meta analytical review.
Researchers use 53 experiments consisting of 8,489 samples. This research documented that
organization advertise in violent media customers reminisced less often, less favorable and are less
likely to purchase products or brands than nonviolent and nonsexual media. Moreover, products
or brand advertise using sex appeals ads authors find that sex appeal ads are less preponderant than
nonsexual advertisement and in the concluding remarks authors states that violence and sex appeal
ads never helped customers to remember brand and neither those advertisement is effective in
making sales.
Li & Rodriguez (2015) studied condom print advertisement published in four different continents
namely Europe, Asia, North America & South America. It has been documented that humor appeal
in condom ad play significantly role rather than nakedness and sexual scenes in ad. Furthermore,
Europe ad use more sexual image in promoting condom than Asia. In South & North America
major emphasis of ad was based on preventing pregnancy by using condom.
Djambaska et al., (2016) examined whether humor advertisement is always effective or not. The
results suggest that humor ads create more positive mood and make target audience laugh hence it
pg. 8
help to create cognitive remembrance of ad. Furthermore, it was reveals that humor ad is better
than sex appeal ad in attracting customer attentions.
A more recent research conducted by Fidelis et al., (2017) studied influence of sex appeal ads in
recognizing brand in print media. The results suggest that sex appeal advertisement had no
statistical significant difference in recognizing brand name, hence when using sex appeal ads in
print media it should be use with cautiously.
Discussion
For some products and brand sex appeal advertisement is effective and sex appeal advertisement
gaining strong foothold since 1900’s. Victoria Secret is fine example for this because they have
been using sex in showcasing their brand all the time since the inception of company. They always
use attractive and sexy model with bikinis in promoting brands and has been successful for them.
When using sex in advertisement organization need to take into consideration the target market
preferences otherwise it might be a blow for the company. For instance, if the target segment is
male or female then the way organization need to used sex appeal should be different. Dianoux &
Linhart (2010) & Sharma & Gupta (2015) suggested that men are more attractive to nudity
advertisement than woman and with regards to country it does not appear any significant influence
on advertisement that carry nudity but Sawang (2010) documented that with regards to country
perspective and culture that practice in that particular society can influence acceptability of sex
advertisement. Sawang (2010) & Lascus et al., (2016) suggest that American are more likely to
prefer sexual content in advertisement than Asian and Asian reported less cultural acceptability of
sexual contents in advertisement. Contrary to Dianoux & Linhart (2010) research regarding
female are not attractive to sex appeal advertisement but Khan & Munoz (2015) suggest that when
selling luxury product specifically perfumes then using sex appeal advertisement can affect female
consumer attitudes mostly to final purchase decision.
Furthermore (Grazer & Kessling 2011 & Thiyagarajan et al., 2012) suggested that when
organization used moderate level of sex in advertisement leads customers liking the products hence
sex appeal in advertisement play significant role in promoting product if the target audiences are
liberal towards these types of sexual stimuli ads. Contrary to this view (Walker & Ziad 2011, Klug
& Ellis 2012, Nooh et al., 2014, Raghuram et al., 2015 & Lull & Bushman 2015) suggested that
there are no statistically significant effects on sex appeal ad on consumer purchase preference, in
pg. 9
general customers developed negative attitudes towards sex appeal advertisement especially if
commercial include sexual explicit contents, consumer perceived sex appeal advertisement as
offensive, sex ad doesn’t influence buying choice of products & finally sex appeal ads never helped
customers to remember brand even.
Based on previous studies sometimes customer takes sex appeal advertisement as funny and they
feel enjoying after seen such advertisement. Groza & Cuesta (2011) are in line with that argument
and authors documented that customers perceive sexy appeal advertisement as funny, harmless
and credible and also it reveals that customers feel more positive sense and less unpleasant after
watching sexy humor advertisement. On the other hand (Wagh & Miller 2011, Djambaska et al.,
2016 & Fidelis et al., 2017) suggest that humor ad is better than sex appeal ad in attracting customer
attentions, low involvement product in promoting sex appeal advertisement does not have any
influence on customers and finally sex appeal advertisement had no statistical significant
difference in recognizing brand name hence sex appeal advertisement according to those
researchers are irrelevant.
Culture play pivotal role in determining the types of appeal that needs to be used in commercial.
Sari et al., (2015) suggest that sex appeal advertisement is very effective and consumer have
positive sense in that kind of advertisement. Sugiarto & Barnier (2013) also documented that
Indonesian people are quite moderate in practicing Islam hence customers are quite moderate in
accepting sex appeal advertisement if advertisement contain mild sex appeals. On the contrary
(Ifezue 2010, Akhter et al., 2011, Wazir & Ezaz 2012, Ajay 2014 & Moses & Charles 2014)
advocated that there is no significant evident suggesting that sex appeal ad attract attention of
customers, sex appeal advertisement can create very offensive thoughts in the mind of customers
for such brands or products; hence customers reject those kinds of products, both male and female
don’t like sex appeal commercials & it leads developing negative perception about brand in the
mind of consumers, sex appeal advertisement are totally unethical and they don’t like those kinds
of commercial & use sex appeal ad in promoting products leads to generate tension among opposite
sex due to that sexual harassment, rape and various sexual assaults witness in some countries now
hence sex appeal advertisement according to those researchers are immaterial.
As mention above culture play significant role in consumer perceiving things, one of the
components that are there in culture is religion. The previous studies review found that some of
the research done in Muslim community regarding sex appeal advertisement. Two studies reviews
pg. 10
(Bayraktar 2012 & Ismail & Melewar 2014) indicate that Muslim consumer develop very negative
attitude towards sex ads & even brands. In addition to that Muslims consumer attitudes towards
high sex appeal advertisements are significantly lower than non-Muslims. Therefore, it signal that
for Muslim community the old marketing saying of “sex sells” perhaps not holds true.
Sometimes marketers believe that based on the type of product being sold require sex appeal in
that particular advertisement. For example, if company sell something related to sex such as
condom then most of the time advertisement showcase have sex appeal content in such
advertisement. Chang & Tseng (2015) is in support of this view suggested that explicit sexual
appeal is very successful for promoting sex related product. Nevertheless Li & Rodriguez (2015)
suggest that humor appeal in condom ad play significantly role rather than nakedness and sexual
scenes in ad, indicating nakedness is not must to show in the commercial rather use humor than
sex. Furthermore Amyx & Amyx (2011) suggest that marketers should not reckon the power of
sex appeals advertisement even if it is associated with sexual based product, perhaps influence of
sex isn’t what it used to be now a day, again indicating for sex related product sex appeal
advertisement is not must in order to attract customer attention.
Conclusion
From this study it can be concluded that advertisement appeal is very significant for the company
to mold according to specific requirements of target customers in order to convince customer about
company offerings. Hence when developing advertisement appeal Company need to take into
consideration demographic and psychographic trait of target segments, regarding sex appeal
advertisement is effective or not leads to draw mix results from this research. The main conclusion
that can be drawn from this research is as follows.
The first conclusion that can be drawn from this research is regarding gender perception on sex
appeal advertisement. It can be concluded that both male and female are not much influence on
sex related appeal commercial and their purchase decisions are not affected on such
advertisements.
The second conclusion that can be drawn from this research is regarding geographic location of
countries. It can be concluded that mostly in America sex appeal advertisement is effective in
generating consumer attention but Asia and Europe sex appeal advertisement is not effective.
Marketers need to know that advertising appeal assist company to developed strong bond between
pg. 11
customers with the brand/product. Moreover, it helps company to position its product in the target
market. Hence when targeting advertisement marketer need to take into account the geographic
area that they are in.
The third conclusion that can be drawn from this research is sometimes marketers believe that
based on the type of product being sold require sex appeal in that particular advertisement. For
example, if company sell something related to sex such as condom then most of the time
advertisement showcase have sex appeal content in such advertisement. Marketers should not
reckon the power of sex appeals advertisement even if it is associated with sexual based product,
perhaps influence of sex isn’t what it used to be now a day, again indicating for sex related product
sex appeal advertisement is not must in order to attract customer attention. Furthermore, sexual
based product should use humor appeal than sex appeal.
The fourth and final conclusion that can be drawn from this research is regarding Muslim cultural
society the effectiveness of sex appeal advertisement. Muslim consumer develops very negative
attitude towards sex appeal advertisement and sometimes consumer develop negative attitude
towards even the brand and organizations. Therefore, marketer need to take into account that the
same advertisement that use in USA culture might not be applicable to Muslim customers because
of differences in the cultural value & norms exist in those societies. Hence when designing
marketing campaign, the marketer need to consider the cultural values and norms that are
practicing in the target market and it should certainly not be overlooked.
In the concluding remarks it can be states that in 2017 does sex sell, to some extent yes but now a
day “sex sell” marketing philosophy doesn’t not work in 21th century based on this research. But
currently sex appeal advertisement cannot be used as tool that has been used in 20th century.
Marketers that sincerely can understand its target market need and preference and how the
changing culture evolve within the target market can still make sex appeal advertisement can get
strong foothold in the market to grab customer attentions.
Limitation of the Study
The first limitation of this research is it use purely secondary data hence it can be out dated, data
might not be accurate and also the sample size taken is small around 28 journals has been review
for the purpose of this research due to the time and resources constrained. The second limitation
of this research paper it does not use any primary data the conclusion drawn from this paper might
pg. 12
not be applicable to organization context. The last but not least limitation of this study is this
research is purely based on previous research paper hence the conclusion drawn from this paper is
based on the reviewed journals only and for the purpose of this research it uses only journals that
are from 2010 only but in order to draw conclusive judgment it is better to used other past journals
as well.
pg. 13
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