How to Sell Good Old-Fashioned Books

I came across the following guerilla stunt that ran in South America for Penguin’s line of classic books.

This is a simple, fabulous idea.  It catches shoppers at an unexpected time and location with a clever message. What could have made this even better? Have the laptops on either side of the typewriter be linked to Amazon or another online store from which customers could buy Penguin books. I doubt this electronics store is carrying them.

Report: Nudity in Sexy Commercials Aired on Gender-based Television Stations

I’ve been wanting to share my report from a few years back as a student in a  Sex in Advertising course.  The class was taught by Dr. Tom Reichert who runs www.sexinadvertising.com.
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Abstract
This report investigates the levels of undress that occur within sexy commercials on gender-based television stations including Spike TV, MTV, and the Women’s Entertainment Network (WE).  On November 5, 2007, these stations were watched from 9-10pm, at the height of prime time.  Generally, it is perceived that sexy ads are mostly targeted to men, and the younger generation.  However, this report discredits that belief.  The study found that 30% of all commercials aired on Spike TV and WE utilized sex in advertising.  MTV had slightly less sexy ads at only 27%.  However, while the majority of WE’s sexy ads (60%) displayed actors whom were demurely dressed, half of all sexy ads aired on Spike TV featured actors whom were partially clad.  MTV’s sexy ads were even across the board, yet they were the only station to air an ad that featured a nude model.  All three of these channels had a similar percentage of sexual commercials, however, the majority of the sexual commercials on the WE network were demurely dressed as opposed to suggestively clad, partially clad, or nude as was the case with Spike TV and MTV.

Background
Sex is used in advertising to grab an intended audience’s attention and interest.  One way advertisers send out engaging sexual information is by positioning their models and actors in varying levels of undress.  These levels are broken down as follows:

1. Demurely dressed – normal everyday clothing
2. Suggestively clad – miniskirts, hot pants, muscle shirts
3. Partially clad – bathing suits, undergarments
4. Nude

Significance
How often sex in advertising occurs and the levels of undress that appear in sexy commercials is important because it provides  a foundation of information on the similarities and differences of ads used on TV programming for men, women, or both.  This question has the power to either reaffirm or debunk old-aged beliefs that all sexy commercial’s objectify women and target a predominantly male audience.  The objective of the research was to see if there is a correlation between gender-based programming and sexy ads.

Previous Research
The study of the effects of sexual advertising in relation to television commercials is one that has been replicated numerous times with a range differing scopes and focuses. One previous report conducted by Mary Gilly, who sought to discover the primary difference in sexual advertising between the United States, Mexico, and Australia. Although this does not emphasize the difference and similarities between gender-based television stations, it acknowledges the role of culture in the influence in sexual advertising. In the research, it was first established that the roles portrayed in all television commercials are those that fulfill sex stereotypes (Gilly 76). In addition, to gain a better understanding about the use of sexual advertising in television media, there were several basic themes that were identified including those that the media influences many younger people about such areas as body image and appearance; traditionally the roles of women in commercial advertisement have been “limited and negative” (Gilly 77); and men and women are portrayed very differently, with women often appearing helpless or submissive to men. This is but a sampling of the conclusive evidence discovered by her findings.

Another study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which conducted a survey of 1,008 parents of children ages 2-17 shows that parents are beginning to become more self-conscious about the amount of sexual advertising in the media. This is important explicitly to this research effort, in that it may help to explain the finding that MTV showed particularly sexual advertising as compared with our other focus groups. According to the study, in light of increased sexual and violent images on broadcast television, 65% of parents now say they closely monitor their children’s media usage (Kaiser Family Foundation 4). Although this does not parallel our research design, the findings from this report show that there is a prevalence of sexual imagery to persist in programming attuned to younger audiences, and this study supports the reactionary effect of sexual advertising.

Hypothesis
For this study, MTV, Spike TV, and the Women’s Network were selected for content analysis because they all have different target demographics. MTV’s median age is 23.3 years old as it targets young adults and teenagers.  In view of the fact that younger audiences tend to be drawn towards the sexier ads, the hypothesis is that MTV will have the most commercials which contain partially clad, nude, and suggestively clad people.

MTV Findings
During the hours of 9pm-10pm on November 5^th, 2007, there were two different thirty-minute shows playing and, interestingly enough, during both shows there were much fewer sexual ads than there were non-sexual ads. Here is a graph of the results from both shows:

These graphs illustrate that the percentage of non-sexual ads is significantly greater than that of sexual ads. It is interesting to see that although during “A Shot of Love with Telia Tequila” there was a higher percentage of sexual ads, during “The Hills” there were nude ads.  Moreover, it is a little surprising that there were not more sexual ads on a television station like MTV.  32% of the ads during “A Shot of Love with Telia Tequila” were sexual and a mere 22% of the ads during “The Hills” were sexual.

Spike TV Findings
Spike TV’s median age of viewers is 37.6 years old. Due to the fact that this channel is largely targeted towards men, we assumed that there would be a high percentage of sexual commercials with people being demurely dressed, suggestively clad, and partially clad. However, we predicted that MTV would have a higher amount of sexual advertising than Spike TV due to the significantly younger crowd that tends to watch MTV.  Here is a graph of the results from Spike TV:

The graph on the page above shows that 30% of the commercials on Spike TV were sexual. This data is very similar to the data results of the MTV ads. In fact, the results during MTV’s “A Shot of Love with Telia Tequila” are extremely close to the results during “The Predator”. This data strayed slightly from our hypothesis as we predicted that MTV would have significantly more sexual commercials than Spike TV. However, this was surprisingly not the case.

WE Findings
The final channel that viewed was the Women’s Network. The Women’s Network attempts to target women from ages 18-49. However, the average woman watching the WE channel tends to be towards the end of this target demographic. As a result, we predicted that there would be fewer sexual commercials on WE than on Spike TV and MTV. The graph below illustrates the results:

This graph shows that there were 70% non-sexual commercials and 30% sexual commercials. However, it is obvious that the majority of the sexual commercials had people that were demurely dressed in them. This number is high because there was a plethora of suggestive shampoo commercials with women who were demurely dressed in them. Of course, it is still interesting that the WE network did not have any fewer sexual commercials than Spike TV had.

Analysis
All three of the channels appear to have around the same number of sexual commercials. Still, the WE network had significantly more demurely dressed people within their sexual commercials while Spike TV had more partially clad people during the commercials. Initially, it was thought that MTV would have the most sexual commercials. While the percentage of sexual to non-sexual commercials was not much different from MTV to the other two channels, MTV was the only channel that had any nude commercials. Furthermore, this data shows that MTV’s advertisers are the most likely to take risks with their ads. Below is a graph that demonstrates the amount of commercials on each channel that contained demurely dressed people in them :

The graph above shows the number of commercials that contained people who were demurely dressed. This goes along with the hypothesis that WE’s advertisers would be more conservative and have more sexual commercials with demurely dressed people than the other two channels. Seeing as all three channels had a similar percentage of sexual commercials, it makes a sense that a majority of the sexual commercials on the WE network were demurely dressed as opposed to suggestively clad, partially clad, or nude. Thus, the research hypothesis was validated.

Conclusion
Based on this study, it is conclusive that sex in advertising does not show favoritism between gender-based programming.  Rather, programs geared towards men air a higher percentage of revealed models in ads than do women’s television channels.  In addition, the ads geared towards a mixed, young audience are also very risqué.  There is a direct correlation between the level of undress in a sexy ad and its intended audience.

Works Consulted
Gilly, Mary C. “Sex Roles in Advertising: A Comparison of Television Advertisements in Australia, Mexico, and the United States.”Journal of Marketing. Vol. 52, No. 2. (April, 1988): 75-85. JSTOR. U of Georgia Libraries. 29 Nov. 2007. <http://www.galileo.usg.edu>

“Parents, Children, and Media”. Kaiser Family Foundation. (June 2007): 1-42. 28 Nov. 2007.             <www.kff.org>

The Media Selling Out

In our capitalist nation, the media are commercial. But wait! We’re a democracy and if I remember correctly, journalism and the media are supposed to help us.

This week the media have sunk to new journalistic  lows to make a buck. On Monday, the #1 US daily newspaper USA Today sold their front page to an advertiser.

USA Today, the national flagship of Gannett Co., featured a front page wrap carrying an advertisement for Jeep’s 2011 Grand Cherokee. According to Mediaweek which first reported the news, it completely obscured the newspaper in outdoor racks.

The cover wrap is part of an ad buy, valued at over $1 million, which also includes ads for the Jeep Grand Cherokee on the USA Today Web site and iPad app. Previously, the newspaper has allowed ads printed on the front page — but they did not obscure editorial. On July 1, its “Life” section was wrapped with an ad for Verizon.

Struggling to hold onto print advertising dollars, a number of newspaper publishers have dabbled with unconventional ad formats and placements. (MediaPost http://www.mediapost.com/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=131931)

In the American capitalist model, the media are profit motivated. They earn a profit by amassing an audience and selling that audience to advertisers who wish to reach them. While this model subsidizes entertainment and information for consumers, it also gives advertisers a lot of control over the media that is produced and is generally available.

Want to know why I’m upset about this USA Today ad and why all of America should be? The democratic principles of government and society clash with the capitalist principles of economy in the media landscape because the media has a journalistic responsibility to be the peoples’ watchdog of the government and big business.  Journalism and the media have a duty to provide up-to-date, balanced information to citizens so that citizens may more successfully self-govern and operate the democracy.  However, media as a for-profit entity confuses its job of providing balanced, informed journalism because to some existent, advertisers can stymie and control the media’s message.  Some of the most basic principles of journalism include being first loyal to citizens (not to advertisers, governments, or corporations) and to maintain an independence from those they cover (businesses, government, etc). If newspapers sell their front pages to advertisers (read: big businesses) how can they remain objective in the editorial they provide? How is journalism supposed to be first loyal to citizens, free and unbiased in covering the news in this situation? For example, what if BP sponsored the business section of a paper, would that sway the paper’s stance on the Gulf Oil Spill? This is just one example for consideration in the ethical gray area newspapers are beginning to operate in.