COLUMBUS, OH, August 19, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) — For 150 years, advertisers have followed the prevailing “wisdom” that sex in ads sells their product.
In 1871, Pearl Tobacco became one of the most popular brands when they put a picture of a nude woman on their package. Modern ads for soap, cars, beer, toothpaste and just about anything, utilize sex to try to sell product. But though sex does get attention, it doesn't really sell, according to a new study by researchers at Ohio State University.
Psychology Professor Brad Bushman and PhD candidate Robert B. Lull combined the results of 53 research studies done over 42 years, involving 8,489 adults, on the effectiveness of sex and violence in advertising.
Specifically, Lull and Bushman sought to find whether subjects actually bought the products advertised, how well subjects remembered the brand name advertised, and subjects' attitude toward the products advertised. They also sought to find the relationship between program content and advertising effectiveness.
The study, published in the academic journal Psychological Bulletin, concluded that sex and violence diverts the attention of the viewer to the point that they remember brand names less, and ultimately do not purchase the product advertised. In other words, if a company is using sex to sell their product, their product is being ignored because the viewer’s attention is locked on the ad's sexual content. The same with violence.
The researchers found that brands that use sexual content are often judged more harshly than brands that run nonsexual ads. Viewers of family-friendly programs, when seeing family-friendly commercials, are much more likely to remember the advertisements.
“It never helps to have violence and sex in commercials,” Bushman explained. “It either hurts, or has no effect at all.” Furthermore, people watching ads with sex and/or violence have become desensitized to it over the years.
Such content was found far less effective in recent years than in studies done twenty or thirty years ago. When media content and advertising content are similar, viewers were more likely to remember ads and buy the product. For example, violent ads work better when they are run on shows that are violent, and sexy ads work the same way.
Lull is now at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center.
Previous studies have shown the same results, and their influence is seen in some of the largest corporations. Wal-Mart Inc., the world’s largest retailer, has done its own research showing that its advertising was 18 percent more effective when placed in family-friendly programming.
McDonald’s and Coca-Cola also utilize this strategy, and continue to expand by appealing to families. Movies that are family-friendly are also more profitable. Going by combined box office and home video sales, 85 percent of the All-Time Top 20 Movies were G or PG rated.