Remember my gripe a couple of months ago about sexist attitudes in marketing? Seems I'm ahead of my time.....

Does Sex Really Sell? Perhaps Not to Women

Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com

The advertising industry bases its success on consumers being drawn to their products. But when it comes to selling in magazines like Allure and Glamour—publications with a female readership of nearly 100 percent—what do consumers want?

To find out, a team of researchers at the University of Florida in Gainesville gauged the emotional responses of more than 100 college-aged women to photos of attractive women. After looking at each photo, the participants would point to a manikin that represented their emotional reaction. For instance, one set of manikins represented arousal reactions, ranging from disinterested to excited.

The more seductive the model, the more it left the women bored and uninterested, according to lead author Robyn Goodman.

The findings seem to contradict the sensual images that saturate the ads in glossy female magazines. "It seems they missed the mark here," said Jon Morris. He added that the results also illuminate a gap between the male executives who are marketing the magazines and the consumers.

What is beauty?

In an initial survey, participants were asked to rate photos of models according to six beauty categories, including sex kitten and classic feminine.

"These beauty types were determined by fashion editors at [New York] magazines," Goodman said. But rather than distinguishing between six beauty types, the participants only saw two types. "After analyzing the data, we found that female consumers only saw two types of beauty: wholesome and sexy-sensual," Goodman said.

For instance, Katie Holmes is an example of wholesome while the Victoria's Secret models are sexy-sensual, Goodman said.

The study was presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention last month in San Francisco.

"Based on this research, it is evident that many advertisers may have been misled in using more sexual models to attract women to their products," Goodman explained.

What do women want? "Presumably women desire to be more like the wholesome beauty models, and in turn, will purchase the products they endorse more readily than they would a product endorsed by a more overtly sexual model," Goodman said.

The researchers did discuss whether or not clothing or posture had any effect on the results. "We think it's mostly a look and not necessarily those other characteristics [such as attire and pose]," Morris said. They hope to test this theory by showing images of the same women in different attire and poses.

"Indeed, this study seems to show the fallacy in the age-old adage that "sex sells," Goodman said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060907/sc_...rhapsnottowomen

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How clueless are men???? Do you really think draping a ho on a car makes a WOMAN want to buy it??? God, sometimes I'd like to line up the lot of you and use you for target practice..... :angry:

I want to buy a car with A-Rod in a speedo on it

Yeah, but who is paying for said car?

Here is an example for how pussified seattle is: There was a billboard sign for dodge trucks that said 'does more than most husbands'. Hello, men are going to be buying the truck.....

Oh yeah, btw, don't get a Dodge....

And that's the point.....they would never use a sexy picture of A-Rod or Jeter to try to sell stuff to men....but they use butt-naked models to sell stuff to women....totally clueless...

Pssst, here's a secret....Womenfolks got JOBS now!!! What's the world coming to?? :rolleyes:

Sounds like a pretty accurate billboard to me..... :o

Haha, I'm sure the vast majority of women reading allure and glamour are housewives.


Woman who can afford cars read forbes and the economist.

Gee, I thought women with jobs who own cars only read the Enquirer!! :rolleyes:

P.S. What's a housewife? A woman married to a house? :rolleyes:

That reply just tells me one thing: I made a point, and you can't deny it.

I win. *bananadance* *beer*

Uh, no you didn't. It's a male stereotype that women's magazines are only filled with fluff about hair and makeup....you'd be surprised at the political and current events articles found in Glamour....Marianne Pearl has a piece in the latest issue about a woman who rescues kids from sex slavery rings in southeast Asia.....typical man....just because "men's" magazines only know to feature half-dressed or naked women and cars, doesn't mean women are that shallow....:rolleyes: