Sex Sells!

[tyrannosaurus vex]

I spontaneously generated this theory. It could amount to nothing, I might be reading a lot more into things than is really there, I don't know. So I'm submitting the theory for peer review and refinement if possible, or complete dismantling if necessary. Here goes.

Sex sells. We know that. I bet it's a phrase every one of us hears five times a week. It's common knowledge. But just how much does it sell? I think it sells a hell of a lot more than anybody really realizes, even the people behind the ads using sex to sell useless crap.

As members of this society we are exposed at very young ages to highly sexual imagery. From the first time we see the TV, read the news, play a game, or buy a doll, we are being trained in the arts of being attractive, learning what to be attracted to, and how to present ourselves sexually -- vaguely if not outright. Bratz dolls, Barbie dolls, GI Joe, almost everything.

Now, before you assume this is just another "leave sex out of my kids' minds" rant (however appropriate that sentiment might be), it isn't. I'm going somewhere off to the side of that whole issue with this.

I think sexual nature of advertising as it is masked and directed at children, is (consciously or not) ultimately designed to activate an "orgasm response" in the target audience. It arouses the libido, and then immediately grabs your attention for its product. This accomplishes much more over the long term, however, than simply selling a product. It cultivates an addiction to immediate gratification, for one.

But maybe more importantly, and especially in the case of advertisements directed at children, it exploits the sex drive prematurely, before a person is able to recognize or control the impulses that have been awakened. It derails the libido, separates it from its natural emotional and instinctual basis, and transforms it into a thirst for material goods and wealth. Presto! New consumer.

But what is left is that, eventually, the act of sex itself is rendered meaningless - emotional fulfillment is now achieved through consumption, so sex is now strictly physical. Furthermore, the emotional act of love is left without a proper release - people fall in love but have no way to express that love in a meaningful manner. Sex is meaningless, and receiving a gift from someone is never quite the same as treating yourself.

There's probably more.

[Freeky]

You've hit on something here. Gotta think about this.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I don't think that you're far off.

However I disagree on the point of sex not being properly emotionally fulfilling. It may be the case with some people but not in my experience.

It's tricky for me to gauge the effect on using libido to train the kids to switch to emotional fulfillment through consumption. That may well be the case, but I think that a lot of that stuff is same-gender specific, within a heterosexual context.  Simply put, boys aren't going to buy Bratz dolls. Girls are. I think that at that stage of development, if the toys are meant to instill anything in particular into a child, it is expected appearance and lifestyle. A Bratz doll shows an image of what the idyllic teenaged girl is supposed to be and what they are supposed to consume.  Libido is attached to it, but obliquely. As far as libido goes it grooms the girls to look like guys are expected to want. I'm sure the reverse is the same for boys, but the Bratz-girl angle is an easy one to hash out.

Edit:
Up to a certain age a thing will be marketed to a boy as, "This is what boys like. Therefore you like it too." Whereas once you hit puberty, breasts do a better job of selling stuff.

[The Johnny]

Pleasure sells.

If you think of it that way, fast-food, soft drinks, video games, fatness, porn, drug addiction and all sort of things make sense.

IOW: illusions of easy gratification sell.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Pleasure sells.

If you think of it that way, fast-food, soft drinks, video games, fatness, porn, drug addiction and all sort of things make sense.

IOW: illusions of easy gratification sell.

Well yes, but I was talking about the side effects of selling things that way.

[Kai]

So, what you are suggesting is that the immense pleasure of various products imprinted by advertising at an early age causes a "premature orgasm" of sorts, and ultimately causes sexual dissatisfaction in later life?

[tyrannosaurus vex]

So, what you are suggesting is that the immense pleasure of various products imprinted by advertising at an early age causes a "premature orgasm" of sorts, and ultimately causes sexual dissatisfaction in later life?

Partly that, but not exactly dissatisfaction with sex. The idea is still kinda new in my own head and I'm not expressing it very effectively. But what I'm thinking is maybe this kind of marketing and consumerism finds a way to tap a reservoir of demand that shouldn't naturally exist, by hijacking the libido altogether and turning it into a drive to consume rather than to reproduce.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

DOUBLE POST to explain myself.

I realize that may sound a bit old-fashioned, and maybe it is. But I don't mean to imply that the only function of sex ought to be reproduction, so please don't take it that way. Sex is also an expression of love and a powerful bonding behavior for mates.

Maybe the failure rate of marriages and other long term relationships in the West is not entirely due to a "cultural shift away from marriage," or simply the way we see everything as disposable these days. Maybe it is also a result of decades of shifting sexual attention away from each other and onto the consumption of material goods. If we have a pandemic inability for commitment, might it be because we are truly unable to find any emotional gratification in commitment? Not just because we are lazy and selfish, but because we have been socially programmed to reject emotional attachment as satisfying, or even real?

[Zyzyx]

The problem is that deep down it scares us. We have so many walls to put up in front of ourselves that when it's finally time to break them down we chicken out.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The problem is that deep down it scares us. We have so many walls to put up in front of ourselves that when it's finally time to break them down we chicken out.

What scares us?

[tyrannosaurus vex]

The problem is that deep down it scares us. We have so many walls to put up in front of ourselves that when it's finally time to break them down we chicken out.

What scares us?

Zombies with gigantic erections.

[Freeky]

The problem is that deep down it scares us. We have so many walls to put up in front of ourselves that when it's finally time to break them down we chicken out.

What scares us?

Zombies with gigantic erections.

I am so tempted to google zombie pron now.

[AFK]

So, what you are suggesting is that the immense pleasure of various products imprinted by advertising at an early age causes a "premature orgasm" of sorts, and ultimately causes sexual dissatisfaction in later life?

Partly that, but not exactly dissatisfaction with sex. The idea is still kinda new in my own head and I'm not expressing it very effectively. But what I'm thinking is maybe this kind of marketing and consumerism finds a way to tap a reservoir of demand that shouldn't naturally exist, by hijacking the libido altogether and turning it into a drive to consume rather than to reproduce.

I think I get what you're getting at.  It's like it has become part of the quest for status.  It's just another thing you do or own that makes you acheive a certain kind of status in life.  You want to have the sex like you want to have the iPhone or to have the certain number of Facebook friends or that particular kind of haircut.  Or maybe I'm totally misinterpreting. 

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Yeah, maybe that's closer to what I'm saying, RWHN. I had this vague idea and I need some help hammering out what it is (if anything) I'm stumbling on here. It could be that sex has been demoted to just another product.

[Cramulus]

Sex + marketing really is little more than Pavlovian conditioning.

The reason they use hot models in ads is because they want you to associate the product's brand with your preconscious desire for the model.

So it makes me wonder how sex marketing actually affects kids, who presumably don't have a preconscious desire for busty 20-somethings in short skirts. It does probably send the message that this is what the kids should want.




When I grow up, I want to fuck a model too.
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