Tainted or elegant? Sexy effect on marketing

Subjects: Psychology >> Management Psychology submitted time 2023-06-15

Xie Zhipeng Huanyu Qin Wang Ziye Wang Jingyuan1 He Yi

Abstract： Imbuing sexual content in advertising is a commonly used brand strategy. The forms of sexy marketing have become increasingly complex with the advancement of technology. Existing studies often equate sexiness solely with sexual mentality, and the sexiness-related literature is scattered across fields such as physiology, sociology, and psychology, with no systematic framework The contribution of our paper is three-fold: first, we provide a comprehensive theoretical framework of sexual advertisements includes the definition and classification of sexual advertisements, as well as the positive and negative effects that follow; second, the psychological mechanisms including consumer cognition, physiological motivation, sexual self-schema, and social presence are also addressed in our framework; third, we conclude that the effect of sexual advertisements is moderated by product type, advertising context, and individual traits. This paper provides theoretical value to marketing scholars, as well as practical value to brands that intend to grow through sexual advertisements.

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