Sex Sells: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''Girls with nice hands help selling rings, bracelets, gloves, nail polish... Girls with nice legs help selling stockings, shoes, pantyhose... Girls with nice breasts help selling bras, swimsuits, shirts, TV sets, cars, washing machines, cookies, video games...''|'''Folklore'''}}
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Here's a question for you. Say you have a new product or an old product in new packaging. You want to sell a lot of it and you want to sell it quickly. How? Do you describe it [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|exactly how it is on the tin]]? Do you try to [[We Suck Less|compare to other products]]? No way. Just think about it: you want people to buy what you sell. People buy what they like. People like sex. [[Artistic License Logic|So you should equate what you sell with sex]]! Easy as pie...[[Metaphorgotten|served by bikini-clad models]].
A [[Super-Trope]] to [[Sexy Packaging]], [[Sex for Product]], [[Lady Not-Appearing-In-This-Game]].
Compare [[Subliminal Advertising]], [[Fan Service]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* The most famous stereotypical form of this is likely the beer commercials with girls in bikinis.
** Parodied beautifully by SNL with "Schmitt's Gay Beer."
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** And of course, [[The Man Your Man Could Smell Like|the new Old Spice ads]], which simultaneously parody this phenomenon and play it straight with their [[Mr. Fanservice|buff]] male protagonist/announcer. "Anything is possible when your man uses Old Spice body wash. I'm on a horse."
* There's an advert currently running for Aero in which a man wrapped in a towel explains [[Double Entendre|suggestively]] what makes Aeros so nice. It's [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] at the end of the advert; two women in voiceover converse thus:
{{quote|
Hrm?
You know, like he just said.
[[Distracted by the Sexy|He was speaking?]] }}
** There's also a funny advert running for [[Air Max]], where a beautiful women, with big breasts and booty, gets her clothes blown off by opening packages. She is left standing in front of the two men butt naked, and the last frame shown is her naked butt.
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** The Civony/Evony ads are [[Take That|cheaply parodied]] (how else could you parody it?) by an Alteil ad where the skinsuit elf girl has a caption that says "She is actually in our game, my lord".
** ''[[Adventure Quest]]'' isn't exactly innocent of this tactic, although their ads look perfectly tasteful compared to the competition, but they have also parodied ''Evony'''s "play discreetly" campaign. "Pants, m'lord?"
* A number of YouTube ads for the smartphone game ''[[Mobile Legends: Bang Bang]]'' utilise [http://web.archive.org/web/20200903210418/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHKlzrNBRNI&feature=youtu.be cringe-worthy] footage of a model wearing a suggestive outfit all while doing hammy gun poses in front of the camera.
** An Aika Online advertisement had a woman with a very [[Stripperiffic]] [[Chainmail Bikini|set of armor]], where the breast cups were upside down, a ring at the bottom of the cups ([[You Fail Biology Forever|blank skin only showed]] preventing any [[Nippled and Dimed|naughty bits]]), and straps going downwards. The images were quickly altered by moving the guy next to her so his sword and shield now hides the Fail.
** The [[Evony]] ads are parodied in [http://images.lazygamer.co.za/2009/08/popcapEvony1.jpg this] ''[[Plants vs. Zombies]]'' ad.
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* Ads where ladies wear [[Pretty in Mink|fur coats]] [[Going Fur a Swim|and swimsuits]], although they are not as popular now [[Fur and Loathing|for obvious reasons]].
* A few years back there was a commercial where they had a couple making out while going down in an elevator while a security guard watches giving them looks when they get out of the elevator. In the end, what's the ad for? Dasani Bottled Water
* The exploitative undertones of PETA's anti-fur campaigns. Yes, [http://cm1.theinsider.com/media/0/109/75/10_15_08_dk_peta_1.0.0.0x0.400x334.jpeg naked models]{{Dead link}} are ''so'' beneficial to animal liberation.
** They've managed to attract people with cannibalism fetish. Yeah...
* Every [[Grand Theft Auto]] game (since the third) features a beautiful woman on the cover of the box art, despite the fact that they [[Lady Not-Appearing-In-This-Game|don't actually appear in the game]]. The one exception is the hooker in [[Grand Theft Auto III|III]] (Misty), whose role is extremely minor. Considering that each game always has a few significant female characters, you'd think they'd use one of them.
** In ''China Town Wars'', the sexy Ling appears on both the cover and a poster included with the game. She survives for barely one mission.
** The woman on the cover of ''The Ballad of Gay Tony'' (Joni) appears in-game.
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** Although the bit of American teen girl folklore that "eating green M&Ms makes you horny" precedes the commercials by at least five years, so once the company started producing commercials with anthropomorphized M&Ms this became a sort of [[Ascended Fanon]].
* Reebok sells sneakers, right? Right. Then they created the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDVB4881c2I EasyTone] and decided to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZffAJE1ZD3A&feature=related sell sex instead].
* ''[[British Newspapers|The Sun]]'' is quite (in)famous for its use of its topless [[Page Three Stunna]] to [https://web.archive.org/web/20100724143826/http://www.bloggerheads.com/page_3.asp sell propaganda].
* Aksys' marketing of ''[[Record of Agarest War]]'' played up the [[Fan Service]] to absurd levels, including a fake "censored" ad, and a pillowcase and "boob" ergonomic mousepad packaged with the special edition. It's actually a [[Dating Sim]]/Strategy RPG with levels of Fanservice reaching the high end of normal for a Dating
* Go Daddy.com ads are this, with a level of unapologetic blatancy that is hard to describe.
* One really weirdass commercial for Overstock.com had the spokeswoman listing things you could buy on the site in the form of "it's all about the [product or value of the product]" or something along these lines. It's perfectly normal until the very last shot before the logo screen, where the spokeswoman appears to be wearing nothing but a gold necklace for some reason, and saying "But sometimes, it's all about the gold." The only reason I can think for her to be naked is to emphasize that it really ''is'' [[Visual Metaphor|all about the gold]].
** That may have been a transitional commercial. When Overstock.com started, they called themselves the big O, and made commercials with the obvious entendre. People thought they were a sex site.
* A Head & Shoulders advert aimed at men turns a simple shower into pure [[Fetish Fuel]] when six [[Hospital Hottie|nurses]] burst into the shower to aid his shampoo [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjN3NYFDhTU efforts]. You might wonder what attractive uniformed ladies with sexy curves have to do with washing your hair. That is '''[[Distracted by the Sexy|if]]''' you even remember what the ad was selling once it started.
* An ad several years ago in South Africa featured women in Victoria's Secret-esque lingerie and underwear, frequently draping themselves over mounds of...chocolate.
* A recent Honda commercial has a rather subtle example: Animated mascot Mr. Opportunity has a live action girlfriend on his arm as he talks about the car company's annual clearance. When he says "It's the only thing from Honda that won't last," his girlfriend [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|giggles]].
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* Recent ads for [[Rappelz]] show a woman wearing [[Stripperiffic]] armor and the slogan "Discover the luscious [[Double Entendre|hills and valleys]] of Rappelz.
* There's a commercial for POM, a pomegranate juice, which has a naked woman lying somewhat on her side but managing to avoid showing anything with a python lying on her.
* Oddly enough, Japanese musician and [[Bishonen]] [[Gackt]] was used to promote ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]''. He [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygrvvyMswVI appeared in the Japanese commercials] and there is also a dogtag in the game with his name on it. This is despite the fact that Gackt himself had nothing to do with the game and didn't even sing a theme song for it.
* A recent UK advertisement used models seductively posing in their underwear to sell sofas. That's right, ''sofas''.
* Political rather than product sale, but [[
* An internet game called ''Soccer Star
* [[The Man Your Man Could Smell Like]] is ''technically'' [[Sex for Product]], since the message of the ad is that if your man uses Old Spice, he'll be like the Old Spice Man. Then again, it's the [[Mr. Fanservice|Old]] [[Memetic Sex God|Spice]] [[Even the Guys Want Him|Man.]]
* Lampshaded in an old joke about an Eskimo who wrote to Sears and Roebuck to complain that the product he ordered hadn't come with the beautiful model that was sitting on it. Variations of that joke are probably in diverse places.
** During the [[Finns With Fearsome Forests|Winter War]] Finnish propaganda leaflets promising large sums of money to defectors had come with pictures of models. One historian invokes that jokes by claiming that the few Russians to accept were rather disappointed.
* Too many webcomics to count just advertise with a drawing of a hot chick while saying little or nothing about the actual comic.
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** ''S1mone'' had the titular character nude on the poster when she doesn't even appear nude in the film.
* This is the main reason many [[Visual Novel|visual novels]] have [[Explicit Content|shoehorned-in sex scenes despite well-done and engaging plots]]. [[Updated Rerelease|Updated rereleases]] with the sex scenes removed coming out once the creators have "paid their dues", so to speak, are not uncommon.
* Many gaming/comic/other conventions and expos are heavily populated with "booth babes"
* A commercial for a dry skin lotion shows a woman making flirtatious expressions and dancing [[Male Gaze|in her underwear while the camera zooms in on her stomach, back, bare shoulders, legs, and feet]] to a jaunty rendition of "Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes". It's been described as the most upbeat striptease on television.
* Wendy's for decades was all about the wholesome ads featuring the founder, Dave Thomas, occasionally
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzgNblh0rPM This advertisement] for Pioneer Elastoseal, a roof sealant brand in the Philippines, where a man attempting to repair one's roof in the middle of a storm chances upon a model soaking wet in rain and doing the obligatory sexy poses. It very clearly banks on the product's intended demographic of middle-age, blue-collar construction workers finding pleasure with attractive women.
== Comedy ==▼
* Comedian [[Bill Hicks]] believed the eventual evolution of this trope would be this:▼
{{quote| "Here's the woman's body. Beautiful. Camera pulls back. Naked Breasts. Camera pulls back. She's totally naked, legs apart, two fingers right here...and it just says, 'Drink ''Coke''.' Now I don't know the connection here, but Coke is on my shopping list this week."}}▼
* In ''[[Big Trouble]]'', Eliot Arnold (Tim Allen) has a small advertising firm and the [[Client From Hell]] who wants to advertise his beer. The client insists that the beer display be "You have a guy in a boat with a girl, she's in a bikini, she has big tits, they're on a boat, and they're getting hammered! With Hammerhead! The feeling of this ad is, somebody's gonna get laid! In the background swimming around is a shark! The girl has REALLY big tits!".▼
* In ''[[Big Trouble]]'', Eliot Arnold ([[Tim Allen]]) has a small advertising firm and a [[Client From Hell]] who wants to advertise his beer, insisting on the display as follows:
▲
* Many viewers criticized ''[[Jumanji|Jumanji: the Next Level]]'' for Ruby's [[Stripperific]] outfit, claiming it was sexist [[Fanservice]] included for the sake of it. They didn't realize that was the entire point - the producers and director were using this plot element [[Take That, Audience!|to lampoon the trend of scantily clad video game heroines]] (which Ruby ''is'' as far as the [[Fictional Video Game]] setting is concerned), and if anything may have succeeded too well.
== [[Live
* In an episode of ''[[Friends]]'', where Chandler is interviewing for a job with an advertising agency, one of the interviewees has an idea for a shoe commercial that ends with: "...and then the girls get out of the hot tub, and start making out!" The interviewer replies, "Very interesting, except for one problem. You forgot to mention the ''shoes''."
* In ''[[Mad Men]]'', Don Draper describes this expression as over-simplifying things. Basically, he argues, people want to ''be'' the product. So, people buying perfume want to be Gwyneth Paltrow.
** More specifically, in a scene when he tells Peggy to use ''less'' sexual imagery in an ad for an airline, she quotes the trope name at him (essentially parroting back what he said at a meeting earlier that day), and he responds sharply with the page quote.
* An in story example can be seen in ''[[Queer as Folk]]'' with Brian Kinney being the [[Informed Ability|supposedly great commercial producer]], though he's really a one-trick pony. Selling booze? use the sex angle. Selling Viagra? The sex angle. A charity carnival? Make it sexy. ''A Republican campaign''? [[Blonde Republican Sex Kitten|Use the sex angle]]!
** Well it's not his ''only'' approach; it's just the one that works best. He does do campaigns that aren't sold by sex. Notably, the first time we see him working he tells the two men presenting their idea to him that the man is TOO attractive for the (ugly as hell) shoe they're trying to sell, and that they should make the campaign less flashy. Also, he mentions having to create an ad for baby wipes, and Brian may be plenty of things, especially [[Really Gets Around|sexually]] but he is not that kind of pervert.
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* On ''[[Boy Meets World]]'', Shawn gets a job as the assistant to an advertising executive and is asked to come up with ideas from a toothpaste campaign. Shawn think of a "sexy fresh breath" campaign but Cory recommends he choose a bacteria-based campaign because "sex does not sell". Shawn of course chooses the sexy breath one which the boss ends up liking.
== [[Recorded and Stand Up Comedy]] ==
▲* Comedian [[Bill Hicks]] believed the eventual evolution of this trope would be this:
▲{{quote|
==
* [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] by ''[[Bob the Angry Flower]]'' to cover up the fact that he can't actually [http://angryflower.com/attemp.gif reconcile quantum physics with general relativity.]
** [[Word of God]] is that this is a self-referencing strip, since how many of you noticed that the remaining frames are mostly just outline drawings?
* ''[[Head Trip]]'' asks: [http://headtripcomics.comicgenesis.com/d/20070319.html Are they selling clothes or...?]
* ''[[User Friendly]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20200122185129/http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20171026 illustrates] the effect.
** Also, [https://web.archive.org/web/20200122185139/http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20170806 guessing] what "downsizing" for the expo means.
* ''[[Devil Bear]]'' has Raine's [http://www.thedevilbear.com/comics.php?p=828 Coffee Shop Girls], adult ''[[Strawberry Shortcake]]'' style.
{{quote|'''Bearlial''': Are you sure that your "coworkers" are baristas? These sound like stripper names to me.}}
* ''[[Nerf NOW!!]]'' pokes fun at fanservice a few times, including a [https://www.nerfnow.com/comic/2718 page] plainly named "Sex Sells".
== [[Web Original]] ==
{{quote|
* Psychologist-slash-YouTuber Zulie Rane wrote [https://onezero.medium.com/youtubes-spammy-sex-bots-make-a-ton-of-money-2743bf6e8c19 an article] highlighting the ulterior motive behind the rash of pornographic spambots flooding the comments sections of otherwise-innocent videos. Despite YouTube stating in their terms of service that pornographic content is, at least for the most part, forbidden, apparently they seem to turn a blind eye to the waves and waves of horny spambots either using sex to drive views on otherwise unrelated videos, or stealthily linking to similarly adult-oriented sites, e.g. accounts with a profile picture of some porn model's bare butt and a banner on their profile that shows a half-naked woman with half of her breasts exposed and the call to action "WANT TO F*CK WIT' ME? CHECK OUT THE LINK BELOW", who would then leave cryptic comments blindly praising the video regardless of its content, in hopes that an [[Schmuck Bait|unwitting porn addict]] would be enticed to click it and visit the site in question (spoiler alert: the sites such accounts link to are either romance scams or contain malware).
*''[[OnlyFans]]'' is the current epitome of this trope. Originally created as a "pay for a service" site (and "service" doesn't just mean [[Fanservice]]), during 2018 the site ''exploded'', with Instagram models, pornstars and even actual celebrities posting anything ranging from nudes and erotica to outright porn, with some offering the option of having sex with fans who were willing to pay huge amounts of money. The site became controversial for these "pay for the sex" services tiptoeing around prostitution laws and, given that OnlyFans does take a cut out of the profit the e-celeb makes, many consider it to be an e-pimp. In 2021, after three full years of porn and pay-for-the-sex services dominating the site, OnlyFans announced they were planning to re-rail themselves back into a general service website, with porn being banned. Unfortunately, it turned out that 99% of their users are in fact sex consumers, and, fearing a [[tumblr]]-style collapse of both viewership and profit the site did a U-turn two weeks later, and as of early 2024 the site's reputation will forever be etched into human history as "that one site where you pay women to be sexy".
* Vivamax, an online film streaming service by Filipino media conglomerate Viva Communications (through its subsidiary Viva Films) also quickly gained a reputation for being a purveyor of softcore pornography, especially considering the shaky legality of adult film production in the Philippines where hardcore porn sites are occasionally blocked by ISPs on the grounds of (allegedly) hosting child porn. While Viva chief operating officer Vincent del Rosario dismissed such allegations and claimed that their adult content makes up only ten percent of their streaming library, they couldn't shake off the fact that posters for their juicier softcore offerings show up on Vivamax's [https://www.vivamax.net/ landing page] (warning: somewhat NSFW) front and centre.
==
* Mocked on ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'': An ad shows a nerdy guy driving a convertible through the desert when he comes to a deserted gas station. Suddenly three busty women come out and start washing the car (and each other), the camera zooms in on one's cleavage...to focus on her crucifix.▼
▲* ''[[Skippy's List|Skippys List]]'' has examples:
▲{{quote| 42. Not allowed to attempt to appeal to mankind's baser instincts in recruitment posters.}}
▲* Mocked on ''[[The Simpsons]]'': An ad shows a nerdy guy driving a convertible through the desert when he comes to a deserted gas station. Suddenly three busty women come out and start washing the car (and each other), the camera zooms in on one's cleavage...to focus on her crucifix.
▲{{quote| -'''Voiceover''': "Catholicism! We've made a few...changes."}}
* Also mocked in the ''[[Dilbert (animation)|Dilbert]]'' episode ''The Infomercial'', where the titular infomercial for the Gruntmaster 6000 features a beautiful blond model in a pink bathing suit, and the [[Pointy-Haired Boss]] trying to talk about the actual product, but he kept fainting and conking his head against the ground due to the sight of her.
{{quote|
{{Featured article}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Advertising Tropes]]
[[Category:Sex Sells]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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