Essay, Research Paper: Selling With Sex

Throughout the history of television, the way that advertisers market products has changed dramatically. Way back when television was still generally new, all commercials were done live and pretty much had a set formula. A good looking couple talks about the product, decide with big smiles that they love it and then a cheesy jingle is played. Yes, this is simple, but nevertheless effective for the time. However, as time and people evolved, so did television commercials. In this day and age, it is no longer just a standard jingle that sells a product or delivers a messages. Commercials now a days must be creative and draw the audiences attention. Many advertisers such as Nike or Coca-Cola have succeed marvellously in achieving this task and have sales records to prove it. Nevertheless, there are several companies who have steered away from making worthwhile ads. Instead, they throw together some random situations and somehow relate it to both the product and sex. Now I am not one to say that sex is evil or bad by any means. However, I believe that there are certain limits to how far advertisers should go and my examination of recent commercials shows they have far surpassed them.
My first example of this is a recent Zellers advertisement that was aired for the back to school season. The Zellers company, who has always claimed to keep the values of Canadian families in mind, somehow forgot what they are suppose to stand for. The commercial features a middle age couple in a kitchen on the first day of school after there children have left running out the door. The husband begins complimenting his wife on what a great mother she is while giving her a back rub. At this point, his wife turns to him and says, "It's not going to happen." (This of course referring to sex). Now again, I am by no means against sex, but I don't see how Zellers and sex are related at all. Not to mention the fact that children are watching these commercials and thinking that sex is some big joke. This is of course far from the truth because sex is a very serious topic and should be treated as one..
My second example is pretty much a group of commercials. The ads I am referring to are chocolate campaigns. Now I know the logic behind it is that chocolate has been proven to be an aphrodisiac and thus the two can be related., but you would think that after a while, companies would try something new. However, yet again the advertisers take the easy way out. They take something like sex, which is suppose to be a serious sign of affection between two people and degrade it by using cheap, sleazy jokes. One of the many examples of this is the recent mars bar ad which depicts a couple on there wedding night. The big climax point of this commercial is when the wife asks her new husband, "did you bring one?" ( an obvious reference to a condom). The husband response with an enthusiastic, "oh yeah." This of course not referring to a condom, but rather a mars bar, which he is relying on for energy for his big night. Now I assume the reasoning behind it is that they want to shock people, but after seeing the same idea recycled over and over, you really become desensitized to the whole thing.
In conclusion, I hope that advertisers begin to smarten up about the messages there sending out and perhaps even come up with an original idea once in awhile. I realize this harder said then done, but in my opinion what is truly needed is for companies to start moving away from this fairly new, but often overused formula of advertisement. Because what it all comes down is that the messages being sent are wrong and just because everyone else does it, doesn't make it right.