Sex appeal as a marketing tactic has been both supported and also opposed in its history of usage. There are some people that believe that even though this tactic is used to bring in business, it can be offensive and it has been known to objectify women. But, sex appeal is not only used directed towards the male population, but, to the female population as well. The point that is trying to be established in this essay is that not only should sex appeal be legal, but it should be in some cases a good thing. There is some opposition to this point also because some people disagree on the fact that it is used and used appropriately. What they mean by that is that sometimes there is an argument towards an advertisement that a younger audience has been exposed to it. For every argument, there has got to be some opposition, or else there is no argument to the piece, it is strictly a biased essay towards what you feel is best. This essay is trying to establish that sex appeal is legal and can be used effectively and be used to help suffering businesses and shoot sales potentially to record highs. The best areas that I saw this tactic executed the best is through clothing, fast food, and car sales. 

The first way that sex appeal was used was through the marketing of clothing. Owners and CEO's of clothing companies started to realize that not only do people buy clothes based on the brand but they also buy them based on the people that endorse them. For example, Victoria's secret has been the main company known for using sex appeal in their clothing. If you have ever walked by one of their stores, the marketing is staring you right in the face and it has been proven to work. The main reasoning for people using these women to make their products sell is for this reason. People tend to believe that if they wear those clothes and they conform to the style and the brand name that those people are portraying, then, they will look like those people. This may seem farfetched, but, this is the common perception by the public and if you really start to pay attention to what you buy and why you buy it you will start to notice that not only do the people that were involved in this said experiment do it but you do it as well as they do. I know that I do this personally. For example, the Nike brand is one of the biggest attractors for me. The reason that this appeals to me is because people tend to judge you right away on what clothing you are wearing, what brand that you are wearing and your physical appearance. The Nike brand to me is just a brand that people in the pros tend to wear such as my idol in the National Football League, Mike Davis. Every team in the National Football League is sponsored by Nike for on field uniforms and those people that are known worldwide for their talents in one of my favorite sports. "Nike will be the 'official uniform provider and will produce all on-field apparel including game uniforms and base layer, as well as sideline personnel apparel and fan gear'". A sport that I actually played in high school, and they can definitely sway my decision and make that brand appeal more specifically to me. That brand isn't the only one that is appealed specifically to me. My favorite player in the National Basketball Association, Stephen Curry and his team The Golden State Warriors, along with every other is sponsored by Adidas for all of their on court apparel. That makes people like me who love basketball and that also happens to be my favorite sport appeals to my pathos on the brand and makes me want to buy that brand because my favorite player wears it and that makes me want to wear it just so that I can be like him. When people buy these products and wear them, it makes them believe that they will be like the person who wears it, in this case equal up to Stephen Curry's. Even people who do not have as much money purchase this apparel to be accepted and to be like their idols. I say all of that to say this, clothing has been used as a primary method for sexual appeal for years. Not only do people buy these clothes because of brands, they buy them because other men or other women are more sexually attracted to them because they are seen wearing the same type of clothes that the models on tv are wearing. 

With every positive comes a negative. The popular clothing brand Abercrombie and Fitch was another company that used this tactic to market their products. They did not get such a positive feedback about said tactic. There is an organization that is called the Commercial Free Childhood campaign and they didn't only oppose the action but they boycotted the company and they did everything that they could to keep anyone else from being exposed to it. They use the marketing just like Hollister does, you know, they have hardly dressed teenagers that are marketing their clothing to appeal to a younger audience. The argument that the campaign argued was that the marketing was inappropriate for young audiences, and that is a good point. I agree that people should be of a certain age before they use this tactic. They should only be able to pitch this to a certain age group and that age group should be at least 16+. The reasoning behind this is because I think that the age group in question should be able to handle it without any talk from the opposition. The reasoning that that it is as high as it is is because I feel that the parents of the children younger than these have their parents buy their clothes for them and it is not appropriate for their age. I do understand their point here. Their point being made is that in a store that partially is marketed towards young children should not be okay with their children being exposed to this, I know that I would react the same way if one of my children saw that. Apparently, they were not alone in this mindset because they eventually got enough people in on their state of mind that the company was "snatched from the shelves" and shut down the business as a result of this public outcry. As well-known as this business was, there is always going to be some opposition to what the majority thinks, this is just one example that is seen as negative. Another example that is seen in a negative light is the hair care product company axe. In the commercial that I cited it opened on hundreds of women that were running a marathon in bikinis going thru the jungle and swimming in the ocean and finally running onto dry land. After they ran onto dry land, a man that had just applied some axe hair care product and they were all racing towards him. The ad ends right whenever the women are racing the man and they tackle him. As I was talking about earlier, this commercial is very effective and it makes the people that are buying this product believe that if they use this product they will get the same reaction that this man got. As a matter of fact, the title of this article that I used to prove this point is called "Axe has built an empire around teaching dorky guys how to be sexy". As soon as this commercial came out in 2011, the Axe haircare was flying off the shelves by the caseload, this is the perfect result to the popular marketing tactic and the result that this company got was the ideal response that people want to get whenever they use this tactic. Those commercials amplified the tactic in the most negative light that I could find. 

The next way that people are using this popular marketing tactic is in the fast food business. One of the most popular businesses that have used this tactic is the popular fast food business Hardees. As you all know, the popular fast food restaurant Hardee's has also used this tactic in their day to day work. The famous supermodel Kate Upton starred in one of their commercials just a short time ago and was widely known for marketing the mushroom swiss burger, but, the food wasn't the only thing that people were drooling over. Kate Upton is one of the most desired women on the planet. The article that I used for this section was, "Hardee's girls". This article described how Kate Upton drives to a drive in Movie Theater and pulls out her patty melt, the Jalapenos that are featured on the sandwich start to make her sweat, so she sheds layer after layer until she is barely wearing her dress. Kate is known for having a dream body, and her crawling all over the car and of course drawing attention from other guys. The featured male in the commercial is with his girlfriend in the neighboring vehicle, his girlfriend sees him staring at her out of her peripheral view and he turns back, red in the face. This is a perfect execution of the sexual appeal tactic, not only are people desiring the sandwich in her hand but they are desiring the person holding the sandwich as well. That is the best way to get a product up and running, while a product is good enough by itself, if you get a popular, toned celebrity to market the food for you. That is pretty much guaranteed money depending on the audience that you pitch it to and how you use this marketing to get there. Another celebrity that markets a popular food is Peyton Manning, he has made a deal with papa johns and he is marketing their pizzas, people seeing that celebrities that are well known like a product and they make the product seem better and that it appeals to them more, it makes people desire it more than they would just seeing the product by itself. " ... 21 pizza locations owned by Manning in the Denver metro area and were told by several that sales have jumped". That is the same thing here, using Kate Upton to market a product is pretty much a guaranteed sell to the male population. There is also some opposition from the female population. But, Peyton Manning is one of the desired men in the women population, so that takes care of that comparison. A common disagreement with this marketing is that the women in these ads are objectified and they are only seen as a magnifier for the public eye. This is a pretty big argument in the woman population because women have been prejudiced against before, and using them as a "prize to be sought after" makes them think back to the old days where all that people thought that they were useful for was cleaning and making babies. But, this tactic is not used to be seen that way, it is used to sky-rocket sales and make a business thrive better than its current state, that is how I saw the fast-food business use the sexual appeal tactic to its best ability. 

The third and final way that I saw a major swing in the charts for using the sexual appeal marketing tactic is through the sale of vehicles. Most of the time, it is strictly a brand name that makes people desire a car. In this situation, this makes people desire the car brand Lexus more than they normally would. The commercial opens up on a couple that is going out for a fancy date night, the male dressed in a suit and tie and the lady dressed in a tight, sexy fitting dress. The man is standing by the car picking the woman up for their date and as the commercial goes through the features of the car and the miles per gallon that it gets and the manufacturer's suggested retail price. The woman is obviously intrigued by the high class lexus that he was driving, but, she was more interested in the man standing on the outside of the car rather than the features of the car. At first glance whenever you look at this couple you automatically think that they have a lot of money, they are seen as the high class or the upper class whichever you prefer. That is the reason that they were chosen for this commercial is because they wouldn't stick a man with a scraggly beard and tattered clothes up there to market a $50,000 car. The people that they feature in these commercials also influence the effect that this commercial is trying to portray and the image of the people that are trying to use the sexual appeal to the audience is just as important as the product itself. The woman finally meets the man at the car, looks at the camera, and faces back at the man and then right as she goes in to kiss him, the commercial ends. Men are visual so if the advertisement gives the man a portrayal of power it could work for them. Women are more emotional, therefore the ad needs to appeal to the emotional experience. That is the kind of marketing that people desire to have with their products. Any person that is watching this commercial whether they are a male viewer or a female viewer they want the life that the people that are featured in that commercial have. The way that the public perceives this commercial is that the people who invest in this vehicle will automatically have the life that the people in the commercial are trying to portray. That is the key to using sexual appeal in marketing. The desire for the life or the look of a certain individual is a huge factor in why people invest in the products that these people are putting forth. That commercial is the best example that I thought enhanced my point towards my argument of the legality of sexual appeal in a positive way and not only helped my argument, but, showed the public that clothing and food are not the only ways that people are seen to use this tactic. It seems a little off course, but, that is why I chose it, people do not normally expect this area of the market to be using that tactic, I used this area specifically to shake up the public view of sexual appeal and do demonstrate that when used right and with the right people, it can be used in any aspect of selling any product out there. 

I feel like not only is this tactic a argumentative topic, but, it also is very significant in this world today. Every other day you hear about a mother complaining that the signs in front of Hollister, Victoria's Secret, and Calvin Klein and how inappropriate they are. Then again, you have both the male and the female age group that the marketers are trying to appeal to that buy the product that is being advertised because of the marketing that is done. I believe that this argument gets us to the point that there are definitely two sides to this argument. I can see both sides to this argument, but, the opposition is only a problem because the audience that disagrees with this tactic, most of the time isn't even the audience that the company or the organization is trying to appeal to. I feel like this tactic does not only address the problems that I outlined but it also signifies the argument that I am making and makes it an argument. Not only does the public see that the marketing tactic is seen in a positive light and that there are people who conform to buying the products in question for the said tactic. There is also a negative side of this and there are people that think that not only the younger audience should not be exposed to it, but, also there are people that think that this marketing tactic objectifies either the male or the female in question whether the person is famous or not. I feel that we as a public should not only accept this tactic, but, encourage other companies to use this tactic to boost their sales and to make their product no matter what it is more desirable to the public. I feel like we as a public could definitely make a change to both sides of an argument in the real world. Just like the public boycotted and later caused the shutdown of the business that was formally known as Abercrombie and Fitch, I feel like the public eye could keep these companies in check and they could keep the event that had happened in Abercrombie and Fitch from happening. Also, companies that use these tactics effectively and their audience that they are trying to reach is being reached effectively and efficiently, then they should continue to use that tactic and use it to its full potential. 

In conclusion, I feel that sex appeal should definitely be legal. Not only should it be legal, but, in the right situations and with the right audience, I feel like the audience would be able to judge whether or not this tactic is being used to the best of its ability. Whether or not the audience in question is the right age and using the right people to market the product. The ways that this tactic is used and used effectively in the most popular way is through clothing, fast food, and car sales. I feel like the points that I have provided above and the ways that the articles and the different commercials relate to the point they are seen in both a positive and a negative light. Depending on whether or not the audience is the audience that the company is trying to appeal to or whether the opposition is younger than the audience that the company or the organization had in mind. Sex appeal can be seen as a negative thing, but, I feel that if the company uses this towards the right audience in the right company that it would work legally every single time.

