
How often do you see big companies using sexuality to attract attention to their product? Probably more than you realize consider that Go Daddy, Hardees, Fiat, AXE, Perrier, Old Spice, and many more all use this type of advertising (Cousin, 1) Personally, I believe that it is wrong to use sexuality in advertising just to sell more products because the companies that do this are treating women as objects and teaching the world to do so too. Too often I see commercials on the television that flash around women in an attempt to grab people's attention when they should be more focused on selling their product using creative ideas that better advertise their product because it would sell more products and be a better use of their time. There are serious problems with using sex appeal to sell a product as it causes unrealistic body expectations for women and creating an ad using sex appeal requires no talent or creativity.

Everyday woman are seeing countless advertisements which show woman with barely have any clothes on, have "perfect" bodies (usually digitally altered to look the way they do), and acting in a provocative way. This leads women to think that they too should look the way these actors and models do, that they should act the way these actors and models do, and that doing both of things is what is going to make people like them. When "companies who believe that it is okay to use women's bodies in a sexual way to make their brand cool, hip, and sexy" use this tactic, it makes women and girls have unrealistic ideas of what they should look like (Portia, 2) Companies are making people think that they are not good enough, and that is not okay. Companies should further reinforce the fact that women are beautiful and don't need to look like the people on television to be so instead of reinforcing the opposite. Girls are being unfairly pushed to think that "'if these women look good wearing it, so will I.'" (Reichert, 3) By making women and girls think that they should look like the people on television, these companies are lowering their self-confidence and self-esteem.

Creating an advertisement that uses sexuality to make people buy the product requires no talent or creativity. The reason companies use this type of advertisement is to draw attention to their product in the hopes that more people will buy it. The models and actors in these advertisements are presented as objects and are unrealistic, degrading representations of women. Instead of using this tactic, companies should find a creative way to present their product that both draws attention and accurately represents the pros of their product. Doing so, in my opinion, would sell more products than simply showing some model act very provocatively in front of the camera and then flashing the name of their product at the end of the ad. 

The companies that exploit women in their advertisements do not take the problems they are creating seriously. A commenter from a large television company asked "'Am I the only one getting fed up with all the PCBS (politically correct bullsh*t) we're subjected to when there are real issues to be dealt with'" when confronted about a sexist remark on a product (Peters, 164) This shows that the companies that use and allow these advertisements are not taking this issue seriously. These people do not realize how much they are effecting people's lives with these advertisements. They are lowering women's self esteem and making them feel like they are not enough and they see it as "politically correct bullsh*t." 

Companies that use sexuality in advertising are severely affecting women and girl's view of themselves and are taking the easy way out of making an advertisement that will actually work. The companies that use this sort of advertising should receive resistance. I challenge you to refrain from buying the products of companies that use sexuality as a "tactic" in advertising as long as they are doing so instead of saying that you disagree and then use their products anyway, this only reinforces their behavior. This will cause the companies to lose an abundance of money and maybe then they will understand that what they are doing is wrong and is a real problem, not just people being picky. 

