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Sex Sells: Difference between revisions
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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] 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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* 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 [[Ukraine|Yuliya Tymoshenko]] intentionally and openly flaunts her sex appeal to bank more voters. She's one of the country's most powerful politicians, so it works.
* An internet game called Soccer Star (advertised on this very site). If having a buxom blonde in a soccer ball bikini top weren't enough, the "balls" shimmer and even briefly enlarge, meant to draw your eyes toward them.
* [[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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* 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"--young women hired entirely for their ability to stand around and ''almost'' violate the dress code, theoretically attracting lustful customers.
* 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 mentionining his daughter Wendy (the namesame of the restaurant chain), who appeared much later on. Recently, as of April 2012, the ads feature a very attractive young 20-something redhead that looks more like what people are more likely to think [[All Writers Are Male|(or in some cases, hope)]] [[She's All Grown Up|an adult version of the cute perky redheaded child on the logo looks like]]. Oddly enough, this hot and sexy "Wendy" [[Reality Is Unrealistic|looks nothing like the real Wendy]], but as the trope says, sex sells.
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* 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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[[Category:Advertising Tropes]]
[[Category:Sex Sells]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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