This paper examines how sexuality in advertising serves several purposes. The prevalent view is that sex itself is appealing, so it gets people to pay attention to the advertising message surrounding it and there is also a shock value that has become more and more important to some advertisers for the same reason--to get the attention of the
consumer. It looks at how American advertisers know that sex sells
products and how they use sex in ways both overt and subtle, depending on the product and the
campaign. It evaluates how much of our culture is based on
physical attractiveness and its power to
persuade, to attract, to influence and succeed and how sex is used in advertising as an expression of physical attractiveness. It analyzes how the advertising media clearly believe in the power of physical attractiveness to persuade and how spokespersons for products and other people used in television commercials and print ads tend to be physically attractive far beyond the norm in society.