Appealing to Men and Women Using Sexual Appeals in Advertising: In the Battle of the Sexes, Is a Truce Possible?

Sexual appeals remain a very popular advertising technique yet questions regarding their use remain, including how they can be used to appeal to men and women simultaneously. Literature examining what men and women find sexually appealing and the body language used to signal relationship status guided development of two appeal types: ‘Intimate’ portrayed a couple in an intimate stable relationship whereas ‘Objectified’ showed them as sexual objects. These were combined with different levels of nudity and product relevance and studied experimentally. As expected, both genders preferred intimate appeals though they only rated low nudity intimate adverts for relevant products positively.