The Awkward Economics of Selling Sex

A new study reveals that women complain less when sex is used to sell high-end products.

LOS ANGELES—Perhaps the most-used phrase in advertising history is "Sex Sells." It is so frequently used that most people probably take it as an incontrovertible fact of Madison Avenue success over the decades. But now there is new research that actually explores the veracity of the meme as it applies to both men and women, and the results are rather interesting, to say the least.

According to a recent article in the Modesto Bee, "A study in the journal Psychological Science shines a light on when it's OK to objectify the female body in the name of Mammon. Researchers led by the University of Minnesota's Kathleen Vohs say women find erotically charged ads less distasteful when they promote very expensive items. We like our objectification classed up, thank you."


The researchers used watches of various price points to evaluate their subjects' reactions, and not surprisingly, the lesser-priced timepieces did not meet with female approval when sex was used to sell them. "When the researchers took participants' emotional temperature after viewing the sexy clips," noted the Bee, "they found that women in the bargain group felt 'more upset emotionally' than women in the luxury group. Women who saw sexual images paired with cheap watches also reported disliking the ads, while those who got mountains or sex-plus-extravagance reacted more neutrally."

It perhaps should be mentioned at this point that the men in the study were "unfazed" by sexy ads no matter the price point of the item being marketed. It appears that sexy women could be used to sell nothing and most men would still consider it brilliant marketing.

It should also probably be noted that even in the "sex-plus-extravagance" instances, the research indicated that women reacted only "neutrally," and not "enthusiastically" or even "positively," implying that even in the best-case scenario, using sex to sell to women is a proposition that comes with inherent risks.

As far as what is at the core of these behavioral findings, the researchers looked to our lizard brains once again. According to the Bee, "Researchers explained their findings by way of sexual economics, which treats the heterosexual dating pool as a marketplace and sex as a commodity. The story goes that since women sell sex to men in exchange for resources – including hard-to-quantify resources such as attention – they want the world to perceive their eroticized bodies as 'rare and precious.' Ads that link female sexuality to exclusive, high-value goods help; ads that equate a woman's erotic charms to a cheapo timepiece do not."

It sounds far too simplistic...unless you are a man. That said, we can't help but think that there are important lessons here for those in the business of selling sex to women that are not that different from the psychology of selling watches.

The question, then, is who is producing the real Rolex of porn.