Sex Appeal In Print Ads

Sex appeal was getting more and more popular in recent advertising of China, which drew attention of communication researches. The main intention of this study was to examine the usage of sex appeal in print ads of China. This study adopted content-analysis methodology, took the sex appeal ads published on Yang Cheng Evening News as subjects and probed comprehensively and systematically into the developing conditions and trends of sex appeal ads between 1980 and 2007 by analyzing their percentage, product, brand, layout, representation and other related variables.The research findings showed: First, sex appeal ads took up 2.2% of the total and first appeared in 1994. Second, sex appeal ads of medicine counted most while underwear used sex appeal most. Third, female products were more than male's in sex appeal ads while neutral products were most. Fourth, Brands from mainland China counted most in sex appeal ads but used sex appeal least. Fifth, news and entertainments were chief pages used by sex appeal ads while 1/4, 1/6, 1/12 and 1/2 pages were four chief sizes. Sixth, in all the sex appeal ads, nudity was used most while sexual referents least. Women's shoulders, legs and breast were displayed more often. The sexual behaviors acted by two persons like hug, kissing were displayed more than those acted by one. In terms of physical attractiveness, women's looks and skins were focused on. And in terms of sexual referents, visionary actions and visionary scenes were used most. Finally, single female model and photos were preferred by sex appeal ads.This study also analyzed the deep-rooted causes of the results above. On the basis of the analyses, some suggestions were given to the sex appeal application and further researches.