These Adverts Are Too Sexy!!

If there’s one cliché that’s been beaten to death, to the point where we might actually begin to think it’s true, it’s that sex sells. And in a world where we’re more open about the realm of sex (that was previously unexplored beyond the 4 walls of the bedroom), we can see it now breaking its way into places where it was previously forbidden.

Pleasing

One realm that it has now entered is Harry Styles’ brand ‘Pleasing’, but with a name like that, none of us were really that surprised. The brand, of which Styles is the owner and co-founder, has recently released a line of sex toys, which has obviously caught the media’s attention, given that we we’ve known him since he still worked in that bakery in Manchester. Obviously, his image has changed quite a bit during the course of his fame, but the jump from nail polish to vibrators still felt like quite a big one.

It does make quite a lot of sense for this move to come from Harry Styles’ brand, as he is quite open about sex, I mean we all recently saw him getting with someone at Glastonbury, and we all know what watermelon sugar is about, right? Even though we feel like we’ve known him for a while, and the boy-band version of himself probably wouldn’t be this open (despite what all the fan fictions said), this move isn’t that surprising for the Harry Styles’ which we know now, who is (through his music) quite open about his sexuality.

However much the release makes sense, it still created a lot of media discourse, because of its shock value. We weren’t expecting the sudden jump from pleasing to ‘pleasing yourself’ – it caught us off guard!

This jump got me thinking about how brands are so much more comfortable approaching the topic of sex, shamelessly, and why it still surprises us to see them do this (even though it’s not uncommon anymore). This happens especially in advertising, where I feel like I’m seeing dirty jokes on adverts as much as I’m seeing ‘Buy One Get One Free’.

Dirty Adverts

One instance of an outwardly dirty advert was this one Costa campaign from 2021 which used the phrase “flick the bean” to sell coffee. After looking into this campaign a little bit, I found that this was not a widely released advert, and only happened to be released in my local area, but it was definitely unexpected to see a coffee shop use a sexual innuendo so openly. And they’re not the only brand who has used their customers’ dirty minds to make sales! Take the recent controversial American Eagle campaign starring Sydney Sweeney, which does have an evident sexual element (along with other underlying themes which are worryingly problematic – but we won’t go there).

Though these ads are far from innocent, you can’t say that using sex to sell in this way isn’t a clever advertising technique. It's not like they're being perverted, just taking something which is normally under the surface, and putting it in the spotlight. Which is shocking and makes the advert memorable! At the end of the day, these are the ads that we still talk about, even after they stop running. We don’t remember the boring ones which stuck to the rules, we remember the ones which took a risk to make us laugh, or even to make us angry.

Are we incapable of staying innocent?

I think the advertising issue really just reminds of a wider, ongoing debate which is taking place at the moment: are we getting too open about sex? Just like how our clothes are getting a lot more provocative in the modern world, and people are using social media to advertise their OnlyFans; the stigma around sex is clearly being dissolved. But is this a good thing?

In a way, it’s quite empowering that we don’t feel the need to hide this anymore, you could even argue that it’s healthy. We’re getting rid of the hangover of shame after the dirty joke when the laughter stops. It’s not good thing to hide that sex exists, because why keep a secret that we all already know? But, there is a limit to this. There are things that don’t need to be made openly sexual, and people who will be harmed if we make everything about sex.

For example, with the rise of social media, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to monitor the ages of children who are allowed to create accounts. And this is a problem when people are using their social media to try and get subscribers to porn websites like OnlyFans. Without meaning to be, children can be exposed to this world, which is obviously extremely inappropriate. We can’t accept allowing children to be exposed to sex earlier than they need to be - just by scrolling on social media! But then again, the argument here opens the wider issue of whether children should be allowed on social media at all, which is a whole different can of worms. Yet the question remains: are we incapable of allowing things to stay innocent?

Does sex truly sell?

There is definitely a debate here – is using sex in advertising a harmless and clever technique, or inherently damaging? Whatever your stance is, it’s important to acknowledge a difference between advertising a sex toy (where you literally cannot avoid adult themes) and using sex to sell something completely unnecessary like jeans or coffee. And even if we’re more forgiving of sex entering the world outside of the bedroom, should we be? Or was it taboo for a reason?