Sexuality and ethics in advertising: a research agenda and policy guideline perspective.

The presence of sexual appeals in advertising is very pervasive in the United States and, in fact, in much of the world. Contemporary consumption is often promoted in terms of fulfilling erotic fantasies and appetites (D'Emilio and Freedman 1989). However, the use of such appeals is constantly contested in terms of ethics and morality, much as sexual norms and mores in general have been contested throughout both American (D'Emilio and Freedman 1989) and world history (Foucault 1990a,b). The issue of sexuality in advertising is what Boddewyn (1991) has called a "soft issue," based in complex subjective and socially/culturally constructed roots and values. It is too complicated to be addressed merely by controlling or regulating the frequency of sexual appeals used.

This paper considers the types, uses, gratifications, targets and alleged effects of sexual appeals (Morgan and Signorielli 1990) and relates them to ethical concerns. First, ethics-based distinctions among such appeals are discussed. Then an action-oriented perspective on the ethics of sexual advertising, reflecting both previous research and the current social-ethical climate in the United States, is derived by investigating (1) the alleged effects (both positive and negative) and morality of such advertising, and (2) the ethics-related policies for addressing them. The alleged effects and morality are examined in terms of teleological and deontological concerns, and a research agenda based on these concerns is proposed. Ethics-related policies are considered in terms of choice enhancement versus consumer protection, and guidelines for managers and public policymakers are suggested.

Ethics-Based Distinctions Among Sexual Appeals

Sexual appeals used in ads are of many types and consist of a variety of elements. They often are grounded in visual elements, such as attractive models, and may portray varying degrees of nudity and suggestiveness (Severn, Belch, and Belch 1990). However, such appeals may also include suggestive verbal elements (Severn et al. 1990), as well as other elements, such as suggestive music and even smells in "scent strip" advertising. Consideration of these elements is important because they may determine whether people think a sexual appeal is ethical or unethical. For example, though ads that simply use attractive, sexy models are themselves problematic to some people (e.g., Richins 1991), the consensus seems to be that such ads are acceptable. Many if not most people, however, would probably oppose nudity in general advertising (LaTour and Henthorne 1993). Hence, in relating sexual appeals to ethical concerns, we must consider not only sexual appeals in general but also the specific forms of those appeals. Sometimes, for example, acceptability is framed in terms of "good taste," which often refers to the degree of sexual explicitness in an ad (Rotfeld and Parsons 1989).