Influence of Advertising Sex Appeal on Product Consumption and Service Patronage Behaviours of Consumers in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

The growing need for profitability through consumer patronage has made advertisers to increasingly use sex appeal for catching the attention of consumers. Sex appeal is mostly used in television commercials to advertise products like clothing, cosmetics and alcohol. Hence, the frequent and overt use of sex appeal in television advertisements especially for promoting products that have no relationship with sex,  as well as the untested hypothesis that sex appeal has negative influence on consumers, have necessitated empirical investigation.  Empirical works abound on the use of sex appeal in advertising, but not much effort has been directed at the influence of the said appeal on product consumption and service patronage behaviours of university undergraduates. This study therefore examined the influence which sex appeal, used in television advertising messages have on university undergraduates in Lagos State, Nigeria. The survey research method was used for this study with the questionnaire and oral interview as instruments. One hundred and fifty copies of a questionnaire were administered in University of Lagos and Lagos State University using the purposive sampling method while oral interview was conducted with 20 respondents drawn from the 150 that filled the questionnaire. Data collected and analyzed showed that television sex appeal has no effect on majority of the respondents. And, for others on which the appeal has effect; the effect on actual consumption behavior, as may be desired by advertisers is unsubstantiated and mostly negligible. Consumers, who are university undergraduates in this study established an insignificantly skewed cause and effect relationship between exposure to sex appeal in television commercials and stimulated sexual desire, adoption of personalities used in the advertisements as role models, as well as cultivation of sexually attractive lifestyles as depicted in televised advertisements for which sex appeal is used. Product significance is an important factor in the use of sex appeal for advertisements. The study also revealed that the use of sex appeal in television advertising does not largely characterize female models as sex workers, but rather as celebrities, and as good product and service testifiers. Based on the outcome of this study, it is hereby recommended that advertisers and advertising professionals should play down the use of sex appeal in advertising messages since sex appeal is not a sufficient factor that sells product or that draws service patronage. Sex appeal should only be used for products with which the appeal has relationship. By so doing, any negative influence, which a use of any appeal may have on advertising audience, will be reduced or possibly eliminated.

Key words: Influence, Television advertisement, Sex appeal, University undergraduates.