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Advertisers are increasingly using sex appeal in their advertisements to attract customers in China, suggesting that giving the commercials a sexy flavor also reflects the fierce competition to retain the Chinese audience's attention, which is flooded by ever-more TV ads and ads in other media as well.
In 2002, advertisement spending in China totaled about 90.31 billion yuan (US$10.88 billion), 13.62 percent higher than a year ago.
TV advertisements accounted for the largest pie at 25.58 percent, or 23.1 billion yuan, with a 28.8 percent year-on-year increase.
One of the latest TV advertisements by South Korean company, LG, features a gentleman watching a woman sitting at the bar through the reflection of a glass of wine - her slender legs, seductive eyes, slim body and, most important, the LG8180 mobile phone in front of her chest.
This commercial followed another successful TV advertisement for the LG8080 in which a young woman lies casually on a big black sofa, waiting for a man holding the same model.
"We sold 500,000 LG8080 handsets last year around the world. That helped to boost our company to No 6 in the world mobile phone market," said Sun Lin, a local sales executive at LG Electronics Inc. "We also pin great hope on a similar sexy promotion to give impetus to the sales of LG8180."
Siemens, one of LG's competitors in the mobile phone market, is also using sexiness in its advertising.
Warner Lambert adopted a sexy voice in its commercial for its Halls fruit-flavored sweets. With the background sound murmuring "touch," "kiss" and "hug," the company hopes to lure the audience to taste its candy.
"We paid more than 2 million yuan in a month to broadcast the commercial. The advertisement resulted in 70 percent audience awareness," said Nikki Gao, a staff member at J. Walter Thompson/Bridge Advertising Co Ltd, or JWT, the agency which produced this ad.
"The application of sex appeal in advertisement depends on who the target consumers are and what the product's selling point is," said Bill Chan, group creative director at JWT.
Yu Zhenwei, an associate professor of the advertising department at Fudan University, explained:
"Sex-appeal ads target people who follow the trend closely, young people in particular. These people are born in a society greatly affected by Western culture, and can easily accept sexy ads."
(eastday.com April 14, 2003)
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