Children, teenagers, and adults are exposed to tremendous amounts of sexuality through the media, TV $ radio, movies, newspapers, magazines, bill boards, popular music, whether they want to hear it or not. Beautiful, sensuous women and handsome, seductive men talk and sing about the joys of sexuality every day. You do not have to read to know what products and sexual connotations are associated with the following phrases:
“Fly me, I’m Sasha.” National.
“It’s better in the Bahamas.” Bahama Tourist Bureau.
“Weekends were made for Michelob. Michelob.
“Go stag and heads will turn.” White Stag.
“The ends of the rainbow.” Gloria Vanderbilt jeans.
If you have any doubt, look at the pictures in these advertisements. Students can be given many different kinds of reading assignments related to advertising and sexuality. This kind of assignment is particularly useful at the beginning of the year because advertisements are big on graphics and small on reading content. They are also highly motivational because students are already familiar with many of the advertisements and will think it fun to go out and look for others. These are some possible assignments
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1. Choose any magazine. Look for an advertisement that contains a romantic or sexual picture to advertise its product. Read the advertisement. Underline any words that are romantic or sexual in themselves or by association with the picture. Explain in your own words how sex and romance are used to sell the product.
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2. Find another advertisement that contains a romantic or sexual picture to advertise its product. Cut out the written message. Insert your own written message in which you use romance or sex to sell the product.
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3. Look at copies of three different magazines. Examples:
Ebony
,
Newsweek
,
Time
,
Jet
,
Look
,
Snorts Illustrated
. Count the number of advertisements that use sex and romance to sell their products. Count the number of advertisements that do not use romance or sex. In your opinion, why do some magazines use more advertisements based on romance and sex than others? Explain.
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4. If you were to own a magazine of national appeal, where would you draw the line between a sexual advertisement in poor taste or in good taste? Are there advertisements that you find offensive because of their sexual content? Explain.
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5. Do you think that the government should impose restrictions on the sexual content of advertisements? What about the use of four letter words? What about the use of nudity or near nudity or sexual touching in advertisements?
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6. Do you think that the company selling the product should be the sole determiner of what is good taste or poor taste in terms of sexual content?
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7. Pretend that you own a company that just invented a new product. Decide what the product will be and give it a name. Make up two advertisements to introduce the product to the American public. Draw the pictures and write the messages. Make up one advertisement that uses romance or sexuality to sell its product. Make up the second one using a non sexual or nonromantic message. Which one do you feel is more effective? Why? Give the two advertisements to your classmates. Ask them which one they feel is more effective. Why?