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Sex in Consumer Culture

The Erotic Content of Media and Marketing

• Edited by Tom Reichert, Jacqueline Lambiase

• Price: $74.95
• Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
• Pages: 400
• Published by: Routledge
• Publication Date: 31st August 2005
• ISBN: 978-0-8058-5091-8

About the Book

Sex in Consumer Culture: The Erotic Content of Media and Marketing considers the use of sex to promote brands, magazines, video games, TV programming, music, and movies. Offering both quantitative and qualitative perspectives from leading scholars in a variety of disciplines, this volume addresses a range of integral issues such as media promotion, racial representations, appeals to gay and lesbian communities, content analyses, and case studies. Chapters represent diverse perspectives, addressing such questions as:

*What happens when sexual content created for adults reaches children?
*What meaning do sexual words and images have within the contexts of sporting events, trade shows, video games, personal ads, or consumer Web sites?
*What effects might sex-tinged images have on audiences, and where should the focus be for new effects research?
*Where are the current boundaries between pornography and mainstream sexual depictions?

Exploring sexual information as it is used in mass media to sell products and programs, Sex in Consumer Culture is an important collection, and it will be of great interest for scholars and students in advertising, marketing, media promotion, persuasion, mass communication & society, and gender studies.

Reviews

"This book bares it all--how the media and advertisers entice and excite with nudity and eroticism. The book covers (or perhaps 'uncovers' is a better word) how a variety of media and cultural forms, including video games, music videos, commercials and even trade shows, appeal to carnal rather than critical thinking."
—Lawrence Soley, Colnik Professor of Communication, Marquette University, Author of Censorship, I

"Sex in Consumer Culture is a timely and significant piece of scholarship on an enduring element of advertising theory and practice. The book brings together the most contemporary thinking on this controversial subject and is a 'must read' for every serious advertising, communication, and marketing scholar."
—Leonard Reid, Professor of Advertising, University of Georgia

"It's truly astonishing how little serious study has been devoted to sex in marketing--a significant, though rarely admired, aspect of the field--until now. In this book, Reichert and Lambiase have gathered more serious studies of sex in marketing, and exposed more diverse viewpoints on the same, than in any single book ever published. This book isn't light reading for the prurient interest, but for those of us who study advertising's impact on society, it's nonetheless exciting."
—Jef Richards, Ph.D., J.D., Professor of Advertising, University of Texas at Austin

"Sex in Consumer Culture is a great one-stop-shop for readers looking for examples of how sex is used in media."
—Journal of Mass Media Ethics

Table of Contents

Contents: Foreword. Preface. T. Reichert, J. Lambiase, Peddling Desire: Sex and the Marketing of Media and Consumer Goods. Part I: Sexualizing Media. M.B. Oliver, S. Kalyanaraman, Using Sex to Sell Movies: A Content Analysis of Movie Trailers. J. Andsager, Seduction, Shock, and Sales: Research and Functions of Sex in Music Video. S.L. Smith, E. Moyer-Gusé, Voluptuous Vixens and Macho Males: A Look at the Portrayal of Gender and Sexuality in Video Games. J. Lambiase, T. Reichert, Sex and the Marketing of Contemporary Consumer Magazines: How Men's Magazines Sexualized Their Covers to Compete With Maxim. J. Skerski, From Sideline to Centerfold: The Sexual Commodification of Female Sportscasters. J.A. Fullerton, A. Kendrick, Selling Spanish-Language Programming: A Comparison of Sex and Gender in Univision and NBC Promotional Announcements. Part II: Sexualizing Products. C.J. Pardun, K.R. Forde, Sexual Content of Television Commercials Watched by Early Adolescents. A. Ramirez, Jr., Sexually Oriented Appeals on the Internet: An Exploratory Analysis of Popular Mainstream Web Sites. J. Chambers, Taste Matters: Bikinis, Twins, and Catfights in Sexually Oriented Beer Advertising. T. Reichert, T. LaCaze, From Polo to Provocateur: (Re)Branding Polo/Ralph Lauren With Sex in Advertising. D. Merskin, Where Are the Clothes? The Pornographic Gaze in Mainstream American Fashion Advertising. J.E. Schroeder, P. McDonagh, The Logic of Pornography in Digital Camera Promotion. Part III: Sexualizing People. J. Lambiase, Erotic Encounters: Female Employees and Promotional Activities. S.J. Gould, The Fetishization of People and Their Objects: Using Lovemaps to View "Style" From the New York Times Magazine. D.E. Mastro, S.R. Stern, Race and Gender in Advertising: A Look at Sexualized Images in Primetime Commercials. D.S. Grimes, "Getting a Bit of the Other": Sexualized Stereotypes of Asian and Black Women in Planned Parenthood Advertising. G. Soldow, Homoeroticism in Advertising: Something for Everyone With Androgyny. L. Lance, Searching for Love and Sex: A Review and Analysis of Mainstream and Explicit Personal Ads.