Mens Magazine Survey - Kelsey

Hypothesis
After doing media research we found a vast amount of sexuality in print media advertising. Not only did we find this in Maxime magazines but in Women's Health, Elle, Playboy, Cosmo, Vogue, and even in People. We wanted to research a couple of topics through out survey. 1)Does Sex Sell 2) Do different genders respond differently to sexuality in advertising 3) Is the use of sexuality or sexually explicit messages an affect form of advertising. We hypothesised that in general with less sexual ads men's and women's responses would be more similar. As the ads became more sexually explicit we believed that men would be more likely to be interested in the ad and that they would also think the ad was appropriate in today's soceity. Repectively, we thought that women would be more likely to still be interested in the ad, however we thought women would be less likely to accept sex in advertising as socially acceptable means of selling a product.

Survey Process
In order to test our hypothesis we created 2 surveys of six ads each. The survey itself was exactly the same but the ads were different. We wanted to see if there would be a gendered response to how the ads were received based on the kind of magazines they came from. I,Kelsey took around the men's survey that used six ads from magazines like Maxim, Men's Health, and Playboy. For both surveys we used 2 non-sexual ads, 2 moderately sexual ads, and 2 overtly sexual ads to creat a scale of sexuality in the advertisment that would help test our hypothesis.






Part I
Scale 1:not at all 2:slighly 3:somewhat 4:yes, strongly 5:very strong
How old are you?
What is your gender?
Are you religiou? (scale of 1-5)
Are you sexually conservative or liberal? (scale 1-5 1-conservative 5-liberal)
Please rate your self esteem. (scale 1-5)

Questions for each Ad
1- Do you find this advertisment to be seuxally arousing?
2- Would you buy this product for yourself or another person?
3- Are you in any way offended by this advertisment?
4- Do you find this advertisment to be appropriate in public media advertising?
5- Would you feel sexier if you used this product?
6- Is the person in the ad someone you find sexually attractive?
7- Without the advertisment label, and only the picture would you know what this ad was selling?
8 What words describe the following ad?

Follow up questions
Ad 7 and Ad 8
Which of these two ads do you prefer and why?

Survey Results




Ad 1
1) 100% men - not sexually arousing
100% women - not sexually arousing
2) 73% men - yes I would buy this product
46% women - yes I would buy this product
3) 100% men - not offended
98% women - not offended
4) 100% men - felt this was appropriate
100% women - felt this was appropriate
5) 33% men - felt sexier for using this product
12% women - felt sexier for using this product
6) 100% men- not attracted to person in ad
96% women - not attracted to person in ad
7) 85% men- yes I would know this was selling cars
78% women- yes I would know this was selling cars
8) Some responses were : sporty, automotive, tough

Ad 2
1) 23% men- found this ad to be sexually arousing
97% women - did not find this as to be sexually arousing
2) 56% men - yes they would buy this product
32% women - yes they would buy this product
3) 100% men - not offended
98% women - not offended
4) 100% men - felt this was appropriate
97% women - felt this was appropriate
5) 97% men - would not feel sexier
99% women - would not feel sexier
6) 76% men- yes they were attracted to the person in the ad
12% women- yes they were attracted to the person in the ad
7) 97% men - no they would not know what was being sold
98% women- no they would not know what was being sold
8) Some responses were: Strong, confident, sporty




Ad 3 )
1) 12% men – yes this is sexually arousing
89% women- yes this is sexually arousing
2) 72% men – yes, they would buy this product
89% women – yes they would buy this product
3) 5% men – yes, they were offended by this ad
12% women – yes they were offended by this ad
4) 97% men – yes this ad is appropriate
89% women- yes this ad is appropriate
5) 33% men – yes they would feel sexier
10% women – yes they would feel sexier ( product not for women)
6) 12% men - yes this person is sexually attractive
89% women – yes this person is sexually attractive
7) 98% men- no they would not know what was being sold
96% women – no they would not know what was being sold
8) Some responses were: captivating, wet, intense

Ad 4)
1) 86% men – no they did not find this ad to be sexually arousing
78% women – yes they found this ad to be sexually arousing
2) 73% men – would buy this product
93% women – would buy this product
3) 10% men – were offended by this product
16% women- were offended by this product
4) 92% men – yes this ad is appropriate
91% women – yes this ad is appropriate
5) 46% men – yes they would feel sexier
71% women – yes they would feel sexier
6) 90% men – no, this person is not attractive to me
94% women – yes this person is sexually attractive to me
7) 99% men – no they would not know what was being sold
93% women – no they would not know what was being sold





Ad 5
1) 92% men – yes this ad is sexually arousing
96% women- yes this ad is sexually arousing
2) 83% men – yes they would buy this product
89% women – yes they would buy this product
3) 23% men- yes they were offended by this ad
31% women – yes they were offended by this ad
4) 92% men- yes this ad is appropriate
72% women – yes this ad is appropriate
5) 72% men – yes they would feel sexier for using this product
94% women – yes they would feel sexier for using this product
6) 96% men – yes this person is sexually attractive
98% women – yes this person is sexually attractive
7) 99% men – no they would not know what was being sold
93% women – no they would not know what was being sold
8) Some responses were: sensual, lustful, sweaty

Ad 6
1) 98% men – yes this ad is sexually arousing
97% women – yes this ad is sexually arousing
2) 96% men – yes they would buy this product
94% women- yes they would buy this product
3) 13% men – yes they were offended by this ad
28% women – yes they were offended by this ad
4) 92% men- yes this ad is appropriate
78% women- yes this as is appropriate
5) 93% men – yes they would feel sexier for using this product
92% women – yes they would feel sexier for using this product
6) 98% men – yes this person is sexually attractive
96% women – yes this person is sexually attractive
7) 97% men – no they would not know what was being sold
98% women – no they would not know what was being sold
8) Some responses were: hot, sexy, passionate




Skyy Vodka Comparison
Ad7 vs. Ad 8
97% men – preferred ad7
75% women – preferred ad 8

Reasons why: Men - “Hot almost naked chick” “ Do you not see the big boobs and the guy straddling her?” “ Its sexier” “I wish I could do that”

Women: “The other ad is degrading” “ I like the snake” “why would I want a man standing over me”
(These results were interesting because in the other ads women were accepting of the sexuality in the advertisement and now they find it demoralizing. This might be a result of gendered acceptable sexuality but we would need another survey to determine this.)



Final Conclusion
There were many things that men and women agreed on and a couple things that showed greater differences. The greatest differences were found in what men and women find acceptable in print media advertising. In general the women tended to be more conservative on what they though was appropriate, and men were more accepting of explicit sexuality.
In general as the ads became more sexual both men and women were more likely to purchase the product. Therefore as sexuality goes up so does the viewers sexual arousal and likely hood to purchase the product. The one thing I found most interesting was, regardless of the sexual content of the ad most people would not know what the ad was selling if it did not outright tell them. Finally, I feel that overt sexuality in print media advertising is very affective, extremely relevant, and generally accepted in today’s society.