Humor should replace sex in advertising In today's society, we as consumers are exposed to media on a daily basis. Starting the day with a glance at the newspaper and ending the evening with a television program, the average person cannot escape the clutches of the media in their seemingly endless forms. In addition to presenting objective information that includes local news, weather, and sports, one of the primary functions of modern media is advertising. Two effective methods for capturing consumer attention are using sexual attraction or humor as the focal point of an advertisement. . Over the past few decades, sex has been a consistent means of selling products, while humor has only recently become a major advertising technique. The two popular phrases, “sex sells” and “the shortest distance between two people is a good laugh,” can certainly be used to characterize most 90s advertising. Despite the widespread success of using sex to sell products, there have also been numerous negative repercussions, including decreased consumer self-esteem, customer dissatisfaction with the products, and mild community unrest due to the risqué situations depicted in some advertisements. However, humor in advertising has not yet overcome these challenges. Until advertisers stop using human sexuality in ads, these problems will not go away. The ways in which human sexuality is used to promote products are quite simple. Sex in advertising draws attention to products for one obvious reason: it's sex! Companies design advertisements based on what the audience wants to get the best response possible (Percy 26). Since the 1980s sex has been prominently featured in advertising (Martin... center of paper... absolutely, companies should consider humor in advertising in the future. It could alleviate the current problems associated with sex and advertising). offer some benefits to both advertisers and consumers. Let's try it. Works Cited Berger, John Ways of Seeing, London: Penguin, 129-54. Bonvillian, John "First Impressions 101. Hall Class Lecture, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, October 1999. Martins, Maria Cristina da Silva. Humor and Eroticism in Advertising: San Diego State University Press, 1995. Percy, Larry and John R. Rossiter: Praeger Publishers, 1980.Sutherland, Max. Advertising and the Consumer Mind. Sydney: Griffin, 1993.Waldenmaier, George. “Animal Behavior 122. Classroom Lesson, Nandua High School, Onley 1999.