Product brands that use violent and sexual media content may actually be damaging the effectiveness of their advertising and putting a damper on sales, says a recent study by the American Psychological Association.
“In general, we found violent and sexual programs, and ads with violent or sexual content, decreased advertising effectiveness,” said Brad J. Bushman, co-author of the July study and professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University.
Robert D. Lull, a Ph.D. candidate at Ohio State University, assisted Mr. Bushman in analyzing 53 previously published studies that examined 8,489 study participants to determine the influences of the violent and sexual content on marketing effectiveness.
This was measured by brand memory, brand attitudes and buying objectives.
The media in the study included television, movies, video games and print.
While violence and sex certainly attract audiences’ attention, it’s at the cost of surrounding content that is not violent or sexual, according to Mr. Lull.
The study found that people pay more attention to the violence and the sex surrounding the ads than to the actual products being advertised. As a result, memory, attitudes and buying intentions are diminished by this strategy, not enhanced, he said.
“Our findings have tremendous applied significance, especially for advertisers,” said Mr. Bushman.
“Sex and violence do not sell, and in fact they may even backfire by impairing memory, attitudes and buying intentions for advertised products. Thus, advertisers should think twice about sponsoring violent and sexual programs, and about using violent and sexual themes in their ads.”
A previous study in a 2002 issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology indicated that sexually explicit television shows or ones with much violence actually caused viewers to remember less about the commercials contained in the shows than shows that contained no sex or violence.
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