Nowadays, society consists of producers and consumers, an endless cycle of providing and receiving services, selling and buying goods. Due to the high competition, producers use advertising to attract as many consumers as possible. Advertising haunts people everywhere; it can be found on the street, on television, in magazines, and in books. As a result of the development of technologies, people use electronic devices daily and regularly observe advertisements with their help. Ads are present on mobile apps and social media, news feeds and websites. Society does not realize how saturated the living environment is with advertising and does not perceive how strongly it affects people. Very often, companies advertise products by using unrealistic and unhealthy standards of beauty. In addition, advertisements exploit women and sex to sell products that most often do not require sex or nudity from women to advertise. It is hard to imagine, but about half of the ads portray women in one way or another with sexual connotations. An example of this exploit of women is last year’s ad for an Australian roadside assist and automotive servicing company called Ultra Tune.
Intended Audience
To advertise its services, Ultra Tune is filming a series called “Unexpected Situations”. These commercials showcase various improbable driving situations and the Ultra Tune team coming to the rescue. Each advertisement from that series depicts women in an unrealistic and overly sexualized manner, but this paper focuses on their latest video. In the latest Ultra Tune ad, former Australian footballer Warwick Capper drives a buggy down the ocean beach with a girl and sees Pamela Anderson (Buckley, 2020). Attracted to Pamela, he loses control of the car, crashes, and gets covered with a giant wave. Further, parodying Baywatch, Pamela Anderson and four girls in slow motion run to rescue the “victims”, and a technician from Ultra Tune arrives at the scene of the “accident”. All the girls featured in the ad are dressed in revealing, tight-fitting swimsuits, with half-bared breasts, which are the focus of attention. The intended audience of this ad is men of all ages and not even necessarily having a vehicle. Perhaps it is implied that this ad will have a greater effect on younger males since they are more susceptible to manipulation of this nature.
Targeting men seems counterintuitive and unfair in the modern world because women own and drive cars as often as men. It can be assumed that Ultra Tune does not consider women as its consumers at all. However, the female audience will definitely be affected by this ad. In their article, the authors conclude that advertisements depicting female sexualization are highly negatively perceived by women and lead to a refusal to use the services provided by the company (Gramazio et al., 2021). Furthermore, the same paper notes that “men did not show any significant increment either on product attractiveness or purchase intentions toward female sexualized compared to neutral ads” (Gramazio et al., 2021). In fact, this ad’s message to society has nothing in common with automotive service. The only thing that this video demonstrates is that men are unable to control their sex drive so much that it provokes accidents. This stereotype can even seem offensive and lead to the loss of male clients. Recent research is increasingly showing that selling through sex is not an effective strategy, and companies should expand the intended audience and look for a better approach.
Affecting Women’s Health
Like many other modern advertisements, this video sets out ideals of beauty. Those popularized standards are often unrealistic, unhealthy, and more often unattainable. The existence of such standards has an impact on both the mental and physical health of a woman. The imposition of unattainable beauty ideals in media and advertising contributes to the development of eating disorders while women attempt to obtain a dream body (Aparicio-Martinez et al., 2019). Regularly observing unrealism in advertisements of various goods and services, girls acquire body dissatisfaction, decreasing general well-being. Thapliyal and Ghosh (2021) conclude that advertising leads women to “felt pressurized” as well as “get hugely influenced” by the ad’s beauty ideals. People are either trying to achieve the perfect body or feeling body shamed since they do not fit in with those ideal standards (Thapliyal & Ghosh, 2021). Women receive a signal from the media that they are not good enough, which can lead to either physical or mental disorders. Compulsive training and exhausting diets disrupt physical health, while eating disorders, shame for the body, rejection of the appearance, and sometimes depression on this basis are examples of mental disorders. Ultra Tune’s video demonstrates unrealistic female body standards that can indirectly affect women’s health.
Presentation in a Different Format
Ultra Tune is one of the largest Australian car repairer companies and automotive services. Obviously, the services provided are essential, as the serviceability of the vehicle prevents road accidents and related consequences. However, their advertisements are more like plastic surgery than auto-repair ads. The exploitation and excessive sexualization of women have nothing to do with the services offered, and advertising should contain other stories. The company may continue to record its “Unexpected Situations” series in a comical manner to show accidents or other traffic incidents without sexual connotations. Ultra Tune’s advertisements should be more focused on cars and frequent problems of drivers, so that people, seeing a familiar situation, would prefer to use the services of professionals. There is no connection between unrealistic girls and the actual problems of car owners: hardly any driver was saved by five overly sexualized half-naked women. Video creators should review their perceptions of potential customers and include female drivers in the intended audience. The company will attract new customers and stop receiving complaints about advertisements that humiliate and exploit women by creating neutral commercials.
A promotional video for Australian company Ultra Tune exemplifies the exploitation of women and sex intending to sell the product. Excessive female sexualization involves attracting a predominantly male audience, but recent research suggests this marketing strategy is not fruitful. In addition, the company is losing its female audience, as women are highly negative about such ads. Furthermore, the demonstration of unrealistic women promotes unhealthy and unattainable beauty ideals. Attempts to meet standards lead to the fact that girls acquire physical and mental health problems. Current trends towards unrealistic ideals of beauty must be replaced by more neutral ones. This approach is ethically appropriate and will also lead to an influx of new consumers.
My Letter to the CEO of Ultra Tune Company
Dear Mr. Buckley,
I want to express concern and disapproval due to reviewing the new video advertisement of your company. The latest ad demonstrates disrespect for women through over-sexualization. There is a tendency to use unrealistic and unhealthy beauty standards in the modern world, but this trend leads to harmful consequences for your company and society. I am sure you have received many complaints about your advertisements because such exploitation of women is unacceptable. Excessive sexualization of women is directly linked to violence, and your ad encourages the stereotype that men are unable to control their sexual desires.
A lot of women suffer from such ads because they are imposing unhealthy beauty standards in society. Significantly young girls are highly influenced by these ideals and trying to fit. Instead of selling your services, you participate in the formation of women’s dissatisfaction with their bodies. Many girls are ashamed of their figures and acquire psychological problems, realizing that they cannot match. If you love to advertise your services by exploiting women, why are not you filming actresses of different body types? As a health professional, I am very concerned about the number of women trying to achieve a perfect body by any means possible while risking their health.
Using sex to sell services is no longer relevant and advertising your services does not require sex or nudity at all. As you are already one of the most extensive car services in Australia, you do not have to try to reach new customers in such an insignificant way. However, you can still expand your client base by attracting women. The idea of filming comic videos is excellent, but the setting and the half-naked actresses are not relevant. You should create more neutral videos with the same humor but not contrary to ethical standards. The use of sex in advertising somewhat scares off new customers: it evokes negative emotions in the female audience, while others consider you a frivolous company. You should add more realism, the setting should be more professional, and the actors should reflect the actual customers and employees of the company. The ad must be relevant, as Ultra Tune is an automotive service network, not an adult film studio. Target a wider audience, respect your customers, do not exploit women or make a laughing stock of men.
Best regards.
References
Aparicio-Martinez, P., Perea-Moreno, A. J., Martinez-Jimenez, M. P., Redel-Macías, M. D., Pagliari, C., & Vaquero-Abellan, M. (2019). Social media, thin-ideal, body dissatisfaction and disordered eating attitudes: An exploratory analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(21). Web.
Buckley, S. (2020). Pamela Anderson Ultra Tune Unexpected Situations 8 – Full length [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Gramazio, S., Cadinu, M., Guizzo, F., & Carnaghi, A. (2021). Does sex really sell? Paradoxical effects of sexualization in advertising on product attractiveness and purchase intentions. Sex Roles, 84(11), 701-719. Web.
Thapliyal, N., & Ghosh, M. M. (2021). Decoding the role of advertisements and exploring the motivators that influence the perception of self-image. Revista Geintec-Gestao Inovacao e Tecnologias, 11(4). Web.