The deep meta-analytic review on promotions of sex and violence through media and ad content by Robert Lull and Brad J. Buschman, was impressively eye-catching. The widely known belief that sex and violence sell has possibly been debunked and actually explained within this research by using an evolutional and emotional arousal framework. This clearly states that even though violence and sex arouse emotional cues, its use within advertisements and media affect the decrease of brand memory, brand attitudes, and buying intentions. It informs the advertisement audience that in order to increase sales, remembrance, and favorability, another tactic must be used besides violence and sex. The assessment also introduces reasons to understand that violent and sexual advertisements and media are not the absolute affecters for negative behaviors, though it also wasn’t disproven. These evidences and findings are defined within the research and its many sub-categories that will be talked about in this essay.
Inspiration and Discoveries the Authors Hope to Find
To reiterate, the most global belief is that sex and violence sell. The authors of this review were inspired by that cliché and wanted to disprove that theory through their own theory which is
Figure 1: Woman with a black eye.
based on evolution. The theory argues that “ancestors that paid attention to violent cues were less likely to be killed by enemies or predators” and those “that paid attention to sexual cues were more likely to reproduce”. As you can see in Figure 1, the photo perfectly portrays violence and sex within one setting which was a good test of evolutional cues. Though the overall conclusion they were looking for is the effectiveness of sexual and violent media and advertisements and if it connects to their theory. They also wanted to discover what advertisers needed to consider when trying to create a successful advertisement. Not only is this an important piece to read from an advertisers standpoint, it is also significant for those who believe common theories without doing their own research as well.
Methods
Most importantly, the authors, Robert Lull and Brad J. Buschman, involved several methods to make a more credible and believable study. Like most studies, there are steps involved to really determine if the hypothesis has enough information to determine complete accuracy. Not only were experimental designs created, but most steps were geared towards the specific advertisement needs of brand memory, brand attitudes and buying intentions. Their first step was to conduct a literary research for sufficient and credible evidence that would support their theory. This included two electronic databases which were PsychINFO and Communication and Mass Media Complete, as well as the article citation websites, ProQuest and Google Scholar.
An inclusion criteria was also developed for both advertisements and studies. The advertisements were to have sexual and/or violent media and/or ad content as well as a control group and an experimental group. Brand memory was also to be included which is where participants were to list advertised brands based off of memory alone. Participants also had to establish brand attitudes by rating a product from 1, very bad to 7, very good. A scale was also developed for buying intentions of a product where participants rated from 1, very unlikely to 5, very likely of purchasing. Overall, Lull and Buschman discovered “a total of 44 research reports that included 53 individual studies of 8,489 participants that met the inclusion criteria”. Furthermore, studies needed to feature specific stimuli in order to qualify for this research. This included violent and/or sexual stimuli and media and/or ad content, as well as MPAA ratings or FCC ratings. Studies also needed pretests like surveys and focus groups among a large audience for a more reliable research.
In addition, experimental designs were established for stronger credibility and for more substantial evidence. There was between-subjects which were experiments and surveys, within-subjects which were participants in a control group, and mixed
Figure 2: Woman in process of taking off shirt.
designs which combined between-subjects and within-subjects factors. Moderator variables were also included to test congruity. Congruity is like a violent ad within a violent movie or a sexual ad within a sexual article. A code to measure the level of sex in sexual ads were as ranged: 0 = none, 1 = suggestive content, 2 = revealing clothes, 3 = breasts or buttocks, 4 = genitals visible. This code was used in advertisements and media just like Figure 2. By introducing levels, it was easier to measure congruity in a study that was also measuring media exposure.
Limitations
Even with as many methods as they designed, many gaps were projected within the study. Most of them stemmed from the overall problem that not enough studies were available to fully test each hypothesis. For one, there was a lack of psychophysiological studies which could’ve helped decide if violence or sex increased attention on the central ideas of the content. Further psychophysiological limitations were accounted to the fact that “very few studies used methods that directly measured important mechanisms such as attention and arousal” during advertisement viewings. Also, it was very difficult to control media exposure as well as purchase behavior. This was credited to the fact “that advertising contexts influence implicit and explicit brand memory differently” which is a huge influencer to buying intentions. This means that there were also no valuable studies for program or advertisement congruity which was the main assessor of brand memory and buying intentions.
Even more so, there were some studies supporting the advertisement congruity, though they did not meet a few
Figure 3: ANAR Foundation poster of child abuse.
aspects of the inclusion criteria. The final limitation was the lack of cultural studies that could determine the results of viewers everywhere. The only countries that information could be found for was the United States, England, Canada, France, and Germany. In Figure 3, this photo from the ANAR Foundation, which is stationed within Spain and South America, advertises their fight towards victim child abuse. In Spanish, this poster says “Sometimes child abuse is only visible to the child who suffers” above the child’s head. This poster received a lot of recognition due to the cruel vividness of it but this type of advertisement was not one of the countries to be included in the study. Though this might have worked in Spain, “previous research in Turkey found a large effect of sexual media exposure on memory impairment for foreign languages”. Due to this, it is important for further research to occur for more cultural examinations.
Implications and Drawn Conclusions
The theoretical implication of the evolutional and emotional arousal framework helped reason the idea that decreased memory, attitudes, and buying intentions stem from sexual and violent ads/media. Though sex and violence arouse cognitional attention, it distracts the audience from the overall meaning of the advertisement. Also, it was discovered that since violent and sexual ads are very common and have been apparent for years, it just doesn’t grab the audience’s attention anymore. Lull and Buschman were able to conclude that “among the 100 highest-rated television programs, 100 top-grossing films, and 50 top-selling video games from 2009, 48% were specifically rated for violent content and 28% were specifically rated for sexual content”.
In addition, older generations believe violent and sexual content is offensive to its viewers. Not only that, but since males are more sexual and aggressive, they have greater brand memory than women when an ad or media content is sexual or violent. It was also discovered that program/advertisement congruity, ad content intensity, and demographics of target audience are important factors that advertisers need to consider when creating an effective advertisement. These findings urged a focus towards genders, ages, and cultures, just like teens who are constantly being suckered into purchasing Axe Body Spray, even though women tend to dislike the scent. The findings of this study will help lead a determined answer to the effectiveness of certain advertisements in the future.