In class we looked at a couple pictures of athletes wearing pretty much the bare minimum. The tag line for both was “only the ball should bounce”. The products displayed were a sports bra for women and a sports jock for men. With the tag line “only the ball should bounce” being used for these products, and the pictures of scantily clothed athletes, it is safe to say they are selling these products using sex appeal.
To me the Anna Kournikova’s picture does help sell sports bras, plus it could attract more men to watch women’s tennis due to its sex appeal. Men seeing this ad only see it as sex appeal, and sex sells in this day and age. Being a male myself, I found the other picture of the male humorous, and it seems like a joke of a product. It seems with that picture they are just trying to get a laugh out of its viewers. This is not a bad thing, because humor also sells.
When it comes to sex appeal and sports I feel the women’s sports need it more than the men’s sports. I say this because the majority of sports fanatics are male rather than female. I know there are plenty of women who watch sports but I’m guessing males dominate the percentages. Male sports are very entertaining to males while some female sports like basketball are too slow and don’t have the “wow” factor that men’s sports have.
The question I have is whether sex actually does sell women's sports. In the case of women's basketball, since most males perceive it as "too slow," would it really matter if sex appeal were used to try to sell the sport?
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