Dr. Sabrina Segal

It all started with a billboard featuring a Hong Kong pop star who bared her thigh in an ad for skin lotion…the barrage of complaints began as the scantily clad woman “offended local sensibilities.”

Government regulations in China require that female ad images are "healthy and positive" and “help foster sound morals among young people.”

Tattoos and piercing and women kicking in an aerobics class are taboo in China, and something as mundane as Pizza Hut’s commercial where a boy jumps on his desk to tell friends about the great taste of pizza was scrapped due the rebellious nature of the act.

Not all ads which hasten public distaste are sexually charged. In one case, a young boy was prone to nightmares after watching a cosmetics commercial that featured a woman who zipped off her skin.

“Such are the pitfalls of doing business in the world's fastest-growing advertising market where sensitivity about cultural icons and Western dominance is acute”

A product must be portrayed as practical in Chinese media. Self-indulgence and individualism have no place here. "If a woman takes a bath in a beautiful, comfortable tub, that is not going to sell here," said marketing expert Tom Doctoroff. "Nothing is just about feeling good or tasting good. Everything has to have a payoff."

However, there is a dichotomy when it comes to sex and burgers in the land of red.

The Chinese Quarter Pounder TV ad is quite suggestive with a great deal of “finger sucking, lip licking, lascivious glances, slow-motion eating and, at one point, a guy who appears to stick a Quarter Pounder into a woman's mouth, which, in essence, portrays a moment of simulated orgasm.” The taglines are "You can feel it. Thicker. Taste it. Juicier."

The Chinese believe that eating beef is a sexual stimulant, move over Viagra!

China is not alone in its lust for the Golden Arches. In 2004, Japan introduced a female Ronald McDonald: complete with long red hair, red spiked-heel boots and a sexy look. “So sex sells, but it doesn't sell all the time. It sells at the right time, in the right market, and when it targets an appropriate demographic”.

What American ads do not implicate some type of sexually leading act or imperative as a matter of marketing? Are there any? What products aren’t relying on sex to sell? Are advertisers inadvertently using sex to sell when they target a specific gender?

Photo Credit: Amber “Abby” Sepulveda