Panorama

The persuasive influence of erotic stimuli in publicity on youngsters’ consumption trends (second part)

Resumen

The answers provided by 430 students from different institutions were compared in order to obtain empirical evidence on the possible persuasive impact of certain techniques commonly used and argued in the realm of publicity. The students from 5 different institutions were exposed, in an experimental group design, to similar pairs of pieces of advertisement that only differed from each other in the presence or absence of erotic stimuli with unconscious symbolic content of the phallic, vaginal, coital, oral and ejaculatory kind, containing or not subliminal stimuli.It was found that the presence of erotic stimuli and unconscious symbolic content does increase the inclination to acquire the products being advertised and the preference for the advertisement. The latter producing a greater moral rejection, however. The opposite happened when the erotic contents were extreme and identified as such. These results confirm, on the one hand, some critics’ claims on publicity practices; and on the other, those made by some to justify the use of these techniques by publicists because of their effectiveness.