ETHICAL JUDGMENTS OF SEXUAL APPEALS IN PRINT ADVERTISING

This study explores consumers' ethical judgements about the use of sex ual appeals in print advertising. It specifically focuses upon respons es on the Reidenbach-Robin multidimensional ethics scale, ad attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intentions. The findings indicate that, regardless of the respondent's gender, the use of a strong overt sexua l appeal in a print advertisement was not well received. Consequently, advertisers need to rethink the use of strong overt sexual appeals, e specially given the controversial issues surrounding such advertising stimuli and their popular use to break through media clutter.