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Impact of Nudity in Advertisements: Comparison of the First
Results from Spain, France and the Czech Republic
Christian Dianoux, CEREFIGE - University of Paul Verlaine – Metz - IUT, Ile du Saulcy,
57045 METZ, France
Zdenek Linhart & Jana Kettnerová, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129,
165 21 Praha 6, Czech Republic
Abstract
Whilst recognising that complaints about nudity vary between different countries and regions,
it is important to understand what the impact of nudity is on consumers. The question of
whether to maximise the impact of nudity through standardisation or adaptation of
advertisements, has become the object of many researches. International comparisons of
nudity impact are still rare. In this article we present the initial results of the first survey about
the topic conducted amongst Czechs, French and Spanish. All the respondents were exposed
to a journal folder containing a hidden advertisement with either a picture of a semi-naked
woman, or a picture of the face of the same woman. Firstly, trials show that answers are
influenced more by the gender of the respondents than by their nationality. Czech, French and
Spanish women tend to react more negatively than men, when shown a picture containing an
image of a woman’s breast. Secondly, the answers of Czechs are less negative than those of
the French and Spanish respondents. We consider that further research is therefore needed to
provide more detailed answers about the relationships between such variables as product,
cultural differences between countries, and attitudes to advertising in general.
1
Introduction
Complaints about the sexual connotation of messages in advertising are becoming more and
more frequent, but many researchers emphasise that this tendency is often generalised.
Lombardot (2002) found this tendency in articles of authors like Hoyer and MacInnis (1997),
Wells, Burnett and Moriaty (1998) or in a much older one by Sciglimpaglia, Belch and Cain
(1978). Within each of these articles it was observed that “…a trend toward the increasing use
of sex in advertising can hardly be disputed”. These impressions seem to be more noticable
when media repeatedly speak about “scandalizing advertising”. We can cite two very
controversial pictures of a nude man (the “vice champion” of aikido, Samuel Debeker) where
we can see his sex used in the launching of a perfume from Yves Saint Laurant (YSL), or
more recently in February 2007, in the advertising of Dolce & Gabbana clothes collection,
which had to be withdrawn from Spanish magazines after complaints from the Spanish
women’s institute (the advertising was then withdrawn from Italy and finally totally stopped
worldwide). This particular advertisement showed a topless man wearing black glasses, who
was holding a woman on the ground by her wrist. This woman was dressed in a black satin
corset and high heels, and around the scene there were some men watching without any
involvement in their faces. This scene invoked thoughts of collective rape.
Researchers counting the ratio of Advertisements with sexual motives make these subjective
impressions more relative. According to literature review carried out by Lombardot, it would
seem that these feelings would essentially be due to more frequent and explicit sexual
references, to the greater degree of nudity acceptable in advertising, or to the kind of studied
review, and not only to the increasing ratio of advertising with a sexual connotation - as
Kilbourne (2005) summarises “Graphic sexual images seem more extreme, more pervasive
and more perverse than before”.
Whatever the tendency, the impact of this kind of communication varies substantially from
one region to another. Thus, we can notice that, according to Piron and Young (cited by
Lombardot 2002), nudity is used less in Germany than in the USA, because north Europeans
are more used to certain kinds of nudity, causing it to lose some of its impact. Some
advertisements can be judged indecent in USA, yet normal in Europe. The study of Nelson
and Hye-Jin (2005), which relies on observations of advertisements published in
Cosmopolitan magazine in seven countries (Brazil, China, France, India, South Korea,
Thailand, and USA), also show large divergences between France and Thailand where
advertisements have strong sexual content, and China where the sexual content is lower.
Despite greater awareness, and the question of standardisation of such advertisements, there
are few studies about this subject. The objective of this article is to contribute to best
knowledge in this context from an experiment made in one country in the East, the West, and
the South of Europe. For this, we will first define what is understood by “nudity”, and we will
make one statement on the main results of research made about this topic. This will permit us
to define our research question. We then present the methodology used and the first results
arising from this experiment. We will finish by outstanding points and principals related to
main perspectives that we can forecast from complementary processing.
2
Literature overview
Notion and impact of nudity are discussed to bring a research question.
Notion of nudity
It is expected that talking about nudity in advertising also has a sexual context. “But, nudity is
not necessary, neither sufficient, to make the stimuli considered as sexual” (Lombardot,
2002). The reactions of the Spanish and Italians to the Dolce & Gabbana advertisement
mentioned above, where a non-sexual attribute was shown (totally dressed women and naked
bodies of men), perfectly illustrates this point, as do Catholic churches which are filled with
nude paintings.
Nevertheless, among the frequent characteristics giving the advertisement a sexual
connotation, Reichert and Ramirez (2000) showed that the degree of clothing of the
individuals was the characteristic most likely to produce this impression, as the very
proximity of nudity implies sexual suggestions.
Among the direct link between nudity and sexual suggestions, we can observe that even the
idea of nudity can vary significantly between different cultures and periods: spiritual tribes
may consider an undressed woman as normal, however a fundamentalist Muslim will consider
it as inadmissible and close to sanctions; within any one country, therefore, undressed bodies
can be either tolerated or sanctioned against. As an example we cite the town council of
Declambre, Lousiana (USA), which unanimously added underwear to the list of what must
not be revealed under the State’s indecent exposure law, threatening offenders with a $200
fine and the risk of up to six month in jail (BBC report, 2007-07). It should be emphasised in
the end that clothes, which are accepted as normal today, were scandalous at the beginning of
the 20th century. These different remarks illustrate the interest of studying the impact that
nudity can have on an advertisement. But, what is known about this subject?
Impact of nudity on the influence of an advertisement
The impact of nudity and sexual appeal has a positive role (Manceau & Tissier, 2006). Both
nudity and sex-appeal are confirming that displaying the positive role of nudity increases
attention towards the advertisement and brand (Vezina & Paul, 1997; Geuens & De
Pelsmacker 1998; Soley & Reid 1998). Studies notice, however, that results relative to its
impact on attitude to the brand, and purchase advice, are contradictory (Severn et al. 1990; De
Pelsmacker & Van Den Bergh 1996; Vezina & Paul 1997). This is probably coming about for
several reasons, such as methodological problems (very few studies are based on experimental
protocols, permitting verification of the influence of nudity the only variable), the studied
context (using nudity for underwear is probably better received than for a car), and the profile
of individuals, some of whom can take a central road, while what comes first into our mind is
that one sexual element in the advertisement seems to attract the customer on the periphery
(Reichert and al. 2001).
The approach proposed by McInnis, Noorman, and Jaworski (1991) can bring to mind some
elements of the answer. For these authors, when the motivation to process information about
the brand is low, the attention to the message is consequently also low. What is likely to catch
the attention, are executional cues in the advertisement which an individual will notice,
independent of the brand. Among these executional cues, sexual sources are likely to play this
role. After this first stage of the process, and having had attention drawn to the advertisement,
the individual next begins to increase its brand information processing within the
advertisement.
3
This theoretical approach no longer conforms to the empirical results. Lombardot for
example, from a review of literature inspired by the works of Jones, Stanaland, et Gelb
(1998), talking about 23 research studies, shows that in spite of divergent results, a consensus
seems to emerge on the fact that nudity increases arousal, interest, and attention (towards
executional elements), and affects in a negative way the cognitive process of message
treatment and understanding, and brand memorization. Such results show that there is still a
lot of work to be carried out to better understand these mechanisms, and bring us to affirm
that the measure of implication towards the product category is a fundamental minimum, even
though this one doesn’t permit us to focus on motivation, in its general sense.
Two other dimensions proposed by McInnis et al. (1991), opportunity and ability, seem not to
be influenced by the sexual character of the advertisement, and we will consider later in the
methodology part how these elements can be considered.
Beyond the motivation - the determining factor, which brings the individual to process more
or less information - other individual characteristics play a role in the attitude that the
individual could have towards advertisements with sexual characteristics. We cite:
- age (Loroz, 2006- for instance emphasized the existing differences between Y
generation and Baby boomers),
- gender (men would seem to have a positive attitude towards the presence of nude (or
sexy) female models, and to have an opposite negative or neutral attitude towards the
presence of nude (or sexy) male models, and is inversely for women, see Lombardot
2002),
- masculinity or femininity (especially about advertisements focused on an image or
utilitarian aspect, see Chang, 2006).
Research question
None of this, however, gives us much information about the differences which can exist
between countries.
Ford, La Tour, and Clarke (2004) are clear that the perception of nudity in advertising varies
in a significant way between the countries they studied (China, India, Singapore, USA). The
qualitative study carried out by Lass et Hart (2004) in Germany, Italy and the UK comes as
same in this sense, whilst pointing out that the gender and consumers’ values also play an
important role whatever the country.
It would therefore seem that practices can be relatively homogeneous in some cases. Dianoux,
Kettnerová, and Linhart (2007) showed in a review based on the ten most-issued journals in
the Czech Republic and in France, for the five main market segments (seniors, ladies, men,
teenagers, businessmen), that no difference can be noticed in terms of quantity, and that the
usage of nudity remains marginal in the two countries (see Table 1).
4
Table 1: Comparison of the Content of French and Czech advertisements
(N=577 Advertisements except for (1) N=361 Advertisements)
France
Indoor Environment
77%
Female Presence (1)
78%
Use of a celebrity (1)
16%
Use of Nudity (1)
3.4%
Information with at least 6 characteristics
13%
Czech
88%*
75%
19%
2.9%
27%*
* Significantly different at p < .05 (Chi² test)
Considering such homogeneous practices, the hypothesis that we are naturally brought to do
is that practices are equivalent, and the efficiency of this executional cue seems to be similar
in the two countries.
Considering these contradictory hypotheses, which seem to implicate an incidental approach
due to the culture of the studied countries, we will try to verify if some differences exist
between the two countries (Czech Republic and France) about the attitude towards the
advertisement, and consequently also about the attitude towards the brand, based on the
principle that the advertisement has an influence on the brand (Mitchell et Olson, 1981 ;
Shimp, 1981).
To vary the study context, we will compare these results to those of Spain. This country has
shown us its high sensibility towards the provocative advertisement, by its reaction to the
Dolce & Gabbana clothes collection in February 2007 (mentioned in the introduction), which
led to the cancellation of this European campaign.
Methodology
The experiment is developed around the following four main principles: choice of media,
support of sample, of advertisement, and organization of experimentation.
Choice of media support
The advantage of the magazine advertising media is that it allows two fundamental elements,
which are expected to influence the message processing (McInnis et al., 1991):
-
-
the opportunity: according to Chaiken and Eagly (1976) “One strategy for controlling
encoding speed is to use print media. Print enables consumers to process brand
information at their own pace”. They also found enhanced comprehension of a
difficult message with print versus broadcast media (see also Andreoli and Worchel
1978; Wright 1981);
the ability: Lang and Lanfear (1990) report research indicating that “both print and TV
messages with (vs. without) narrative structures enhance comprehension and message
recall”.
Choice of sample
The selection of a well chosen sample of students has the major advantage of observing
individuals from each country homogeneous enough and easy enough to compare. From
another point of view, the usage of nudity in advertising targeted at young people is very
common and facilitates the processing of results. Finally, from point of view of external
validity, if we observe differences between countries in this kind of sample (generally
consideration is more international), there is a high probability that we would observe the
same phenomena, as well as more frequently cited phenomena, in other categories of
5
individuals. The converse therefore is that, in the opposite case (no differences between
groups), it is difficult to extrapolate the results.
Choice of advertisement
There are many studies which consider the different attitudes, which could be generated when
there was coherence between the product and the usage of nudity (e.g.|: shower gel) or noncoherence (e.g.: car). We will focus here on the second option, which is in keeping with the
logic of our research question, and permits us to examine the eventual differences between
countries. The choice of the product was a mobile phone, which may be expected to interest
the whole sample whatever the country and gender of the individuals, represents a product
needed by most people, and with no direct or indirect link with nudity.
Regarding the brand, we have focussed on an international brand, operating in all three
countries: Nokia. For the case of simplicity, we have taken an advertisement of the brand, to
which we added either a picture of a topless lady or of her face only (see annex 1). Nudity
could refer to a natural image (a child, an angel in the church, etc. …) or an erotic image. We
have focussed here on the erotic character, which is the most frequently studied and
corresponds to our topic. Knowing in addition that several forms of nudity are possible, we
have retained the higher level of the scale, which was proposed by Triandis (1995) that ranges
from 0 = “no sexual appeal/fully clothed” to 4 = “nudity with bare bodies, wearing translucent
underapparel or lingerie, poses where the model wears only a towel.”
Organisation of experimentation
The two experimental advertisements (topless or face) were inserted in a 12-page folder,
which, whatever the country, contained:
-endpaper entitled “Campus” not necessitating a translation
-page 2: a ½ page advertisement for women’s clothes (advertiser: YSL) and another ½
page advertisement for a car (advertiser: Smart)
-page 3 : an article on a scientific subject
-page 4: a ½ page advertisement for a drink (advertiser: Coca-Cola) and a ½ page
article on the history of the brand name
-page 5a: a ½ page article offering architectural information concerning the sample
region (Prague, Valence or Metz) and an experimental advertisement for Nokia on the
other half of the page.
-page 5b: a full page experimental advertisement for Nokia
-page 6: information on Erasmus grants
-page 7: information on Erasmus grants
-page 8: information on possible activities to do in the sample region (Prague,
Valence, or Metz)
-page 9: a full page advertisement on plane trips (advertiser: Air Europa)
-page 10: advertisements on various training courses
-page 11: an information page for students
-page 12: an advertisement for a film (Ice Age)
Thus a total of 10 different advertisements (4 one quarter page advertisements, 3 half page
advertisements, and 2 full page advertisements, plus the experimental advertisement).
Although the endpaper and the advertisements were totally identical in the three countries
(except of course the texts, which were translated), the articles were talking about similar
subjects but not totally identical because it was necessary to adapt the content to each country.
6
The two folders were submitted to two samples of students in each of the three countries
according the following experimentation plan:
Czech
Republic
Nokia advertisement with topless lady
Nokia advertisement with face of the lady
Total
87
92
179
Spain
84
85
169
France
88
78
166
Total
259
255
514
The delivery of the experimental journal folder was accompanied by the following comment:
“We are testing a new shape of journal, which could become the journal for campus students.
Before finalizing this shape, we would like your advice on its shape and content. We will give
you a few minutes to have a look on it (10 minutes exactly). Then we will ask you some
questions about it”.
The experimentation proceeded as follows:
- after 10 minutes of reading the journal, students were requested to close the journal
and answer the first part of questionnaire including particularly questions about
memorization and the intention to buy
- When everybody had finished the answers of the first part, they were requested to
open the folder once more, look attentively at the experimental advertisement, then to
answer questions in the second part of questionnaire: the attention concerning the
advertisement (Lombardot, 2005), affective reactions (Derbaix, 1995), attitude
towards the advertisement (Falcy, 1997), trust in quality and attitude (like this Nokia
mobile phone), and intention to buy. Then this questionnaire was concluded by
questions measuring individual implications of respondents towards mobile phones
(Kapefer et Laurent, 1986). In fact, in a high involvement situation, the efficiency of
advertising depends mostly of arguments of the advertisement, so arguments are
generally less important then the high involvement. In the low involvement situation,
efficiency is mostly linked to the ‘sympathy’ felt towards the advertisement
(developed for example by a sexy model) and to the broadcast frequency (Moser,
1998).
First results
Although some complementary processing was indispensable to permit more detailed
understanding of the differences between the countries, the first results have already given
some answers to some parts of the questions. Among the three fundamental variables on
which the advertisement is likely to have an effect: memorization, attitude toward the
advertisement, and brand, it is interesting to note differences between countries concerning
memorization and attitude towards the advertisement. This could be explained by the more
particular attention of the French and Spanish towards the advertisement because of its
sensual attractivity. We can observe in Table 2 that French people, who have best assisted
memorisation of the over promoted brand Nokia, are also those who consider the
advertisement with the naked topless lady the most sensual. They have given more attention
to the advertisement (with or without the picture of the topless lady). The observation of the
spontaneous memorisation also shows similar results even though non-significant.
Conversely, with regards to the attitude towards the brand, we can notice no difference
between the countries, whether the group of people were exposed to the advertisement
showing the topless lady, or not.
7
Table 2: Differences between countries concerning nudity in advertisement
Naked woman
Face woman
Averages of scales
CR France Spain
CR France Spain
Q8b- Can you mark which brands of phones you
have seen in the advertisement
Q10c- I have paid attention to this ad when reading
the journal
Q12h- This advertisement is sensual
Q6c- Spontaneous mention of Nokia as being a
brand that was the object of an advertisement in
the folder
119
139
130
N=259 – pc= 0.041
89
150
150
N= 259 - pc= 0.000
105
142
142
N=259 - pc= 0.001
77%
89%
86%
126
135
121
N=254 – pc=0.302
93
156
136
N= 253 - pc= 0.000
135
113
133
N= 255 – pc= 0.099
79%
88%
74%
Chi²=4,9 – df=2 –pc=0.086
Chi²=4,6 – df=2 – pc=0.097
Kruskall Wallis test except of Q6c Chi²
Reading Table 2 more closely it is seen that differences between countries exist whatever the
kind of advertisement, except with regard to assisted memorisation. These results then bring
us to think that it is not the stimuli variation used in the advertisement which provokes these
differences, but, more fundamentally, the differences belonging to each nation. Table 3
confirms this argumentation by showing that, when we observe the scores of each
advertisement in each of the three countries, the tendencies are exactly the same concerning
the advertisement (we have only taken in the table the significant differences and a trust
threshold of 95%).
Table 3: The most significant items of country attitudes towards advertisement
Czech Republic
France
Spain
Averages of scales
Naked
Face
Naked
Face
Naked
Face
Q12b- this ad appeals more to feelings
than to reason
103
63
N= 166 – pc=0.000
92
56
N=151 – pc=0.000
96
61
N=158 – pc=0.000
Q12c- Information is satisfactory
Q12d- advertisement is kind of
unusual (CR), usual (SP, FR)
83
83
N=166 – pc=0.922
101
65
N=166 – pc=0.000
67
84
N=150 – pc=0.015
84
67
N=152 – pc=0.017
71
87
N=158 – pc=0.026
102
53
N=158 – pc=0.000
Q12e- information seems to be
objective
72
94
N=166 – pc=0.002
67
86
N=151 – pc=0.008
69
89
N=158 – pc=0.005
Q12f- message is convincing
74
92
N=166 – pc=0.014
80
86
N=166 – pc=0.438
69
84
N=152 – pc=0.032
90
60
N=152 – pc=0.000
69
89
N=158 – pc=0.004
86
71
N=158 – pc=0.037
Q12h- ad is sensual
Finally, it would appear that it might be rather the gender of the individual which influences
the attitude towards the advertisement. Table 4 illustrates it perfectly, as many more men
clearly prefer the advertisement with the topless lady and think her pleasant to look at, whilst
we can notice exactly the opposite for the ladies.
Table 4 : The most significant items of attitudes on advertisement towards gender
Men
Women
Averages of scales
Naked
Face
Naked
Face
Q12a- generally, I like this
advertisement
Q12g- this advertisement is nice to
look at
128
104
N=234 – pc=0.006
136
94
N=234 – pc=0.000
8
91
150
N=241 – pc=0.000
96
145
N=241 – pc=0.000
Conclusion
Maciejewski (2004) has shown that ladies clearly have a more negative attitude than men
towards advertisements with sexy modelling women (from the kind of scale “It is right to use
appeals involving sex when selling sunscreen”), and that this is independent of the
philosophic opinions of the individuals. We can see here that it is not only the attitude of
women to sexual messages which differs from men’s attitudes; there are other indicators
which also differ between the countries studied.
Beyond the fact that these results are worthy of deeper statistical investigations to detail
relationships, four main limitations should be emphasised:
- The kind of product chosen here doesn’t naturally justify the use of nudity. What
would happen in the case of a product more coherent with nudity?
- We only studied here the reactions to female nudity; it will be also interesting to study
male nudity which, with the exception of some rare studies, has never really been
investigated, despite the fact that it seems to be growing more common in recent
times. (Elliott and Elliott, 2005) ;
- The choice of known brand would be justified for the previous reasons, therefore we
could repeat this kind of experimentation with a totally unknown brand and chosen
differently in each country
- The selection of a sample of students may have erased the regional differences.
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