Teens are an increasingly attractive market segment for advertisers, as their disposable incomes are growing. Also, teens have an ability to influence the purchase decisions of their parents and friends, and often develop a brand loyalty, which continues into adulthood. Sexual appeals have the ability to get the attention of teens, and may help to sell products to that market segment.

Teens (12 – 17 year olds) are an increasingly important market segment. Product and services targeted on kids now number in the hundreds, and marketing and advertising spending totals billons. The average teen, in turn, spends over $100 per week, mostly on discretionary items.

The research based on 600 advertisements in eight leading magazines that reach teens by Daniel J. Korn have led to certain results. First of all, 20% of the ads reviewed used a form of sexual appeal. However, most of them tended to use light innuendo, humor, and degree of fantasy that create a disconnect with real sexual behavior, and only 0.7% of all the advertisements showed models engaging in erotic behavior. Second, types of products advertised with the help of sex appeal were various including clothing/shoes, perfume/cologne, various toiletries, cars, TV/movies, food/beverage, electronics/video games, and others. Third, female models where more frequently used for sex appeal than male models. This is mirrored in the research on the topic, where both men and women have been shown to act more favorably to female models. Finally, the implications of this finding support the view that current usage of relationships as a sex appeal is ethical. In advertising aimed at teens as in any other advertisements sexual appeal is used to infer that use of the product could make the person sexually attractive. It is a technique to show certain product attributes.

It is important to remember that marketing is, by definition, an exchange. When teens buy a product in exchange for money, they are indicating that said product has an equal or higher value than the price they paid. While some argue it is unfair and unhealthy to advertise at all to teens, purchasing statistics show they are a willing an active participant in the exchange of value. Advertisements are actually an extension of what teens see daily on TV. In this view, advertisements reflect the culture and society, rather than dictate it.

The main resource for the post was the paper "Ethical Judgments of Sexual Appeals in Advertising Image - Based Products to Teens" by Daniel Korn, University of Rhode Island.