Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Those Burgers Have a “Come Hither” Look

The old advertising mantra asserts "sex sells." Well, sort of.

According to the Journal of Consumer Behaviour, a study of 348 men, aged 17 to 39, demonstrated that when they watched videos of women in bikinis or when they fondled lingerie (presumably not their own), they were much more impatient to receive other stimuli, such as money, junk food, or soda.

"It seems that sexual appetite causes a greater urgency to consume anything rewarding," said the fun-loving Belgian authors Bram Van den Bergh, Siegfried DeWitte, and Luk Warlop.

I could be wrong, but I think the results say more about frustration than about stimulation. The guys were just diverting themselves from what they really wanted but (at that moment at least) couldn't have. Perhaps we should amend the old adage to read "thwarted sex sells."

By the way, I don’t know why women were left out of the study, nor would I hazard a guess as to what the results would be were they included.

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