Ad- Dawn

Media type: Ad

Concept source: Dawn

A popular phrase we’ve heard at one time or another, whether you’re business savvy or not, is that “sex sells.” The over sexualizing and dramatization of women in advertisements has been a popular and ongoing advertising tactic in all forms of media. This Burger King ad is an example of that. It gives the explicit, not so hidden innuendo of a sexual act in order to sell a sandwich. Sandwiches are not inherently sexual. There isn’t a direct need to sexualize a sandwich to get the idea of the product across. However, Burger King did just that.

If the ad photo itself wasn’t uncomfortable enough, the unwitting star of the ad came out to say her image was stolen online and that she never agreed to do the suggestive pose for their campaign. "Burger King found my photo online from a series I did of various facial expressions and contortion poses, and with no due regard to me as a person, profited off reducing me to an orifice for their penis sludge; publicly humiliating me in the process," she writes in her YouTube video explanation.

This continues the commentary of women's bodies used for pleasure and seen as objects. The idea that “sex sells” surrounds our society with constant images of women being valued based on their physical worth, not what they can intellectually contribute. These advertising schemes are part of the inequality issue we have today.

Burger King. It'll Blow Your Mind away. 2009. Burger King Restaurants, 2009.

Dawn, Jessica. "Sex Sells, But Should It?" Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, vol. 9,

   no. 1, 2006.

Nudd, Tim. "Unwitting Star of Burger King’s ‘Blow Job Ad’ Finally Lashes Out at the Company."

   AdWeek, 7 Aug. 2014, www.adweek.com/creativity/

   unwitting-star-burger-kings-blow-job-ad-finally-lashes-out-company-159347/. Accessed 17 Nov.

   2018.