Repurposing sex appeal advertising style attributes for creative development of awareness campaign on behavioral change.

Abstract

Advertising has become part and partial of our daily lives, shaping our social, cultural, economic and political decisions. The study explored how sex appeal advertising style attributes through a design process, can be repurposed for use in the development of awareness campaign for a behavioural change to address issues like HIV/AIDS, alcohol, substance abuse, depression among millennials (Gen.Z). Various advertising styles have been explored by advertisers with sex appeal style known to be the most engaging style and often preferred because of fulfilling fantasies (Gould, 1994). The qualitative case study focused on already existing sex appeal adverts online, print and digital to assess the magnitude of sex appeal application in Uganda’s advertising space and identified attributes that come with sex appeal adverts in these advertising spaces. The study was conducted around Kampala city in selected areas of Wandegeya, Acacia Avenue-Kololo, Kabalagala, Kansanga road and Jinja road. Purposive sampling was used to identify study areas, media houses, advertising agencies, creative designers, health institutions, and youth organization/hubs. One on one in-depth interviews and Focus Group Discussions were used to gain insights into how meaning is created in design process, the target audience perception, message and interpretation and impact on target audience’s life style and interests. Non participant observation of online live recording of different social events was utilized to understand the target audience behaviours in their social setting. Secondary data helped to identify how sex appeal has been applied in advert spaces and the historical developments. The findings of the study indicate that, Sex appeal adverts' attributes like attractiveness, colour, language, fantasy and fashion come with fascination, surprise, believability, desire and emotionalize strongly with Generational Z. Thus when configured in interactive game it leads to greater cognitive and attitudinal gains to understand, interpret, assess and make a thoughtful judgment about their behaviours and likely consequences. In addition sex appeal attributes when incorporated appropriately in the design process they evoke consciousness of what we value and what we don’t hence developing self-awareness. Keywords: Sex appeal; repurposing; behaviors.