History Main / SexSells

* ''Series/WhosTheBoss'': Tony takes an advertising class and makes a commercial for women's shampoo using a sexy lady coming out of the shower in just a small towel. Then Angela, who actually ''works'' in advertising, points out that his commercial won't actually sell the product because [[MaleGaze it's marketing to men]] [[MisaimedMarketing but the product is for women]].

* ''VideoGame/GoddessOfVictoryNikke'' has a relatively shameless ad campaign that repeatedly reminds its target audience about the game's gorgeous women and third-person shooter combat with [[JigglePhysics jiggly butts and thighs]]. In fact, many of the more common ads are ''censored'' compared to the actual game because they're TooHotForTV.

* [[http://www.xa-xa.org/uploads/posts/1181114139_37720.jpg This]] ad from late 1990s Russia. Woman's buttocks covered with something white (hopefully flour, dough or hoarfrost) and a slogan "Your favourite pelmeshki" (meat dumplings sold frozen). Makes perfect sense, since said dumplings are the stereotypic food of unmarried men who don't like to cook. By the way, the ad agency charged the client extra to cover possible fines for public indecency, but that proved unnecessary. Also worth mentioning that the frozen food company was then owned by a man, who maintains a public image of TheWonka.

* Frequently overlaps with CelebrityEndorsement when the celebrity is a current sex symbol Music/BritneySpears did some ads for Pepsi, and Music/ChristinaAguilera did some ads for Coke.

* ''Franchise/TombRaider'' [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness wasn't this originally]], but after the first game became a big hit, Eidos marketed the later games where Lara would be in provocative poses and other similar situations. It worked well enough to make the games sell millions.

* These [[https://www.ranker.com/list/dirty-video-game-ads/nathandavidson old sexual video game advertisements]] used to be a trend, using scantily-clad women or VulgarHumor to attract people to these "toys", including some for the ''UsefulNotes/GameBoy''! You know, Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s supposed to be family-friendly...

* In a similar vein, the Brazil-made ''VideoGame/ProEvolutionSoccer'' "Bomba Patch" mods for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 are almost always marketed ([[DigitalPiracyIsEvil illegally]]) with a bikini girl, who has nothing to do with the game (unless they decide to put more such pictures on the menu backgrounds, which would still be within the trope's scope), on the cover for this very reason.

** It's well-known for the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jfzh2s3jlE "she kicks high"]] advertising campaign, which was used to promote it [[UsefulNotes/XBox on Xbox]], along with both the ''[[HotterAndSexier Xtreme Beach Volleyball]]'' spin-offs.

-->"That's just so more people will pay attention to what's happening on ''Enterprise''," said Archer. "It's a basic principle that any space program can't exist without public support and media interest. Starfleet is calling it the [[JustForPun Prime Time Directive]]."

-->"That's just so more people will pay attention to what's happening on Enterprise," said Archer. "It's a basic principle that any space program can't exist without public support and media interest. Starfleet is calling it the [[JustForPun Prime Time Directive]]."

* ''Fanfic/TriptychContinuum'': ''[[Recap/TriptychContinuumThreeHundredAndSixtyDegreesOfSaturation Three Hundred And Sixty Degrees Of Saturation]]'': How the shower that starts the plot is advertised, with a mare using it:

** It's well-known for the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jfzh2s3jlE "she kicks high"]] advertising campaign, which was used to promote it [[UsefulNotes/XBox on Xbox]], along with both the ''[[HotterAndSexier "Xtreme Beach Volleyball"]]'' spin-offs.

* ''VideoGame/EverQuest'' is probably best known for the scantily-clad elf woman on the box. Her name is Firiona Vie, and although she's technically a big deal in the game's lore, she's also pretty much LadyNotAppearingInThisGame. ''VideoGame/EverQuestII'' went the same direction with Antonia Bayle. However, roughly about 2009 [=SoE=] deliberately phased out the sexy cover art for their games.

* ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'': This trope got discussed in Lewis's review of ''All Star Batman And Robin'', where he says that, in fact, this trope isn't true because if it was, ASBAR would be a best seller rather than a total flop. ''Porn'' sells, but simply inserting gratuitous fanservice in the form of scantily clad female characters into a mainstream comic book will not make up for the book being otherwise awful.
* {{Website/Cracked}} {{discussed}} this trope [[http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_658_if-sex-was-used-to-advertise-everything/ here.]] Turns out that there are... [[{{Squick}} things where this doesn't work]].
** Invoked in their 2014 Halloween series, ''[[http://www.cracked.com/video_19158_monster-management-new-series-trailer.html Monster Management:]]'' Chet and Aisha are two marketers who reboot and meet with monsters for a living. They keep trying to reboot them as sexy {{AntiHero}}es. They even do this to revive Frankenstein('s monster) after ''Film/IFrankenstein'', saying that him being {{shirtless| scene}} and [[AdaptationalAttractiveness handsome]] in that movie was a bad idea and [[HypocriticalHumor then advising him to do exactly that]].
* Creator/BrianDavidGilbert parodies this trope in the video [[https://youtu.be/wwE1fZmIkss "Don't Tell Your Wife About This Game!"]], which parodies these kinds of mobile game ads and the demographics that it appeals to. It is then deconstructed and PlayedForDrama when the person it's tantalizing is in an unhappy marriage and wants to use the game as a distraction instead of breaking the relationship off.

--> Mr. King turned to face the audience in a parody of her stance, muscles clenched tightly, gripping his mic with both hands, knuckles white, "I feel like I've been locked up tight, for a century of lonely nights… no wonder you're locked up, you look constipated! You're probably in hospital for a ruptured bowel. THIS IS A PERFORMANCE! MOVE! You're a girl, for God's sake, move that ass, baby!"
--> Mr. King span and wiggled his ass at the audience for emphasis, "Strut that stuff, girl! If you've got it, flaunt it! Sex sells. If you think [[Music/ChristinaAguilera Christina]] got where she was on her voice alone, you are sadly mistaken.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Upon arriving to Paris, Agatha is dismayed to discover that her image is quite popular on posters advertising for various products -- said illustrations being very often scantily clad. Up to one advert for [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20150626 Turkish drinking chocolate]] where she's wearing nothing but a ModestyTowel.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' fic ''Fanfic/HerFracturedSpirit'', Callie and Marie's first hit single was "Ink Me Up". It's suggestive title caused them to be put in the limelight.

* In "Literature/TheRepublicOfShkid", two students attempt to create a toy cinema (or, rather, a slide show) for entertainment. At first, it's quite popular among other students, but once they decide to charge money, the amount of visits drops dramatically. So they decide to make an adult movie. People do come, a lot of them... but the next day, they are reported to the headmaster.
* Common in works of Creator/StanislawLem, especially humorous and satirical ones. For example in ''The Washing Machine Tragedy'' (from ''[[Literature/TheStarDiaries Memoirs of a Space Traveler]]'') washing machine makers start with giving their machines sexy voices and rudimentary AI, but the competition quickly leads to sexy robotic maids who start, ahem, to [[TheOldestProfession provide other services]] (as well as seduce children and rob banks).
* An accidental version in ''Literature/SpitfireGirls'' by Carol Gould. An aviatrix is pitching the idea of using female pilots for ferry duties. As she leads some VIP-s around the airfield, one of them barges through a door without knocking and sees a pretty pilot [[ShowSomeLeg with her skirt hitched up]], adjusting her suspenders. Later she muses that the flash of garter might have been more effective in gaining a supporter than anything she might have said.

* An in-story example can be seen in ''Series/QueerAsFolk'' with Brian Kinney being the [[InformedAbility supposedly great commercial producer]], though he's largely a one-trick pony. Selling booze? Use the sex angle. Selling Viagra? The sex angle. A charity carnival? Make it sexy. ''A Republican campaign''? [[BlondeRepublicanSexKitten Use the sex angle]]! It isn't the only approach he uses, however; it's just the one that works best.

* On ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'', Shawn gets a job as the assistant to an advertising executive and is asked to come up with ideas from a toothpaste campaign. Shawn think of a "sexy fresh breath" campaign but Cory recommends he choose a bacteria-based campaign because "sex does not sell". Shawn of course chooses the sexy breath one which the boss ends up liking.

* Lampshaded when an episode of ''Series/TopGearUK'' has Clarkson and May make commercials for a VW Scirocco Diesel. Setting up a scene, Clarkson tells an attractive actress she should be wearing a bikini. Then, he remembers they're supposed to be filming a funeral scene; he immediately changes it to "a black bikini."
* In ''Series/TheITCrowd'', the episode "Calendar Geeks" features this trope prominently. Roy manages to talk the women of the seventh floor into doing a nude calendar as a fundraiser for "boss-eyed-ness", [[BlatantLies selflessly]] offering to be the photographer. Jen gets offended when she finds out, since she views nude calendars as sexist and degrading, so she persuades the women to change the plan and sell a calendar of their grandmothers instead. Unfortunately, by this point [[AllMenArePerverts Douglas]] has learned about the original plan and informs Jen that she's now responsible for getting the calendar to raise a million pounds. Jen, realizing that grannies don't sell nearly as well as sex, desperately turns to Moss and his friends in an attempt to cash in on the "geek chic" trend.
* ''Series/ForAllMankind''. When the [[AlternateHistory Soviets put the first woman on the Moon]], the Nixon administration insists that NASA put their own woman up there, preferably someone pretty and [[EveryoneLovesBlondes blonde]]. They're not happy when [[TheLadette Molly Cobb]] is selected, despite her being the best candidate.
* Parodied in ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', where the ad Jerry's GirlOfTheWeek was modeling for featured her getting out of the shower with nothing but a towel... and the jeans she was advertising ''way'' in the corner on a chair. Jerry had to squint to see them.
* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' featured a sensual parody commercial for the real estate site Zillow that was shot like an ad for a sex hotline, with the justification that people in their late thirties get more aroused by looking at their dream houses. That is, until they contact the obnoxious agent and she snaps them into reality.

* ''VideoGame/{{EverQuest}}'' is probably best known for the scantily-clad elf woman on the box. Her name is Firiona Vie, and although she's technically a big deal in the game's lore, she's also pretty much LadyNotAppearingInThisGame. ''VideoGame/{{EverQuest II}}'' went the same direction with Antonia Bayle. However, roughly about 2009 [=SoE=] deliberately phased out the sexy cover art for their games.

* ''Franchise/TombRaider'' [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness wasn't this originally]], but after the first game became a big hit, Eidos marketed the later games where Lara would be in provocative poses and other similar situations. It worked well enough to make the games sell millions.
* ''BMX XXX'' tried very hard to market itself to the "horny straight male" demographic that people imagine makes up most gamers, with nudity and erotic content (such as the option to play as a topless woman, and unlockable videos of strippers) added to the game at the last minute in a desperate attempt to boost sales. Despite this, the game flopped to the point where it was [[CreatorKiller one of the titles that pushed]] the already struggling [[Creator/{{Acclaim}} Acclaim Entertainment]] to bankruptcy, and Dave Mirra disowned himself from the project.
* Exaggerated in ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077''. One ad showed nothing but a naked woman holding her breasts out for two dogs in front of her. This was for ''dog food''.

* [[InvokedTrope A big part of Satsuki's plot]] in ''VisualNovel/KoiToSenkyoToChocolate'' revolves around her getting in a fight with the rest of the student council over their decision to base her campaign for president around her [[BuxomBeautyStandard beauty and buxom figure]] as opposed to her diligence, intelligence, and competence as an administrator.

* {{Website/Cracked}} {{discussed}} this trope [[http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_658_if-sex-was-used-to-advertise-everything/ here.]] Turns out that there are... [[{{Squick}} things where this doesn't work]].
** Invoked in their 2014 Halloween series, ''[[http://www.cracked.com/video_19158_monster-management-new-series-trailer.html Monster Management:]]'' Chet and Aisha are two marketers who reboot and meet with monsters for a living. They keep trying to reboot them as sexy {{AntiHero}}es. They even do this to revive Frankenstein('s monster) after ''Film/IFrankenstein'', saying that him being {{shirtless| scene}} and [[AdaptationalAttractiveness handsome]] in that movie was a bad idea and [[HypocriticalHumor then advising him to do exactly that]].

** Oddly, the real Melinda Lou "Wendy" Thomas--who goes by her married name Morse--started showing up in commercials for the company in around 2010, even though the "perky sexy Wendy" was still very much on the airwaves. This was especially odd because Wendy Morse was at this point in her late 40s-early 50s, is built like her father was, and otherwise looks like a pretty typical suburban mom.[[note]]''exactly'' like a suburban mom, despite inheriting a substantial part of her father's multimillion-dollar fortune and owning over 30 Wendy's franchises; a Wendy's franchise typically has million-dollar cashflow, so you do the math[[/note]] These tend to focus on the freshness of the ingredients, rather than the "young Wendy" commercials, which flog specific meals. Sometimes these commercials air back-to-back, particularly when the real Wendy commercial is pitching the chain's promotions involving [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Thomas_Foundation_for_Adoption the adoption charity her father started.]]

** Oddly, the real Wendy Thomas--who goes by her married name Morse--is in her 50s, is built like her father was, and otherwise looks like a pretty typical suburban mom[[note]]''exactly'' like a suburban mom, despite inheriting a substantial part of her father's multimillion-dollar fortune and owning over 30 Wendy's franchises; a Wendy's franchise typically has million-dollar cashflow, so you do the math[[/note]]--started appearing in commercials in 2010-11, and these ads have continued to air alongside the "perky young Wendy" spots. These tend to focus on the freshness of the ingredients, rather than the "young Wendy" commercials, which flog specific meals. Sometimes these commercials air back-to-back, particularly when the real Wendy commercial is pitching the chain's promotions involving [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Thomas_Foundation_for_Adoption the adoption charity her father started.]]

* The advertisements and box art for ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X3: Reunion]]'' featured [[LadyNotAppearingInThisGame a woman in a somewhat revealing costume]]. The kicker is ''X3'' is a space trading and combat sim notorious for its 'cockpits-eye view' even when docked at a station. Excluding a couple of cutscenes, the player literally never interacts face-to-face with any other characters, including the box-art woman.

* ''Anime/VariableGeo'': This is the reason for the tournament's overwhelming popularity. [[JustForFun/ComeForTheXStayForTheY The audience gets to watch hot waitresses duke it out in the ring]], then gets [[ShamefulStrip a free strip show afterward]]. And, at level-1, the audience [[spoiler:gets a live sex show, since the loser has to [[ADateWithRosiePalms perform for the crowd]]]].

* Reebok normally sells sneakers. Then they created the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDVB4881c2I EasyTone]], a shoe that supposedly strengthens and tones the wearer's legs and buttocks,[[note]][[https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2011/09/reebok-pay-25-million-customer-refunds-settle-ftc-charges-deceptive-advertising-easytone-runtone Yes, it was too good to be true.]][[/note]] and decided to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCNAlSnYOko sell sex instead.]]

** Ringo from ''VideoGame/TouhouKanjudenLegacyOfLunaticKingdom'' showed, very slightly, [[BareYourMidriff her midriff]]. Again, a highly unusual occurance for the series.

* Reebok sells sneakers, right? Right. Then they created the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDVB4881c2I EasyTone]] and decided to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCNAlSnYOko sell sex instead.]]

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDzD-UzEn-s One really bizarre commercial]] for Overstock.com had the spokeswoman listing things you could buy on the site in the form of "it's all about the [product or value of the product]" or something along these lines. It's perfectly normal until the very last shot before the logo screen, where the spokeswoman appears to be wearing nothing but a gold necklace for some reason, and saying "But sometimes, it's all about the gold", presumably to emphasize that it really ''is'' [[VisualMetaphor all about the gold]]. When Overstock.com started, they called themselves the big O, and made commercials with the obvious entendre. People thought they were a sex site.

* Seen the 2013 ad for draft king sweepstakes? No idea how they got that past the radar! The guy says very clearly "Derek Bradley went from a guy with holes in his underpants, to bikini models in them!" [[https://youtu.be/W7vQbjn3mR8 watch it here]]. And this aired on national TV and all over Youtube.

* Subverted with ''BMX XXX'', which had nudity and other erotica added to the game at the last minute in a desperate attempt to boost sales. It flopped to the point where it was [[CreatorKiller one of the titles that pushed]] the already struggling [[Creator/{{Acclaim}} Acclaim Entertainment]] to bankruptcy, and Dave Mirra disowned himself from the project.

** Asahi Beer of Japan for example is very prominent example of this. While some model of the year do dress up in bikinis holding beer, some simply opt for more casual clothing, even if they are noted to be bikini models themselves. They finally abandoned this gimmick during the Covid pandemic, with Riho Takada (of ''[[Series/KamenRiderOOO]]'' fame) as the final Asahi Beer model.