There is a saying that goes along the lines of “sex sells”. And it’s true. Unfortunately, there are a growing number of ad campaigns and billboards that are both sexually explicit, and emotionally racy. As the popularity for such advertisements seems to be plastering naked women, covered in sweat and men, along our highways and shopping mall windows, you can’t help but notice the transcending theme for the queasy posters that leave little to the imagination. They are inappropriate and extremely unethical.

The question becomes; at what price are we going to continue to exploit the nature of female sexuality? When is this practice crossing the line? I’d say that having an extremely slim, blonde woman on a couch in a scrap piece of material – and topless nonetheless – being groped and sexually advanced on by not one, not two, but three guys, might be traversing over that thin line. Take, for instance, the Calvin Klein Jean advertisement below, published in a Rolling Stone magazine. It’s one-eighth denim, and seven-eighths of vindictive sexual exploitation.

A statistic claims “we are exposed to over 2000 ads a day, constituting perhaps the most powerful educational force in society.” When kids, teenagers, or even adults see advertisements that so blatantly expose women as “things” of sexual desire, we are instilling a gross, and unethical perception of how women should be treated. It is not hard to avoid, let the girl wear a top and some pants, instead of stripping her of her clothes and her individual identity.

Such extreme marketing techniques are concerning, and unethically sound. With a world full of art, culture and music, do we really need sex to still sell?

Calvin Klein Ad featured in the Rolling Stone