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BMJ 2007; 334 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/sbmj.0705212 (Published 01 May 2007) Cite this as: BMJ 2007;334:0705212

Advertising agencies beware: using sex to sell a product does not work, particularly for women. Researchers divided 60 young adults into four groups (Applied Cognitive Psychology 2007 Jan 26, doi: 10.1002/acp.1325). The first and the third were treated to a raunchy episode of (you guessed right) Sex and the City, and the other two watched Malcolm in the Middle, a programme about a dysfunctional teenage family. In the commercial breaks, the first two groups were shown advertisements with sexual overtones, and the other two saw non-suggestive advertising. The researchers found that participants struggled to remember details of advertising during the programme with sexual content. Secondly, sexual commercials did not register particularly with people, regardless of the programme. Thirdly, for advertising that was recalled, women were more likely to remember the non-sexual advertisements and men the sexual ones. And finally, sex does not sell anything but itself.

Sexy models just don't do it for girls

Birth of semi-identical twins was thought to be a phenomenon confined to few animals. Semi-identical twins are neither identical (the zygote splits in two) nor fraternal (two sperm fertilise two eggs). Scientists recently reported the birth of semi-identical twins in humans, for which the siblings shared all of the maternal genes but only half from their father (Economist 2007 Mar 29). The result was one boy, and the other offspring was a true hermaphrodite, with “ambiguous genitalia”-that is, with female …

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