Sex sells: how porn and digital dating transformed an advertising cliché As taboos about online porn break down and new generations of singles see dating sites and apps as their first stop in the search for love, marketers have spotted an opportunity. These digital venues have become the next logical place for advertising to grow and reach an expanding audience. In the process, they have changed our thinking about the adland mantra "sex sells". Think about it. Our daily lives are punctuated by regular virtual interactions. Statisticians say we’re having less actual sex, but our online lives include a huge chunk of sex-linked ‘activity’. Guilty secrets Cue the rise of advertising via dating apps or porn sites. This is big news for the mainstream media, with porn-site (and even dating-app) advertising by ‘regular’ brands virtually guaranteed blanket press coverage, as fashion brand Diesel has shown this year by running a campaign on Pornhub and Grindr. The last taboo? Advertising on porn sites is certainly not going to hit the mainstream any time soon.
Smartphones Are Making Generation Z More Isolated and Depressed Today’s teenagers are more sheltered and less independent than previous generations, and the shifts correspond with the mainstreaming of smartphones around 2012. Instead of going out with friends and looking for every chance to get away from their parents, the post-Millennial generation is staying in and Snapchatting—and it’s making them less happy. The statistics, as outlined by social psychologist Jean Twenge for The Atlantic, are alarming. Today’s twelfth graders spend less time out of the house without their parents than eighth graders did in 2009. Today’s teenagers are also working less than their predecessors. Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter. Of course, many parents might heave a sigh of relief that their kids aren’t out carousing, and some side-effects, like a drop in teen pregnancies, are positive. Twenge says the evidence linking the problem to smartphones “could not be clearer.” The consequences for these kids, Twenge says, will be long-term.
Why Have Pop Stars Become So Hyper-Sexualized? | Huffington Post “Beyonce is a woman who is not surrounded by 100 different people telling her what to do.” The discussion surrounding the hyper-sexualization of the music industry is much more complex than pointing out that everyone is wearing thongs now. Things have certainly gotten sexier. “I have two kids, so the normalization of the hyper-sexualization is troubling to me,” she told HuffPost Entertainment. In writing “Beyond The Lights,” Prince-Bythewood was very interested in the way personas are formed, especially for young female artists. “If you are not fully formed yet and you come out with a specific persona, you lose your sense of self,” she said. Prince-Bythewood did a lot of research before setting out to create “Beyond The Lights.” “I was very fortunate to be able to speak with a number of singers who were very honest with me. As Prince-Bythewood sees it, there are some highly sexualized performers who aren’t succumbing to anything at all. Also on HuffPost: Celebrity Photos: July 2015
The Kids Are Not Alright - Anxiety & Depression at All Time High - D. Knight Marketing & Consulting Group Last week all the press was covering the presidential election wall-to-wall. I was both surprised and encouraged that TIME Magazine chose not to report on the upcoming election but instead utilized prime real estate, their front cover to raise the awareness of Adolescent Anxiety and Depression. That move says a lot about the importance of addressing what I like to call a “silent epidemic” in our nation. In a nutshell “The Kids Are Not Alright.” At D. Anxiety and depression in high school kids have been on the rise since 2012. Despite the dramatic rise in teen anxiety and depression, what is more, troubling is the fact that there hasn’t been a corresponding increase in mental health treatment for teens especially in schools where they spend the majority of their time and where teachers bay be able to notice signs that maybe the parents are not seeing. There are many theories about why teens are so stressed out. Social media has also contributed to the anxiety and depression. Like this:
Adblocking could be the best thing for the advertising industry | Media Network For decades the UK has maintained hydroelectric power stations simply to cope with the power surges that come from people switching on kettles during the Coronation Street ad break. Yet we think of adblocking as a new crisis. Marketing people form two extreme groups at the moment. Those who think everything is changing faster than ever and only consider the new and those who feel the changes are small, incremental and we need to base new learning on centuries-old techniques. Adblocking is a good example of this. It’s common to see adblocking discussed as an existential threat to advertisers and publishers. One of the most crucial roles for advertising agencies today is leading a path through what is changing and what is not for clients. Looking back in a few years’ time, we will be amazed that we let our attention become the default way to pay for content and we will be amazed how cheaply it traded. It’s a war on our eyeballs and they feel tired. 1. 2. 3. 4.
How anxiety became a modern epidemic greater than depression Why Sex In Advertising Doesn’t Sell Like It Used To | Linkdex Babevertising has a long and storied history in the Super Bowl, including recent highlights like Bar Refaeli smooching a nerd for GoDaddy, Kate Upton blowing bubbles for Mercedes, and Charlotte McKinney making puns for Carl’s Jr. But Super Bowl 50 was different. In fact, there was a conspicuous absence of babes, other than perhaps Helen Mirren, or Ryan Reynolds and Drake. Why? Mirren’s relative babeworthiness is a debate for another time and place, but it is worth noting her Super Bowl debut came at an intriguing cultural moment in the U.S. Hillary For America Americans are closer to having a woman in the White House than they’ve ever been before. But this cultural backdrop extends well beyond politics to include major moments in sports, entertainment, and media – all with powerful, influential women at their core. Queen Bey Look at Beyoncé, for example. Shake It Off ‘Beauty Doesn’t Take Just One Form’ Babevertising 2.0 Girls, Girls, Girls
How Much Time Do People Spend on Social Media? The amount of time people spend on social media is constantly increasing. Teens now spend up to nine hours a day on social platforms, while 30% of all time spent online is now allocated to social media interaction. And the majority of that time is on mobile - 60% of social media time spent is facilitated by a mobile device. The social media platforms themselves are evolving their tools and options to further attract and engage new audiences (e.g. advent of live-streaming features and 360-degree photos/videos). To give marketers a better understanding of the social media landscape, we calculated the time spent across the most popular social media platforms, projected what it means within a consumer's lifetime, and compared these figures against common daily activities and examples of what can be accomplished with an equivalent amount of time (e.g. walk the Great Wall of China 3.5x, and run 10K+ marathons). Broken down, time spent on social media differs across each platform.
Pornhub Released Insights On Millennial Porn Habits And Millennials Have Some Weird-Ass Porn Habits Last weekend adult video juggernaut Pornhub released a batch of data showing the porn viewing habits of millennials (everyone aged 18-34). The ‘Millennial Porn Watching Habits’ data dump from Pornhub was actually a helluva lot more illuminating that I would have ever expected it to be, providing some insight into millennial behavior (and P-Hub traffic) I never would’ve imagined. Below are some graphs showing the most popular search terms, categories, time spent, and gender differentials of millennials watching adult video on Pornhub…All of this is 100% suitable for work. Like I alluded to before, some of the things Pornhub shared in the press release I received this morning was a tad bit shocking. Well, before I give away too much, here are a few of the charts, graphs, and infographics from PornHub’s ‘Coming of Age: Millennials‘ data dump: Pornhub
Glitter boobs are the hot new beauty trend taking over Glastonbury The weekend has arrived. Glastonbury festival is now at full throttle. Last night, Radiohead performed to chants of Jeremy Corbyn, there's avocado toast everywhere and Ed Balls is wearing combat shorts. David Beckham even planted a tree. There are also glitter boobs. It's a niche beauty trend that has gone more mainstream this year. Glitter boobs, or 'disco t*ts' to some, are easily created, but do take a little time. This cheerful nudist vibe taking off at Glastonbury 2017, probably due to the exceptionally good weather, and the fact the same look proved popular at California’s Coachella festival earlier in the year. Men and women are glittering up their nipples Fashion house Yves Saint Laurent featured glittering breasts in its SS17 show. While some people go it alone, many at Glastonbury are using The Gypsy Shrine, which is one of the companies promoting the trend and helping people get all shiny. Read More Glastonbury 2017 Set the gems with hair spray
The real reason Playboy is getting rid of nude photos Sure, sex sells. As long as it’s free. Earlier this week, Playboy announced that it will do away with full nudity in an effort to rebrand its fallen empire. “The political and sexual climate of 1953, the year Hugh Hefner introduced Playboy to the world, bears almost no resemblance to today,” said Playboy Enterprises CEO Scott Flanders. The shift, however, has little to do with feminist wins and everything to do with finally understanding our digital world and the cost of an outdated business model. Hugh Hefner is widely considered to be the founding father of the sexual revolution – he shocked the world with a nude of cover of Marilyn Monroe in 1953 – but the business model that made Hefner a pioneer is just obsolete. To those of us over the age of say, 40, Playboy once held an almost mystical, forbidden fascination. Hugh Hefner signing copies of the Playboy calendar.Photograph by Ian West — PA Wire/PA Images Fortunately for Playboy, it was never entirely about nudity. Change is necessary
Saint Laurent unveils 'nip slip' dress – a glittery mono-boob outfit for the brave Saint Laurent's new designer Anthony Vaccarello unveiled his new collection at Paris Fashion Week - but it was a singular glitter-adorned nip-slip that got everyone talking. He one-upped the autumn/winter fashion trend for glittering clothes and accessories by featuring a model with her left breast exposed and her nipple covered in heart-shaped glitter. For his spring/summer 2017 debut for the French house, Anthony Vaccarello took on full-frontal fashion with a collection teeming in sheer tops worn sans bra, and while many models sauntered down the Saint Laurent runway with their nipples on full display it was the glitter-covered nipple that made headlines. Model Binx Walton wears a strapless, leather dress with an asymmetric fold that left her breast exposed While other models sauntered down the runway with their nipples on full display it was a singular glitter adorned nip-slip that made headlines (Getty Images) Reuse content