Consumer reactions to nudity in print advertising: Comparing same-gender and opposite-gender effects

Abstract

It is often assumed that exposure to nude stimuli in advertising influences consumer behavior positively. However, the empirical evidence concerning the effects of nudity on consumer reactions is inconclusive. The goal of this study is to disentangle the effects of opposite-gender and same-gender nudity on female and male consumers' reactions. This study, thereby, offers a framework for the appropriate choice of seminude or fully clothed human stimuli based on advertisers' objectives and consumer–model gender interactions. The empirical data were derived from a large-scale market research initiative from Germany with 61,399 consumer evaluations of 147 real ads from 16 product categories. Female consumers show positive same-gender results for both seminude and fully clothed female models, indicating strong homophily, but nonsignificant opposite-gender effects on information search, positive attitude change, integration of brand into consideration set, and purchase intentions. In contrast, male consumers demonstrate a significantly positive and equally strong influence of opposite-gender and same-gender seminude stimuli on all of the four variables.