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Sex sells everything

Posted in Advertising, Mel Varley, Latest reporters' blogs October 25th, 2007 by Melinda Varley

I was surprised to see the press pictures that Singapore Airlines released to promote its Airbus 380 – double beds laden with rose petals and chocolates.

It seems the airline is offering passengers an easy way to join the ever desirable, yet impossible to join, Mile High Club.

Passengers who splash out the £4000 per person to have the luxury, can shut the blinds and doors and enjoy “total privacy” during their flight, in which they can chose from up to 1500 in-flight movies and even wine and dine with a five course gourmet meal.

Airbus first began studies into creating a large 500 seat airliner in the early 1990s. The European manufacturer saw developing a competitor and successor to the Boeing 747 as a strategic ploy to end Boeing’s dominance of the large airliner market.

Airbus began engineering development work on such an aircraft in June 1994. The aircraft sought parts from all over Europe and was manufactured in France - taking a good 13 years to complete.

The A380 is one of the most exciting developments that aviation has seen since the Concorde, but why are we choosing to sell its seats based on sex, and not this miracle of flight and engineering?

Sex really does sell, but does it undermine the true worth what is being sold and make it seem, a little less special?