Abstract

The third chapter focuses on lust as a sin in consumption in the light of advertising aimed at consumers. Lust is a manifold concept, but in this chapter the most typical form of it, sexual desire, is explored. The chapter reveals how brands and product categories in the fashion and beauty industry use sexual appeals in their magazine advertising. For this purpose, adverts from different magazines are collected and scored in terms of appearance of sexual appeals. Clothing, interaction between people, symbols, and text references are considered as key components in creating impressions of sexual appeal in adverts. There are product category-specific differences, which indicate that the sexual type of lust is seen as a sin in some but not in all sectors of the beauty industry. Overall, lust can be seen as a cultural commodity that is essential when creating desire for products in consumer marketing.