Is It Sex Sells or Controversy Sells?

Via Neville Hobson in Amsterdam comes this post titled, “Sex Sells.” It is about a calendar in Australia promoting the IT profession for women. It stirs the age-old debate about whether sex sells or whether it is appropriate to use content like this for marketing purposes.

If you want to get to heart of the matter, it is controversy that sells, and sex is a subject that often creates controversy. In a message-saturated world, controversy shakes us to attention. Howard Stern knows this…along with people like Madonna, Paris Hilton, and scores of others. Companies like Benneton and Abercrombie & Fitch know it, too. I am not endorsing these people and organizations or their tactics, but if the purpose of marketing is to sell, many have learned that controversy gets you noticed and that often translates into dollars.

Getting 3.5 million people to your site (store) is one way to sell calendars, and the more controversy it creates the more calendars they’ll probably sell.