DARK SIDE OF ADVERTISING: MEN'S COGNITIVE REACT TO WOMEN'S APPEAL

: Previous studies have stated that the women's appeal has been proven effective in gaining recognition necessary to enhance the popularity. The local gadget store in Bali has proved that the strategy is adequate to gain the name and popularity for their business. However, the findings show that although it succeeds in gaining recognition from society, it does not directly affect the intention to buy. This research attempts to reveal the perception of men towards the women in advertisements and whether it will affect the intention to buy the product offered. The method used for this study was qualitative methodology in phenomenology approach (Creswell, 2013) and data were obtained through semi-structured interviews and indirect observation as the data will be analyzed using the Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) (Arnould & Thompson, 2005). The findings show that the ads do play roles in attracting people to visit the store yet there is an indication where eastern culture also plays a role in perceiving things. In conclusion, women's appeal does prove to be effective in luring people in, but it does not increase the intention to buy.


INTRODUCTION
The previous studies talking about women in advertisement (Das and Sharma, 2016;Zachari et al. 2018;Alam et al. 2019;Hu et al. 2020;Yusop, 2021) stated that sex appeal has been proven effective to raise awareness. In the nature of women has the appeal to make people regardless the gender to turn heads in to the advertisements presented to gain more brand awareness and lure people in to learn more about the product being an advert. Furthermore, presenting women as sexual object in advertisement give a stereotype towards women where they have to portray the body image that exist in the advertisement the kind of campaign involving women still sells though not as strong as before but the aftermath of the action still exists until now. It leads to the sensitivity of women where they witness or being presented with an advertisement campaign that using women sex appeal as their content. The action also took a toll on the youngsters exposed to such a campaign as they might be addicted to such content; sexual and nudity.
Take for an example, the advertisement of car brand 'Hyundai' decide to portray one of their newest product 'Santa Fe' in India (Carodan, 2018), from food and beverages product, 'Sprite' presenting an advertisement for summer with the title 'Sprite shower in Haeundae' (10bit, 2013), another example where back in 2009 a food brand 'Burger King' took sex sells to a whole new level when advertising their one of their newest product (Mertes, 2021). Another example we can see from the local gadget store in Bali. Good ponsel is one of the gadget store in Bali that was established back in 2015, This store has gained recognition and many customers throughout the year; however, in this pandemic situation, they seem to thrive and gain more exposure to society not just local but also nationwide. This is due to Good ponsel that highlighting their Sales Promotion Girls (SPG) in their social media campaign, especially in TikTok and Instagram. The promotional campaign video they put up on one of their social media platforms has gained recognition from people nationwide. Good Ponsel's social media page in Figure 1.
Etika Pariwara Indonesia (2020) states that it is not allowed to explore sexuality in any form. The book also states that women involved in making advertisements must not harass, exploit, objectify, or ornament women to give the impression that they are degrading the nature, dignity, and worth of women. Hence, this phenomenon becomes a concern as they expose the women's sexual appeal to the audience that might give a misperception from the eastern culture point of view as we still perceive women as beautiful, vulnerable, and gracious. Figure. 1 Good Ponsel's social media page as their main subject in an advertisement. In certain situations, the advertisement almost objectifies women (Yusop, 2021). Following the research above, many previous studies have examined this phenomenon from the women or feminist side as shown that women is more emotionally driven hence, the sensitivity when shown a sex appeal advertisement theme (Sarpal, 2015). In contrast to men, they mainly use the cognitive side or the thinking side to take action or react (Trandafilović et al. 2013).
Previous studies have taken women's perceptions and concerns when their appeal is used as stimuli in ads. However, the study still lacks the opposite gender, which is men's perspective towards the ads and how it will affect their consumption pattern. Hence this study seeks to understand it by using the consumer culture theory (CCT) approach to understanding the motivation behind their consumption. CCT previous studies have mentioned where the theory is used to understand deeper the culture exists within the dynamics of consumers and the varieties of their consumption, namely, commercial products, services, experiences, and ideals towards their individual and collective ends.
This study aims to understand men's perspectives towards the advertisement will the advertisement that includes women will lead them to buy the product or to visit the social media page and to grasp whether a good content in social media will generate sales for the business or play role only to raise brand awareness. Academically, this study attempts to enrich the discussion in advertisement topic as well as the discussion regarding consumer culture theory in Indonesia. Practically, this study seeks to be a reference for business perpetrators when they attempt a promotional campaign.

METHODS
Based on the phenomenon of this research, the setting for this research will be focusing in Denpasar and Gianyar. This specific era has been chosen because the brand the writer wishes to look at is based in Denpasar and Gianyar as the gadget store is located on the connecting road between Denpasar and Gianyar, which allows their visitors to come from that area. The informant(s) will be chosen from late adolescence and early adulthood, in which they are will be in between the age of 18 to 30 years old. Moreover, many of them Advertisements must perform two critical tasks: capture attention and convey meaning. Unfortunately, the techniques appropriate for accomplishing one task are often counter Productive for the other. There are two strategies in making advertisements seem reasonable. The first one if to use a stimulus to attract attention and the second one is to tie the message in a topic that people are currently interested in (Mothersbaugh and Hawkins, 2016). To capture one's attention, we need to expose them with the campaign or content we already have, in those content in order to exposure to happen, we have to put the relevant stimulus in the range of the audience's sensory receptor nerves. The relevant stimuli can be the trends occurring in the market or pop culture, and anything can be stimuli as long as it is relevant to the product being promoted and relevant to the society.
Making a promotional campaign such as advertisement is one of the marketing strategies in the form of communicating our product to the customer and there is nothing wrong with it yet, the ICC Codes are based on the core principles of legality, decency, honesty, and truthfulness in all marketing communications. The ICC further emphasizes that "all marketing communications should be prepared with a due sense of social and professional responsibility and should conform to the principles of fair competition, as generally accepted in business. No communication should be such as to impair public confidence in marketing." (International Chamber of Commerce, 2014) and based on Etika Pariwara Indonesia (2020) women can be presented in advertisement with the note that women can't be harassed, exploited, torn apart, or objected to by women to give the impression of degrading the nature, dignity and worth of women.
In practice, marketing needs to be creative and full of imagination to attract customers, not just to stimulate them to purchase. Mothersbaugh and Hawkins (2016) stated that the attention garnered by stimulus factors tends to be relatively automatic by one of the stimuli is attractive visuals. One of the studies concludes that sexual appeal evokes "sexual" emotion that is useful to promote product hence, many advertisers choose sexual appeal to promote that makes, sexual appeals remains effective until this day while the line between forbidden and attractive have crossed several times (Zachrari et al. 2018;Hu, et al. 2020). Other studies also stated due to the attractions possessed by women, there are an unlimited number of organizations exploiting women Framework relating to the women's appeal that will 2. evoke men's reaction; rationally and emotionally that will affect their intention to buy. The informant will be chosen using purposive and 3.
accidental sampling methods. Demographically will be chosen from men's population between 18 to 30 who are actively using social media, namely, TikTok and Instagram. After obtaining the data then the data that has been 4.
obtained will be selected according to the most relevant and interesting

RESULTS
The result of the study was obtained through in-depth interview with men audience in their twenties who are actively using social media and needs to change and take care of their smartphones. These are some interview results regarding the topic of their response to the women's appeal in Good Ponsel advertisement.
Based on the table, the initial informant was five people out of the five informants, three of them were giving an interesting statement regarding this phenomenon (Table 1). Those three statements were chosen due to the criteria considered as different points of view among the informants. The three criteria namely, the informant who visits the store before the TikTok promotional video that referred as informant 3, the informant who visit the store after the TikTok promotional video that referred as informant one and informant who only know and watched the video but never visits the store which referred as informant 4. Following the proposed research framework, we will start to discuss the phenomena from their point of view regarding women in the advertisement, followed by men's reactions towards the ads and finally, whether or not it will affect their purchase behavior for certain goods.
already have purchasing power as they are adequate to attain a job. With that being said, relating to the study's problem, the subject will focus on men age 18 to 30 who already have purchasing power, often accessing their social media that also have an interest in smartphones or any gadget related to it.
The type of data used in this study is qualitative to demonstrate the nature of men's reactions both rationally and emotionally that will affect their consumption based on socio-historic patterning of consumption within consumer culture theory. Creswell (2013), Qualitative research is a situated activity that locates the observer in the world. It begins with assumptions and interpretive or theoretical frameworks that inform the study of research problems addressing the meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem. Specifically, the writer will use the phenomenological study, which describes the common meaning for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or a phenomenon by definition. To this end, qualitative researchers identify a phenomenon (an "object" of human experience; van Manen, 1990). This human experience may be a phenomenon such as insomnia, being left out, anger, grief, or undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery (Moustakas, 1994). The basic purpose of phenomenology is to reduce individual experiences with a phenomenon to a description of the universal essence (a "grasp of the very nature of the thing," van Manen, 1990).
To study this problem, qualitative researchers use an emerging qualitative approach to inquiry, collecting data in a natural setting sensitive to the people and places understudy, and data analysis that is both inductive and deductive and establishes patterns or themes. Therefore, through this method, the writer hopes to capture the perspective from men regarding using women's body as an object in promoting a product or brand. Furthermore, to map out whether good content in social media will simultaneously generate sales or create brand awareness. Hence, the processes are outlined as follows: Face-to-face, in-depth, semi-structured interviews 1.
will be conducted to get a deeper understanding of what will be dominantly affecting the consumption pattern of men; rationality or emotionally? This will be followed by comparing by previous studies and mainly analyzed through the consumer culture theory. In accordance, consumers evaluate advertisement through criteria through three main beliefs: idealism, pragmatism, and relativism (Munjal, 2016). Idealism focuses on mutual understanding of the right and wrong principle, which is straightforward without any ambiguity in understanding an advertisement (Munjal, 2016). Meanwhile, relativism is more on cultural acceptance, which explains that an advertisement may be accepted in one place but rejected in another place (Munjal, 2016). Furthermore, pragmatism depends on the acceptance of the majority of the viewers of the advertisement (Munjal, 2016). Which all three informants show concern on society's idealism and relativism.
"…. ads pinpointing on them, almost like selling them instead the product but when they become an object or whatsoever it's a marketing trick it's not bad nor a mistake to use women but then again if it's overly done, it will be an abuse here in Indonesia, but as long as it still reasonable it's a good thing and there must have been a contract with terms and condition that bound them together." (Informant 1) "There's a stereotype in our society, and women stereotype is that she must not work and she must stay at home and taking care of house chores and I disagree with it. I think women should be able to go to work and still do housework and take good care of their kids. So, I think women should be able to have a job, any job and women in ads I still respect them because it's a good job and as long as it's not bring harm to anyone, I think its fine." (Informant 3) "The job is a good job, but our society's tendency is that women should sit behind the desk in an office. That job is considered a perfect fit job for

Perception of Women as the Object in Ads
Advertising is not limited to television and newspaper only. It evolved, and all media nowadays are all seen as a way to promote and advertise products. People nowadays are getting more occupied than before thus the tendency to focus on one media is lesser (Harrington, et. al, 2010). With that being said, TikTok became one of the social media sources of information that spread faster than ever. Moreover, Ali (2018), including that women used as sex appeal in advertising may increase attraction towards the advertisement but will not create enough awareness towards products or services offered by the marketers. Adding to its women in sex appeal advertisement format was portrayed negatively and clouds women positive potentials, thus reducing women credibility in society's eye (Ali, 2018). Hence, the interview started with their opinion of women in advertisements.
"Women that appears in the advertisement? I still respect them either way, because they choose to be work in that kind of area and one thing is that sometimes if they were objectifying in the ads is I feel bad for them especially if the ads pinpointing on them" (Informant 1) "So, I think women that work as a model in the advertisement I still respect them as they choose to make their own living, women in the vulgar advertisement I think we see it often, and I think, my opinion the content they present is still appropriate for the society but back at it again, it still in my point of view and it different from the others that might perceive it differently and personally, I do not get disturbed by it as long as the content is not explicitly porn." (Informant 3) "As for women that appear in advertising, I think of them as people that making money for their living and there is nothing wrong with that and I do not see them differently" (Informant 4) Based on the previous research using women's sex appeal in advertisements might reduce the positive potential of women itself as most of the advertisements would portray it leaning towards the negative side hence, the clouded judgment of women's credibility. However, one of the informant statements extracted that a person's job does not determine their value or advertisements as long as they're not over doing it, but that's the problem nowadays where everyone is trying to be on top of everyone. In this case making a vulgar content, it's stimulating my empathy, I feel bad for them when I see such things. Like often, it's only women that being an object like that and almost never men who are being treated like that so for me it's just unfair to see it." (Informant 1) The statement, however, does support were using sex appeal in advertisements can immediately attract people's attention. Although, ads with sex as the theme can also be considered as emotional ads, as they evoke "sexual" emotions to attract consumers (Hu et al. 2020). The statement given by Informant 1 does support it but, on the other hand, it also evokes his empathy as it will proceed to something more explicit that leads to abuse. Other statements also stated an intriguing point regarding the topic.
"I was surprised when it was the first time I watch their video, I was dumfounded like they changed a lot since before the pandemic. Like almost questioning why they do such thing to promote themselves because they were already quite popular before, I think. Sure, the video is something that we usually see in tiktok, it's a tiktok dance and the clothes are almost like they were not working. There's a lot of strategy and tactics, and not all of them is lean or "play by the book," so it's hard to perceive a brand only by the tactics they use for promotion. However, in the case of good ponsel, it's dangerous, sih because if they keep on doing this, while initially selling gadgets and phone service, they will be seen as something different. People on the comment section of the social media page think of them (the girls) as something they can rent for a night though, it's from an alter account and I think the good ponsel has reported the comment." (Informant 3) The statement given by the third informant supported the point that using sex appeal in advertisements excessively can make people lose interest and if it is presented negatively, will reduce women's credibility in society (Ali, 2018;Hu et al. 2020). People react differently towards certain stimulation, in this case, women's appeal stimulation used by one gadget store for their promotional video. In the matter of strategy, a woman. However, for me, whatever women do for a

living, I would still respect it because it's their choice and if there's any reason behind it, it's theirs to keep." (Informant 4)
However, there are still blurred lines between what they called abuse or inappropriate when using women as an object in advertisements. In ancient Indonesia's culture, women were perceived as nurturing being as they take care of their family's health (Paramaditha, 2003). It seems that tradition is still carried out until now where few families still believe where women are meant to be staying at home and taking care of house chores. According to the Indonesia Investment newsletter, this tradition is also supported by Indonesia's culture where most citizens are religious and some actions are still seen as sins.
This cultural background will also affect people's perspectives when faced with the advertisement. However, scientifically in general, using sex appeal in advertising can immediately attract people's attention. Consumers may have negative reactions to excessive sexual content or wish to set an example for others and thus do not further entertain high sex appeal ads. (Hu et al. 2020). The effect of sexually appealing ads on consumers' product preferences varies depending on their cognitive stage and the type of product advertised (Hu et al. 2020).

Men's React and Intention to buy
A suspected case was that people regardless the gender has two reactions towards a stimulus presented: cognitive (rationality) and affective (emotionally). In this study, we go deeper into men's reactions when they have presented the stimuli such as women's appeal presented in the advertisement. Trandafilović et al. (2013) has stated where women are dominantly affected with their affective (emotional) side when it comes to shopping, in contrast to men, where they dominantly use their cognitive (rationality). The previous study also mentioned, sexually appealing ads may attract consumers at first however if it were done excessively people might lose interest (Hu et al. 2020).
The interview result will take us to understand how men react toward the advertisement presented. The statement from both informants supports the previous research where it was stated that sex appeal advertisements may not be the strongest reason that makes the products and services consumed by the target market as the acceptance of products and services do not depends extremely on the advertisements alone (Erkaya, 2018).
Based on the findings, the study finds how men enjoy the advertisement that involves the women's appeal in it, they still lean towards their cognitive side when it comes to purchasing goods. Their emotional reactions take parts when they enjoy the promotional video, however, based on the interview and observation during the interview, it was found that they are still reluctant to talk about it. This might affected by the culture we live in here in Indonesia. Here is why: they felt reluctant and focused on the aftermath of the advertisement content towards women included in it.
Based on the framework (Figure 2), the study will start from the perception of women as the object in ads as it will affect the men's reaction that consist of cognitive (rationality) and affective (emotionality). The goal is to understand which reaction will dominantly affect the intention to buy men when given the stimuli. Based on the outlines mentioned previously, this study will be carried out using consumer culture theory to understand the consumption pattern of men. To understand deeper, the writer will also compare a previous study that also talks about the sexual appeal involvement in the advertisement.

Consumer
Culture Theory:

Patterning of Consumption
Consumer culture theory (CCT) is a field of inquiry that seeks to unravel the complexities of consumer culture. From a CCT standpoint, consumer culture is a dynamic boundary network spanning material, economic, symbolic, and social relationships or connections.
Consumer culture is what consumers do and believe rather than an attribute of character (Arnould and Thompson, 2018). CCT has advanced consumer behavior knowledge by illuminating sociocultural processes and structures related to (1) consumer identity projects, (2) marketplace cultures, (3) the socio-historic patterning of consumption, and (4) mass-mediated marketplace ideologies and consumers' interpretive strategies (Arnould and Thompson, 2005). The study adopting women's appeal as one way to attract audiences is never wrong. However, in some region, especially in Eastern moreover, Indonesia it is dangerous to adopt this strategy as the competition will make try to be better by being more vulgar than others with the society that is still thickly bound to the traditional culture that encourages women to use and act in accordance to the social ethics and culture that has been held high since a long time ago.
Moving to the purchase behavior of the male subjects, a previous study stated that men are more leaning towards their cognitive or rational side when it comes to purchasing products. Men will proceed to think about it repeatedly before making an actual purchase (Trandafilović et al. 2013). Whereas, previous research also stated that emotions play an essential part in advertisement because they help stimulate and guide attention and further, emotions can strengthen the associations created by advertisement (Du Plessis, 2008).
"Moreover, when I choose to buy things, I never sees it from the vulgar ads, I will see the price first and the importance for me, I never bought things just because the ads is vulgar or because the ads is including women in it. I will buy things because I need those and the price is good. For gadgets, hmm… my consideration is first thing is the importance and the urgency of the gadget for me and then the price, I will come to the store that offers me more benefit and discount, hehehe" (Informant 1) "It's different if I want to buy gadgets, there are some things that I will put in to consideration First, I will consider the originality of the product like IMEI or other registration that needed to be fulfilled to be fully operated here in Indonesia, then the durability of the product, the technology inside they offer that distinguishes it from my previous owned product and then the price of the product itself." (Informant 3) After obtaining the interview result, it is shown that men are proven to use their logical side when making a purchase where they almost not use the advertisement as their consideration when making a big purchase though, it was stated that hedonic products may be more suited to sexually appealing ads (Hu et al. 2020).
state where people disappear from themselves, leaving the rest of the world in abeyance.

Another example is this study as the marketers of Good
Ponsell are indirectly selling the women's appeal to the consumer in social media in a hoping what they offer could lead to a purchase or at least lead people to gain more product knowledge. Men's consumption pattern tendency relies on their rational side where they have to consider many things over and over again before making a purchase (Trandafilović et al. 2013), all of the informants stated where they have few considerations before buying product specifically for this research is, gadget. 1) The first informant stated that he would consider the originality, durability, and the technology offered by the new product and finally the price of the product, 2) As the second informant, stated they will consider the importance of the product for them and the best price they can get from few stores compared, where he also stated a vulgar advertisement would not be their consideration when it comes to buying a product. 3) the Third informant considers the durability and the familiarity of the system applied. He also adds where it could be to his consideration if a Sales Promotion Girl offered the gadget.
explores the heterogeneous distribution of meanings and the multiplicity of cultural groupings that exist within the broader socio-historic frame of globalization and market capitalism. Arnould and Thompson (2018) the socio-historic patterning of consumption aligns CCT with sociological and historical research on the role of class, gender, and ethnicity as structural influences on marketplace behaviors and vice versa. Socio-historic patterning of consumption explores the institutional and social structures that systematically influence consumption (Arnould and Thompson, 2005), in this case by gender as we discussed the role of sex appeal as stimuli in an advertisement on men's consumption. For example, a journal called "Selling Pain to the Saturated Self" (Scott et al. 2017) talked about how 'Tough Mudder' a race that will make you experience pain, could sell in a unique niche of the market. This was one of the studies that were reviewed using consumer culture theory, where they were talking about how people are often searching for an escape from the monotony of their everyday lives. In this study, they sell an extraordinary experience that can be felt through pain as pain brings the body to a sharp focus and eventually experienced the state called "la blancheur," or "whitening," a hollow The following interview result was also compared by the previous study literature to get a more in-depth understanding of the phenomena (Table 2). Based on the research result where it is proven that the content is effective to gain traffic and attention from people, however few also disagree by using that kind of marketing tactics where in the future it could get worsened, as everyone will try to get ahead of everyone.  (Zachari et al. 2018).
From the informants, we obtain that they all agree that the attention-getting strategy is effective. However, the informants also stated that although using women sex appeal works to gain attention, some boundaries also needed attention. This concern emerges as one of the think that using sex appeal will be an abuse here in Indonesia.
Sexual images have high attention values, which arouse the immediate attention of both men and women. Moreover, Bushman (2005) claims that many individuals pay more attention to sexually explicit media content than non-sexual content.
Based on the informant statements, all of the informants stated that they enjoy vulgar advertisements as long as they have boundaries and do not explicitly degrade women. They also claimed that men have their own imagination when it comes to opposite gender sex appeal content.
Women are more emotional, impulsive, and react more and faster on impulses and their surroundings. Most women show affective behavior when buying particular types of products. On the other hand, men prefer rational shopping, fast and moderate. Before the actual purchase, they think and rethink, inform and decide, and this is so mostly with high-priced products when quality is crucial such as cars and technical goods (Trandafilović et al. 2013).
Two out of three informants has proven that men are not easily affected by their surroundings when shopping. Furthermore, all of the informants have their own considerations when buying technical goods. However, it doesn't slipped from the attention where one of the informant stated they were purchasing goods from a SPG while he was our eating and ended up buying the products.
Sexually appealing ads may attract consumers at first, but excessive sexual content makes them lose interest in the ad; consumers do not deeply evaluate the ads (Hu et al.

2020)
Based on the information obtained from the informants, can be concluded where they did not lose interest because of the sexually appealing ads but it's because they perceive it as an entertainment at the first place, not as an advertisement that promoting a product or services. However, one informant stated that the content might become a consideration for someone to buy a product as subconsciously they will realize that they need it. Thus, following the trend is the key of success of conducting business and promotion. However, few things need to be considered, remembering that we live in a society where the eastern culture is still stronger than the western culture, making it a controversy to make such promotion content. Hence, after the study conducted, there is a change in the conceptual framework as eastern culture also turns out to shape women's perception in advertisement. The changes can be seen in Figure 3.

Managerial Implications
For companies that are starting to focus their promotion on creating content, some things need to be considered such as the culture we held on in Indonesia. The Eastern culture that is still thick greatly affect people&#39;s view of a phenomenon is no exception in using women as &quot;stars&quot; or models in promotional content. In this case, the findings indicate that the content that involves women in it does not always affect the brand positively moreover the intention to buy their product. This implication is also supported by the culture we have in Indonesia that still perceived displaying women&#39;s appeal as taboo and leads to misconception of women&#39;s image and the brand image of a business. Therefore, the management should think about it thoroughly before making content that will include women&#39;s appeal in this way they could maneuver around Eastern culture and use women&#39;s appeal in content promotion.

Conclusions
Good ponsel has gained recognition through their promotional campaign on their social media. The campaign that includes the women's appeal never fails to attract people's attention, especially the opposite gender. Though it is proven to be effective, it is not necessary to increase their intention to buy a product as the socio-historical pattern of consumption of men are they were heavily relies on their rationality despite enjoying the advertisement video presented. The advertisement video presented are perceived as entertainment video instead of promotional video hence, it is not directly affecting their intention to buy from Good Ponsell. However, it is strong enough to make the audience curious about the store and the workers. From the discussion, we discover how the informant(s) concern was on how the society in Indonesia will perceive the ads as they concerned the ads will be perceived as abuse if they decide to continue doing it. These concerns emerge due to the eastern culture that makes it taboo to admit they enjoyed the women's appeal in the advertisement. Based on the previous statement, this raises the question of whether or not it will be effective and necessary in the future?

Recommendations
Women's appeal effectively gains attention from the audiences and evokes emotion, and men are proven to be more rational where they rely on their rational side when making a purchase. This could lead to, whether or not the advertisement will be necessary in the future as men are proven as more rational rather than emotional. This will spark a question on whether using women's appeal as one of the stimulation in making promotional campaign will be as effective and necessary in the future or can it be replaced by other stimuli.