That part had me laughing.

The other day I overheard a young boy stating loudly that, "Mermaids are hot." (I wondered if he had ever seen a mermaid in real-life, or if Disney succeeded at tapping into one of humanity's most basic instincts and was thus introducing this little kid into the world of anime porn).

This article points out a good observation. Sex appeal is used to sell products, images and brands more than most people realize. This particular example is a more direct approach, but if you want to analyze almost any and every product – ignoring its primary use or function, the bottom-lying purpose for it is to make people think it will get them sex, make them appear attractive or worthy in society (or at least make them think other people want to have sex with them).

This advertisement makes perfect sense – considering what Sun-Maid is up against (think of beer campaigns), they need to spice up the desire to eat raisins.

The problem with messages that contain little substance (I think) is that, just like with sex, people will get bored and need something different or more intense/extreme. Little-by-little, her top will get more low-cut and show more cleavage. Then, pretty soon the Sun-Maid girl will be picking grapes in a bikini and platform shoes. Guys will buy raisins because it will make them feel like a commercially "hot" female wants to have sex with them (of course she does, she's practically begging for it) – and if she wants it, then so will other girls who knows he eats these raisins. Girls will buy raisins because it will make them as "hot" as the girl in the image and guys will want to sex with them. Everyone is validated momentarily, but will walk away essentially empty looking for the next thrill. If you can keep delivering, you've got a customer for life.