Calvin Klein's Obsession campaign

The above Kate Moss advertising uses sex, a very familiar stimuli in marketing campaigns, to elicit a conditioned response. The latter is, according to the theory of classical conditioning, an involuntary response. Even though most males seeing the advertisement, in this case for Obsession, mentally are unlikely to believe that merely using Obsession will make them more desirable to attractive members of the opposite sex, the goal of Calvin Klein’s marketing staff is to convince consumers subconsciously that purchasing Obsession will lead to increased success on the market of love. Undoubtedly, the market is saturated with fragrances that use explicit sexuality as a marketing tool, often conveyed by suggestive advertising, dark bottles and brand names referring openly to sex. In addition to Calvin Klein’s Obsession, Allure and Passion are other product names known to most consumers. It is generally believed that a company has to play on sex to successfully introduce a new fragrance on the market, but more products than just CKOne has proved this theory wrong.