The end consumer market has led to an influx of advertisements, which are widely used to promote products and services. However, there are some negative consequences that come with it: The sexual objectification of women in advertisements. The history of objectifying women to sell a product can be traced back to the early 20th century. Today, this objectification of women has created a “sexualization of culture.” Nonsexual products such as food, drink, cars, and, in the case of my analysis, flowers, are sexualized and cast women simply as objects. This widely recognized notion of “sex sales” stereotypes women as objects of desire and sexual symbols, which degrades the general perception of women and reinforces gender stereotypes in our society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To better understand the widespread problem of sexualization of ads, I analyzed Teleflora's 2012 Super Bowl commercial "Valentine's Night" featuring supermodel Adriana Lima. Teleflora is a company specializing in the sale of floral arrangements and promoted its business at one of the most followed sporting events just a week before Valentine's Day. However, they have received a lot of negative attention due to the controversial underlying message behind “Give and ye shall receive.” This implies that flowers can be used to seduce the person you are dating and push them into having sex. Since Adriana targets her message to “guys,” it is evident that Teleflora's target audience for this advertisement was men between the ages of 18 and 40. It is clear that the purpose of this advertisement was to convince these men with the sex appeal of Adriana Lima. This advertisement is disempowering for women because it portrays them as objects that can be purchased with flowers and will owe you something in return. It creates this underlying assumption that women are easy to please. Adriana is depicted as a sexy, confident woman who is getting dressed (putting on tights, zipping up her dress, putting on earrings and shoes, and applying lipstick). Jean Kilbourne points out in "Killing us Softly 4" that women in advertisements are only acceptable without blemishes and must be young, slim, fair-skinned, well-groomed, plucked and shaved, and to no surprise, Adriana Lima fits this description perfectly .Today, as a society, we are obsessed with sex and the idea that “sex sells”. Victoria Secret models and severe nudity are the norm when trying to sell a product to the mass market. Rosalind Gill also highlights this phenomenon in an intersectional analysis of “Sixpacks,” “Midriffs,” and “Hot Lesbians” in advertising. He states that “at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, Western media are characterized by an unprecedented level of sexual disclosure and exhibitionism in which public nudity, voyeurism and the sexualized gaze are permitted, indeed encouraged, as never before before now." As Jean Kilbourne points out in “Killing Us Softly 4,” ads sell more than products. They sell images, values, ideologies, cultural beliefs and concepts of love, sexuality, success and normality. They tell us who we are and who we should want to be. We are exposed to many different forms of mass media and this has a great influence on the way we perceive the world. Advertising creates an environment where women are presented with the ideal image of perfection. This is dangerous because it blurs the line between what is real and what is false. The more women and girls see “perfect” images of women, the more, 21(2), 173-206.