Sex appeal advertising has been widely adopted in luxury fashion marketing and yet little attention has been paid to the impact of sex appeal on perceived luxury values. Using a 2(low/high degree of sex appeal) x 2(male/female ad endorser) x 2(male/female ad viewer) factorial design, this study finds that the use of a high degree of sex appeal in an advertisement significantly improves young consumers’ perceptions of the appearance, quality, uniqueness, and conspicuousness value of a luxury fashion brand. The impact of sex appeal on the self-identity, hedonic, materialistic or prestige value perceptions appear to be insignificant. Gender interacts with the degree of sex appeal on the appearance and quality value only. Implications for luxury brand marketers and advertisers are discussed.

• Nurfareena Zahari(University of Western Australia, Australia)
• Fang Liu(University of Western Australia, Australia)