Colorado Avalanche Not Utilizing Landeskog

Sex Sells

Marketers know sex sells — and Gabriel Landeskog is sexy. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

We’ve all heard that sex sells — indeed, it’s pretty much a cliche by now.

Watch commercials for male-centric products such as beer or enormous hamburgers at Carl’s Junior. Typically such advertisements feature very beautiful women who are not the target audience — you don’t keep that kind of figure eating hamburgers and drinking beer. The point of such commercials is to attract men, to make them think positively about the displayed product. Presumably that’s the rationale for using the Ice Girls to “shovel” snow during breaks.

Hockey is still a sport with more male than female fans — between 60 to 70 percent male, depending on the market, though Canada’s split nearly down the middle gender-wise. Is that because women don’t appreciate rough games? Of course not — attend a football game, and you see plenty of female fans.

The problem is that not a lot of hockey markets are directly targeting female sports fans. The Chicago Blackhawks are one team that are marketing directly to women, and they’re one of the franchises that feature a female fandom of 40 percent. This despite the fact their most popular stars, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, are nowhere near Gabriel Landeskog on the attractiveness scale.