xiphias: (Default)
[personal profile] xiphias
I'm assuming I don't have to link to any of Isaiah Mustafah's Old Spice commercials, and that you've seen them all.

First, let me just make the comment on how it's changing my perception of the brand. I thought of Old Spice as the deodorant that my grandfather used.

Now I'm thinking, "Oh, right -- my grandfather killed a bunch of Nazis, didn't he?"

Anyway.

One of my favorite terms to use when doing feminist critiques of media is "agency" -- specifically the agency of women. In the medium, are women active participants or passive prizes?

In the Axe Body Wash commercials, women have no agency. If you (and "you" means "a male" -- the commercials ignore the possibility that half their audience might be female; females don't exist as PEOPLE in those commercials) use Axe, women will flock to you without any free will of their own. Women aren't people; they're prizes.

In the Old Spice commercials, "Ladies: Look at your man. Now look at me. Now look at your man."

It's addressed to women, with the impression that WOMEN are people who can make choices. It's not terribly feminist, yes, but there IS a difference between the commercials for men's deodorant which treat women as props and these, which at least make a nod to the idea that women are people. We can talk about how terribly heteronormative they are, but the fact that they at least acknowledge that women exist as sapient beings is a huge step forward for men's grooming product advertisements.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-15 12:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] browngirl.livejournal.com
True and true. I was talking to the Media Studies major who's interning at my work this summer about just that, the presence and agency of women and nonWhite people in advertising.

(Plus, Mr. Mustafah makes my glad I can see.)

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-15 01:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ailsaek.livejournal.com
And that married women are generally the ones doing the grocery shopping. Smart.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-15 01:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] horizonchaser.livejournal.com
Very true. I'd bought the "Axe" or "Tag" or whatever it was for the kid, until I happened to see one of their commercials. After staring in astonished shock for about half of it, I already had his new brand selected.

Most of the Moms, wives, and girlfriends I know do buy the man-no-stink stuff for the guys, the Old Spice commercials take that to a hilarious and really fun to watch level.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-15 02:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] plantmom.livejournal.com
I don't even watch t.v., and I know about the Old Spice ads. If there are no outtakes somewhere, that's okay, because honestly, I can easily imagine what they'd be like. If must be hard to film such things without guffawing all the way through.

Completely agree

Date: 2010-07-15 02:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] silvenstar.livejournal.com
I've made my husband use Old Spice since we first moved in together. I love how it smells. So seeing him addressing me makes me happy, since I'm the one that made the decision to smell that every day.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-15 02:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ookpik.livejournal.com
I haven't seen the commercials, but this makes me want to. (In any case, the one time that I bought Axe for D., we learned that its scent is one of the many that trigger my asthma.)

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-15 02:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dichroic.livejournal.com
I'm still a little baffled at why looking at someone I can't smell would make me want to buy a certain deodorant, but maybe that's just because I haven't seen the commercials.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-15 03:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] supremegoddess1.livejournal.com
I have to admit that I absolutely *love* the Old Spice ads. And I want to "borrow" Isaiah Mustafah for awhile.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-15 04:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kerrypolka.livejournal.com
Mightygodking has another good discussion of the commercials (specifically the most recent internet ones).

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-15 04:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tigertoy.livejournal.com
([livejournal.com profile] autographedcat pointed me here)

I don't watch TV -- mostly because of the ads -- but I saw one of these when I went to the movie theater.

My reaction was that the real message was for men, and it was the usual -- "You aren't worth anything as yourself. Your only hope to get a mate is to hide yourself in the image of this unattainable sex symbol, and look, we're selling a product that will do it! Just give us your money and you can paper over your inadequacy!" Yes, they're superficially addressing women, telling them their men are unattractive but this product can transmogrify them. I suppose it's a better message to women to tell them they have the power to choose to transmogrify their men rather than to just use the women as props to demonstrate the transmogrifying effect. I suppose it's better, if some guy walking by kicks me in the nuts, if he doesn't also spit on the woman standing nearby.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-15 04:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com
Thank you for resolving some vague rumbling guilty notions I've had about enjoying that ad campaign. My doubts are now quietened...

(No, not taking the mickey. BTW, I think the 2nd - 4th sentences of your entry deserve some sort of award...)

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-15 07:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beaq.livejournal.com
Even the "not like a lady" line didn't entirely spoil the movie house ad for me. Even the assumption that I care about diamonds and horses and. I mean, the "meh" is there underneath, but it was just so stunning to be spoken *to*, by a desirable man, who was offering that desirability to *me*, to *consume*, for *my* pleasure, that, god help me, I actually loved the ad.

Of course it has to be funny and OTT, because everyone would laugh anyway. But the secret is it's appealing, not that it's funny.

Diamonds, for god's sake! And not diamonds-as-self-decoration or diamonds-being-sold-to-men-as-a-means-to-display-ownership. Piles of diamonds for me! To own! Piles! And horses!

I was just ... stunned. I see now why sex sells. If it's actually directed at you.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-15 07:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] osewalrus.livejournal.com
I must be the only person who has never seen these ads and has no idea what this is about. But I've been kind of busy (sorry, came here through [livejournal.com profile] autographedcat

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-15 11:23 pm (UTC)
fauxklore: (Default)
From: [personal profile] fauxklore
The part of the commercial which doesn't work at all for me is that I don't find the model attractive.

Aside from his not matching my physical preferences, I don't need a man to create adventure or do things around the house for me.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-17 10:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fitfool.livejournal.com
I had not seen the Old Spice commercials before and then I blew a good half hour looking up the ad, watching videos on The Making Of..., and watching some of those responses. I don't usually pay much attention to ads but I'm really impressed by all that went into making that ad.

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