the ad your ad could smell like

[batyatoon]

Hello, folks. If you haven't seen the Old Spice ad the subject line is referencing, take a look at the ad. Now back to me.

...sorry. couldn't resist. ANYWAY.

As I was perusing my flist the other day, I saw autographedcat's link, under the subject heading "Old Spice and Gender Politics in Advertising," to xiphias's interesting rumination on the commercial here. (Some of the comments to the original post are kind of fascinating too.) I quote, in part:

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....

[The Old Spice commercial is] 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.

Hmmm.

So tell me, friends and acquaintances: what do you think?

Comments

[aisforamy]

I love the Old Spice commercials! I like how he asks the women what they want their men to smell like, and I wonder if he knows that a lot of the women viewing are the ones who do shopping for their household--even the hygiene products.

I remember when Old Spice was just an aftershave for old men (my dad used it, after all)!

[madfilkentist]

I'm just trying to figure out why Old Spice commercials are suddenly such a popular subject for LJ and Facebook posts. It's one of those weird popular-cultural things which everyone but me seems to understand.

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

I thought the ad was funny, and much less offensive than the Axe ads, which portray teen girls pawing the teen boys after they spray themselves.

"I'm on a horse." At least it isn't a high horse!

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

The Old Spice ad is amusing, and certainly makes fewer assumptions than the Axe ad.

There have also been plenty of good variations. The "librarians" is the second best; here's the best, IMNSHO (via curmudgeonlet):

[batyatoon]

HEY. No dissing Rory. D:

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Sorry. Don't mean to; he's a hoopy frood. (More than Eleven, many days.) I didn't make the GIF; just thought it was cool.

[antiquated-tory.livejournal.com]

That is AWESOME.

[ericcoleman]

I see the Old Spice commercials as parodies of the usual commercials.

I prefer the "Mentos Freshmaker" commercials.

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

I do not use either Old Spice or Axe, so either I am not the target audience, or the ad didn't work on me.

CGC's favorite scent on me is Gillette Shaving Cream.

[hsifyppah.livejournal.com]

I think the ads are hilarious, but I don't think the premise - make yourself irresistible to women - offers women any more agency than usual. Certainly it plays in to the usual stereotypes of traditional heterosexual gender roles. Although the whole business model is The Way You Smell Without Artificial Help Is Unacceptable so this is not terribly surprising.

[the-red-baron.livejournal.com]

This is pretty much what I've been thinking since I first saw the Old Spice ads. It's certainly not a huge feminist statement, but the message of those ads for men seems to be "Women are people. Specifically, people who really dig guys who smell like Old Spice! Which is understandable, because those guys are awesome! You, too, can be the kind of guy women dig, by using Old Spice." Which is significantly different from "USE AXE BRAND MIND CONTROL SERUM TO SUMMON HERD OF NUBILE SEX ZOMBIES."

[mercuriazs.livejournal.com]

IAWTC.


IAWTC soooooooo much.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

What do I think? It's a commercial. I tend to skip'em. But I also think Brooke has a valid point: the whole business of smelling up yourself in an attempt to manipulate others is just R-O-N-G on the face of it. Nevermind the whole gender/sexuality bias, which just comes with the territory of mass marketing. (Marketing people have one thing on their mind: Money. They don't care how they make it.)

Besides, from where I sit, it's what's between your ears that makes you a beautiful person. (And, yes, I'm being specific as well as general, with no other intention than to let you know that you are, and maybe brighten your day. :)

[almeda.livejournal.com]

We have Lava Soap to thank for the societal expectation that everyone will bathe every single day. They also created the widespread meme that everyone's bodily odors are so repellent (if you do not wash every day with Lava) that people will detest and avoid you, even if they're too polite to say anything.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Yeep, the only use I have for Lava is if I've had my hands inside a very dirty engine and need something to not only cut grease but scrub at the grime... that stuff is abrasive!

But, yeah, marketing in general can be a powerful thing, even if the product sucks... lookit McDonalds.

[tereshkova2001.livejournal.com]

that is the most fantastic icon I have seen in years. SO AWESOME>

and, er, I have Tivo and haven't seen any of these kerfuffle-causing commercials.

[innerbrat]

(Haven't read the links.)

It's not even the agency on the basic level, either. Don't forget it's a humourous ad. You don't look at it and think "that is a hot man. I should buy my man the body wash he's using."

You look at it and think "ahahahahahahaha! Old Spice eh?" That's were the marketing comes in - brand awareness.

So why is it funny? Well, it makes fun of the 'passive women flocking to sexy men' idea. It subverts the male gaze of most ads, and most of all it generally makes fun of the 'this is what all women want' concept. It doesn't tell you that women want these things, it makes a joke out of ads telling you these things.

It's funny, for the saem reason that this Mitchell and Webb sketch is funny: For making fun of existing tropes.



And because it's funny, we all know what Old Spice is.

[antiquated-tory.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen either ad (so little time, so much Internet), but I'd like to make two observations:
1. Old Spice High Endurance Original Scent is the bomb. It was suggested to me by a girl I was dating at the time and every subsequent woman who has had to smell me for any length of time (n=2) has agreed. And I quite like it myself.
2. AXE is the smell of teenaged chav.

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

Couple of thoughts:
1) Comparing anything to the Axe ads is setting the bar far too low.
2) Every decade or so, I try something by Old Spice to see if the smell has improved. Maybe if they'd spent the advertising money on product development....

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

Axe & Old Spice are targeted at males of different age groups, marital status and morality levels. I would never want to go out with anybody who experiences or practices anything I've seen an in an Axe ad. Old Spice, however, is actually going for the 26-45 year old guys, who no longer needs to snag The Babe but still needs to be presentable around her. The Babe, of course, has been transmitting the message of better grooming on all channels for years, but now this guy on the tube is showing him up. Metrosexuls are passing their sell-by dates without a nibble, and there've been a lot of guys with neckties and a level of razor stubble these days, so maybe it's time to try something else.

Aren't you glad you know someone who can speak Ad-Jive?

[batshua]

The commercials made ME want to wear Old Spice!