ad analysis

Axe Essence

Advertisements in the media today use many different techniques in order to sway specific audiences into buying their product. One of the most common and very effective tactic particularly for men is sex appeal. In today's society, advertisements and subliminal messaging have men leading to believe that obtaining sex with multiple women makes them a successful person and a better man. There are many brands products that advertisers portray for this very reason. Many products that these advertisers sell are supposedly able to aid a man attract women and obtain sex. A popular product that is marketed this way is Axe body spray. An ad for “Axe Essence Body Spray” is an example of how advertisers take advantage of the use of sex appeal for men. The ad implies that using Axe Essence body spray you will attract beautiful women and it will make you more of a man since you’ll have “man’s essence” and you will feel better about your self-image, more successful in life, and therefore be more content. The Axe ad portrays women as sex objects in society’s cultural norm and stereotypes men always desiring sex. On the flipside, if the man's role was reversed with the woman it would portray the woman as being promiscuous, thus, creating a negative image on the woman.
On the surface, the advertisement snaps to the eye and does a great job attracting attention with it's digital photoshop. The advertisement is attempting to sell body spray. The Axe Essence magazine ad is a picture of a caucasian man and woman, an assumed couple, walking down the sidewalk in broad daylight, together, with two store windows behind them. The man's legs have paused and is facing the store window on the right, which has a curvy female mannequin dressed in red lingerie in it. This appears to be a lingerie store for women. The man's upper body is continuing walking happily with his arm around his assumed girlfriend. In the bottom right corner of the ad is says,“Part Good. Part Bad. That's Man's Essence. New Axe Essence” and has a picture of the new Axe Essence body spray can.
Because of the surface message, it's easy to decipher the intended message of the advertisement. The intended message of the ad the advertisers try to portray is that if men use their Axe Essence spray, they will smell so good that they're likely to attract sexy women dressed in lingerie, and will strive for those type of women over the ordinary woman. Men can attract such types of women by using the Axe spray. This advertisement in particular is aimed towards men. The evidence lies in the quote "Part Good. Part Bad. That's Man's Essence. New Axe Essence". This quote states that men should be part "good" suggested by the man walking with his arm around his girlfriend. It also states that men should be part "bad" because the bottom half of the man's body is facing the glass window with the female mannequin dressed in red lingerie. Going back to a man's ideal social status, society sways younger men into believing that the more women they sleep with the better off they will be. Axe's selling point for it's body spray is the idea that it will help a man attract sexy women.
Under the intended message, in the ideological aspect of this advertisement, Axe has a unintentional message inside the ad such as the sexualization of women and viewing them as sexual objects, and gender stereotypes. The Axe ad shows the sexualization of women by emphasizing their sexuality and how it attracts all men. In the ad, the legs of the man's body is left behind, facing the mannequin dressed in lingerie. The scenery suggests that sexually, men desire skimpy, sexually revealing women, compared to the ordinary, casually dressed women. The female mannequin on display inside the store shows that women are viewed as sex objects in today's society, which places a negative image on women. On the other hand, if we were to reverse the roles of the man and woman in the advertisement the meaning would flip and mean something entirely different. If we take the female mannequin dressed in red lingerie and replace it with a man in red underwear, then have the female's arm wrapped around the male's shoulder and the female's legs left behind, we would have a different message. If a woman were to sleep around with multiple men she would be branded as promiscuous and would have a much more negative image than a man if he were in the same situation. In a sense this is gender hypocritism, for men, it's accepted to sleep around with many women and it's viewed as "good" and is supported by a majority of other men, however, in today's society it's viewed as a bad thing for a woman and is severely frowned upon.
The advertisement implies gender stereotypes. The Axe Essence Body Spray advertisement not only stereotypes males in the sense that they always lust for sex, it also stereotypes women as sexual objects and are always trying to seduce men. By showing the man's legs facing the window with the revealing mannequin, the ad shows that, deep down, all men only desire sex. The store the mannequin is in may just be up for display for attracting female customers, but the ideological meaning for that image is something different. A mannequin is also an object that resembles a human, because the mannequin is a female and is wearing red lingerie, this depicts woman as sexual objects and nothing more than eye candy for people, or men in particular, who pass by the glass window. The advertisement also stereotypes all men as lustful. The text in the ad reads: “Part Good. Part Bad. That's Man's Essence." this suggests that all men have a naughty lustful side to them. An ideological idea that's taken from the ad is that men “see with their genitals.” In the ad, the man's legs are seen staring and facing at the mannequin, why only the legs? The man's legs are looking with its genitals, suggesting that all men look at women as sexual objects. The advertisement also suggests that women are always trying to seduce men. As depicted with the female mannequin in lingerie, it clearly attracts the man shown by his entire lower half facing the glass window. It could also attract the woman into purchasing the lingerie in order to seduce the man.
The advertisement for Axe Essence Body Spray uses a clever photoshop trick to create their surface and intended meaning for their body spray, which was to smell so good you would attract sexy women. Through ideological analysis, this Axe advertisement contains cultural norms and societal stereotypes through its depiction through the advertisement. The intended message is very clear, but beneath the surface and intended meanings are unintentional ideological cultural messages inside and throughout the advertisement that portray both men and women as sexually appealing and lustful beings. It stereotypes women as sex objects and seducers. It stereotypes men as always uncontrolled lustful beasts. Analyzing this advertisement makes you take a second look at society's cultural norms for a man and a woman.