Old Spice Stereotypes

The media, consisting of its various forms, is a very influential socializing agent. Messages fed to us through forms of advertising and marketing have a lasting impression, often changing the ways we think and behave. As the popularity of an ad grows, so does it moral implications, as well as its influence on audiences world wide. This week's topic of “advertising and Difference: Gender and Race” is supported by two articles which examine the effects of adverting and stereotyping on African American culture, as well as females from different cultures. Eric King Watts and Mark P. Orbe have adopted a critical view in examining one of the most memorable works of advertisement of the 21st century; the Budweiser “Whassup” Superbowl Campaign.
As Watts and Orbe concluded in their research surrounding the Whassup Super Bowl ad campaign, both familiarity and unfamiliarity contribute to the effectiveness of an ad. In this case, examining the Old Spice ad, I, as a viewer was sold because what I saw on the screen; the various forms of luxury and manliness were familiar to me, whether accurate of society, or as a comical twist. Because I was able to associate the various activities the main character in the ad was carrying out with the notion of empowerment, attractiveness and manliness, I understood the ad's message of what could be made of a man who uses this kind of body wash., as well as what kind of man I would be if I smelled like the man in the commercial. The notion of “reproducing the authentic” which Watts and Orbe also attribute to being one of the factors rendering the Whassup ad campaign successful can also be attributed to the success of the Old Spice ad campaign. The Old Spice commercials rely very heavily on visuals to get the message to viewers. These visuals are also a reproduction of what we believe to be authentic. Just as the Whassup guys are believed to truly be slang talking males, the main character in the Old Spice ads is truly seen to be the ultimate male. This perception is based solely on what people believe to be authentic. What makes a man the ultimate, desirable
In the Old Spice ad, the message relates to a very widely accepted concept of cleanliness. Every man and every woman would love to always smell great. Coincidentally, in this case, every man would love to be the ultimate man as depicted in the commercials, and every women would love for their significant other to be so also. To be able to smell great, so great as to be compared to the man everyone has come to love and admire, is a home run in terms of buying a useful product. Consequently for the advertiser, Old Spice, they too have acquired a home run in the sense that their advertising campaign speaks to millions of both men and