Masculinity in Advertising: Old Spice Guy

Internet, lets get serious for a second. I’m interested in women’s rights. What woman isn’t? But I’m also interested in mens rights. I guess I’m what you’d call an equalist (at least, thats how I like to think of myself, you may prefer to differ). I don’t believe women or men should come first, we’re equals and by right should have an equal footing in our society. But theres something that’s been bothering me, and I’m going to try and explain what that is.

To portray my thoughts, I’m going to look at the phenomena that is the 2010 ‘Old Spice Guy’ advertising campaign. The advert – which is widely held to be one of the most successful campaigns of our current social media oriented society – depicts a chiseled shirtless man, with a confident charming demeanor, telling women everywhere that their man could smell more like him.

The campaign was a roaring success, upping the sales of the body wash by 107% in little over a month. Robert Theobald states:

‘There is one additional factor that has helped to control the (Great) Depressions, and that is a better understanding of their development’

I believe these words can also be said for Advertising. The team at W&K successfully evaluated their universal audience and it was this knowledge that was the key. I’d like to invite you to take a second to look at not only why the company were so successful, but also what effect adverts like this could be having on our modern culture.

Masculinity

Throughout the 1950s – 80s, there was a lot of confusion when it came to the idea of Masculinity. During the rise of feminism, and of women gaining more equal footing with their male counterparts, men found themselves confronted by the loss of traditional gender roles. Many men were now being forced to question their social standing in society.

This is where advertising comes in. Advertising, as is it’s nature, took advantage of the self conscious, confused nature of males in relation to masculinity. But even then, advertisers missed the mark, they couldn’t decide what masculinity was, mainly because men themselves at the time didn’t really know what it was anymore either. Frank mort explains:

‘Consumer culture involved an elaborate series of negotiations between homosocial and heterosocial accounts of the male self’

It wasn’t until the 1980s I believe that a corner stone was turned by advertisers and the media. While there is evidence of male sexualization before this time frame, Levi’s advertisements for their jeans, which seemed to be one of the most successful campaigns during late 1980s to the mid 1990s, were one of the first to blatantly objectified the male form. They portrayed young, chiseled, sexualised men, Nick Kamen being one of the most rememberable.

The age of objectifying men, just as women had been before them, had truly begun.

Male Objectification

Advertising in todays society does not simply mean selling a product, it means selling a lifestyle. Thomas Zengotita states:

‘mediated people everywhere know that identity and lifestyle are constructs, something to have.’

What is Old Spice selling in their adverts? They are not simply selling body wash, although that is their end aim. Mustafa is the ultimate successful man. Not only is he masculine, he’s thoughtful and romantic. He’s depicted as being the man women want. Throughout advertising history, it has been well known that women are objectified. They are dehumanised and shown only in parts and objects. Men are now similarly being exposed in the same manner. From the 80s onwards, we can see evidence of male objectification, were an ideal male appearance is brought forward. Jean Kilborune explains:

‘(advertising causes) perhaps most importantly of normalizing, to a great extent they tell us who we are, and who we should be’

This is an issue that women have faced for generations, but one that is now a growing concern for the male population. It is this vulnerability of men that is being exploited in the Old Spice advert, telling them that their ultimate goal is to be like Mustafa, physically and mentally.

Sexual politics

Frank mort explains where advertising agencies in the 20th century may have failed:

‘The negative effect of the creative formula was that woman continued to be marginalized from the advertising brief’

This is where W&K succeeded. By acknowledging women into the equation, they tapped into a market that is not usually tapped into. What does this say about the relationship between men and women?

A huge influence in the confusion of masculinity in modern culture, is the influence of feminism. It is exactly this struggle that Old Spice has tapped into. Phillip Hosdon states:

‘New form of masculinity was principally defined by self doubt’

The loss of social roles and the pressures extered by feminism, has caused men to have to redefine themselves. When watching the Old Spice adverts, they see all the qualities that women might want and it is these insecurities in relationships that could have caused men and women to want the body wash.

Social Media

Using it’s tongue and cheek humor, old Spice cleverly managed to tap into the male psyche, but in todays advert bombarded society, that alone would probably not have gained them the success that they attained.

There are potentially two reasons why social media aided the Old Spice guy in being such a success. The first is the idea that the ‘Media is the message’. Marshall McLuhan states:

‘Technology can do nothing but add itself on to what we already are’

And that is exactly what social media does. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, they are all extensions of the self. When people watch a video that they find funny, or appeals to their ideals, they share the video not because they want to share something humorous, but because they want people to associate them with that video. Social networking, by nature, causes people on a subconscious level to be narcissistic and share things that they think, or want, to reflect on them. It’s through social media that women might pass this video on to hint to a man what she wants, or a man may share it on to portray that he approves of the representation, and therefor associating himself with it and it’s comedic value.

There is also another possible reason for the success of the campaign in relation to social media. Over the past century, advertising companies, such as Levi’s jean adverts, presented you with what they believe to be a version of a hyper idealised person. They try to make you associate their brand with that objectified person, hinting that if you were to buy their products, you too could come a step closer to that ideal, and that those qualities would be more attainable.

The problem with this scenario in todays society is that we are desensitized to advertising. We now realize that the people who are objectified while representing a brand are in fact unattainable goals.

This is where the Old Spice Guy differs. The company used the power of youtube and twitter to send personalized videos. Not only did they send videos to celebrities, they gave responses to ordinary people. This was the moment that the Old Spice guy went from being an unattainable idealised object, to someone more tangible, making his qualities much more attainable. Because he responded to anyone, if you messaged him, there was a chance he’d respond to you.

Thinking in terms of metaphors, you could say that people like Nick Kamen where godlike, something that people aspired to be, but never could. Mustafa Isaiah on the other hand, went from being a godlike object to more of a messenger of the gods. Idealized, but more relatable. And it is this idea of attainably, along with the promoted lifestyle and idealized male image, that I believe resulted in the massive success.

Conclusion

So what is the end result of this advertising campaign? It’s clear that it has revolutionized the brands image, and it’s sales. The question I’m proposing is what does advertising campaigns like the Old Spice Guy mean for the modern male? Bell hook states that:

‘Movies are magic. They change things, they take the real and make it into something else right before our very eyes’

And in the same sense, this is what advertising does. However there’s a concern that the modern male, in particular teenagers, could mistake these adverts for what is real and actually attainable. They make women believe that a man with all these qualities can exist, which is not realistic. Such values will only lead to a life of unhappy relationships for both males and females, with males trying to be something they can not be and females searching for something that doesn’t exist.

Bibliography

• Marshall McLuhan, 2003. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. 1st edition
  1321 Fifth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710: Gingko Press.
• Thomas de Zengotita, 2005. *Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the
  Way You Live in It *. 1st edition London: Bloomsbury.
• Frank Mort, 1996. Cultures of Consumption: Commerce, Masculinities and Social
  Space. 1st edition UK: Routledge.
• bell hooks, 1996. Reel To Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies. 1st edition UK:
  Routledge.
• Tim Edwards, 2005. Cultures of Masculinity. 1st edition UK: Routledge.
• Herb Goldberg, 1987. Hazards of Being Male: Surviving the Myth of Masculine
  Privilege. 1st edition America: Signet.
• Joseph H. Pleck, 1975. Men and Masculinity. 1st edition America: Prentice-Hall.
• Aden Hepburn, 11/08/2010, Old Spice Social Campaign Case Study Video [Digital
  Buzz Blog], [online]. Available: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/old-spice-socialcampaign-
  case-study-video/ [13/12/2011].
• John Defrance, 21/05/2011, MEDIA 260: Media and Contemporary Culture [The Web
  portfolio of John Defrance], [online]. Available: http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/cis/wp/
  jdefrance/media260-coursework.html [13/12/2011].
• Mia Freedman, 14/02/2011, Send this clip to every woman you know [Mama Mia],
  [online]. Available: http://www.mamamia.com.au/style/send-this-clip-to-everysingle-
  woman-you-know/ [13/12/2011].
• David Mayeda, 20/07/2010, Interpreting the “Old Spice Guy”: Diverse Masculinities
  Rolled Into One [The Grumpy Sociologist], [online]. Available: http://
  thegrumpysociologist.blogspot.com/2010/07/interpreting-old-spice-guydiverse.
  html [13/12/2011].
• Jim Edwards, 27/07/2010, Is the Old Spice Guy “Post-Racial” or Just Another
  “Mandingo”? [CBS News], [online]. Available: http://www.cbsnews.com/
  8301-505123_162-42745278/is-the-old-spice-guy-post-racial-or-just-anothermandingo/
  [13/12/2011].