Man, French Connection, I’ve Gotta Hand It to Ya

Here’s a photo from French Connection’s latest campaign. They always seem to have over-the-top hilarious promo photos of men being stereotypically manly.

Pictures say a thousand words, so I’m going to let this one do all the talking. It’s all kinds of awesome!

And here are some older French Connection ads:

I think French Connection does a great job at making fun of gender stereotypes – totally love it when marketing teams exaggerate the ridiculousness of our culture.

Manimal Planet: Putting Another Old Spice Commercial Under the Feminist Lens

Back in April, I blogged about a funny Old Spice commercial that begins with a cocky man with a towel around his waist in a steamy bathroom. Then I analyzed it for kicks to see what kinds of gender stereotypes they were poking fun of. (If you missed it, read the post here, and check out the short clip, too.)

To my delight, I had the pleasure of viewing a second hilarious Old Spice commercial! Naturally, I had to share it with you all, and because I have some salsa kicking around in my feminist veins, I’m going to analyze the message behind the humour.

Of course it begins with a buff dude who’s well groomed and apparently very polite. (He speaks directly to his target audience – “Hello, ladies! How are you? Fantastic!”)

And just like in the previous Old Spice commercial, the ego has landed! “Does your man look like me? No. Can he smell like me? Yes.” He’s suggesting that he epitomizes the masculine ideal, and that even if your husband, boyfriend, significant other, fuck friend, or whomever can’t look like the stereotypical ‘perfect man’, the least he can do is smell like one. After all, cleanliness is next to godliness, right?

The bare-chested He-Man vocalizes the question you might ask yourself silently: “Should he use Old Spice body wash? I don’t know.”

Homer Simpson: The stereotypical male slob

Then he makes the answer seem like a total no-brainer: “Do you like the smell of adventure? Do you want a man who can bake you a gourmet cake in the dream kitchen he builds you with his own hands? Of course you do!”

No, I’d like everything to be a snooze. And I’d prefer a man who’d rather eat stale cake at a crummy pub where the lights are so dim, you can’t see the cockroaches scurrying to the kitchen. That’s hella sexy! (Obviously not.)

I love how a sense of adventure is portrayed by him walking on a rolling log on the water! (This imagery reminded me immediately of the Log Driver’s Waltz that was featured on a Canadian kids’ show I used to watch. And anytime I get to reference some ridiculous old song from my childhood is pretty damn cool.)

What’s this? After Mr. Sexy Stallion finishes with the rolling log, the sky is falling! No, it’s just a large (and yummy-looking) cake that says “You’re Beautiful” (there, there, women’s fragile self-esteem). It lands right into his studly arms as he miraculously walks across the water like Jesus while using a saw to slice a table. He makes it look like it ain’t no thang but a chicken wang. That’s my kind of man – a multi-tasker!

And ohhhh, a dream kitchen? No way! It’s what women have always wanted…to be stuck inside the home baking or cooking for our man. (Sarcasm drips like honey now.) Okay, seriously, I dig a man who works well with his hands. It shows me that he’s resourceful and perhaps physically fit. And a man who enjoys baking instead of just barbecuing meat all summer? Damn, he’s a catch if only because he defies gender stereotypes!

Then when you think the Old Spice commercial can’t get any more ridiculous, it does! “Swan dive into the best night of your life!” He says while jumping off the edge of a waterfall and ending up in a hot tub.

“So, ladies, does your man smell like an Old Spice Man? You tell me.” As the arrogant bastard smirks, the four walls of the wooden hot tub fall down and reveal a sexy motorcycle. He’s conveniently perched on top and posing in classic Modeling-101 fashion.

Ads like this not only keep me entertained, but also make me appreciate how marketing teams can seamlessly mix a bunch of random, overtly-stereotypical shit together yet make it work. And instead of using ‘hidden messages’ to brainwash us, they’ve brought full-blown gender stereotypes to the forefront so that as viewers, we become more conscious of how silly our society can be.

Variety Is the Spice of Life, But Does Old Spice’s TV Commercial Sprinkle the Same Old Flavour?

Have you seen the ridiculous Old Spice commercial on TV? Just had to blog about it because it does a great job poking fun at gender stereotypes. Sure, it’s silly and isn’t meant to be taken seriously, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still analyze it for kicks. Every message sheds insight on what goes tick tock upstairs.

The beginning is steamy. Literally. In the back, there’s a hot shower going, but nobody’s really paying attention to that because a handsome buff man’s speaking directly to us from his bathroom, clad in nothing but a towel. And he knows he’s hot…unless he’s overcompensating for an insecurity, of course.

Overly confident, the sex symbol says, “Hello, ladies! Look at your man. Now back to me. Now back at your man. Now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me.” (Yeah, because our man is real, and you’re a recreation of a cheesy leading man on a drugstore romance-novel cover.)

And he continues his profound soliloquy: “But if he stopped using lady-scented body washes, switched to Old Spice, what he could smell like is me.”

(So our man is less manly due to the body wash he uses because apparently there’s a certain type of body wash that real men supposedly use. Funny. I thought stereotypically masculine men were covered in oil and soot or held babies who look very uncomfortable being near bulging biceps. Firefighter calendars fail to depict reality? Consider my mind blown. Yeah right.)

“Look down. Now back up. You’re on a boat with a man your man could smell like.” (Hmm…when I think of sailors, I don’t think ‘fresh’. More like rum. And then rum makes me think of pirates. And then pirates make me think of unwashed men. And then unwashed men make me think of sexy Viggo in The Road. He’s the only man who can make being absolutely filthy look good.)

“What’s in your hand? Back at me. I am.” (Wow, he’s so full of himself! Is there any room for more love?)

And then he pulls a Houdini and performs a magic trick. “It’s an oyster,” he states the obvious as he holds it up, “with two tickets to that thing you love.” (Because apparently even mentioning musicals or concerts diminishes masculinity. Heck, better down a chili dog with a bottle of beer to regain face should you let it slip.)

“Look again. The tickets are now diamonds!” (Whoa, dude! Diamonds are a girl’s best friend. *rolls eyes*)

Now, I’ve been joking around with my side commentary, but the next thing he says completely rubs me the wrong way: “Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady.” (I hate being reminded that it’s a ‘man’s world’. Women need to do more than wipe the Glass Ceiling with Windex. Get a hammer. Call for reinforcements. Roll up those sleeves. Shatter the shit out of crippling expectations. Anything is possible when you have ambition!)

Despite all that, he still manages to make me laugh when the camera pans out, and he states the obvious (again) by saying, “I’m on a horse!”

While there are a lot of crappy or annoying commercials on TV, I really enjoyed this one because quite simply, it’s amusing and it puts the spotlight on some pretty ridiculous conceptions of what women want in their men. It also left me feeling slightly irritated (but not enough to dislike the commercial) because it paints women as being overly simple-minded and easy to influence. So really, this is a smart commercial that pushes buttons without setting off the smoke detector.

Watch the commercial. Now back to Glockoma. Now back to the commercial. Now back to Glockoma. (Groan! Hehe…I couldn’t resist saying that.)

Do ads like this that exaggerate gender stereotypes make you laugh? Or do they get under your skin because they’re scratching at the surface of something more serious? I’m so curious to hear what you think!