Directed by Tom Kuntz, this ad stars Isaiah Mustafa, an indisputably good looking man. Released on February 7th, 2010, this ad was broadcasted on popular television stations in the United States. This ad was made to sell Old Spice body wash. on the surface, it is evident that the ad is thriving off of the idea that if this amazing man uses this body wash he must smell good therefore if another man uses that body wash he will also accomplish such things. This is obvious when Mustafa is beginning the ad and tells the audience to compare their man to him, and then he states "sadly, he isn't me". This implies the audience would be happier if their man was as similar to Mustafa as possible, including using the same body wash. Additionally, on the surface this ad also uses comedy to make a lasting impression on their audience. The ridiculous and unrealistic change of setting and the dialogue he uses portrays this comedy and is very unique.
Upon looking further, a combination of two of the seven deadly sins can be seen at work in this ad. The audience for this ad, which I will go more in-depth about later, is women with male significant others. In this way the ad takes advantage of lust to make this product seem more appealing to women and hence ideally lead to them suggesting their significant other purchase this product. The main avenue the ad uses to achieve this technique is placing an attractive man with no shirt on as the main character of this ad. This visually promotes lust from the female audience. Another important yet small aspect of this ad which suggests lust is how he maintains constant eye-contact with the camera in a nonchalant demeanor. This eye contact is an engaging visually for a female viewer as eye contact makes people feel closer to each other. The other deadly sin I saw utilized here was envy, yet again with the intent of persuading the female audience. This envy was promoted both visually and linguistically to persuade the viewer to purchase their product. Visually, a man is presented to female viewers in romantically inclined settings such as on a boat or on a horse that are stereotypically pleasing to a female. In addition, the language used by the main actor is prompting envy through its suggestive and aggressively straightforward style. The actor suggests that he is "the man your man could smell like", which not subtly suggests the female viewer should envy the good smelling man in the ad.
The ad targets female viewers, despite the product's target market being male, as the company determined that women frequently make purchasing decisions in respect of hygiene products for male household members. The audience could then be considered females who live with their male significant other (or moms who want their son to catch a date). Old Spice is a product that is attainable for most of the middle class, so it can be assumed that the intended audience is the middle class who are well-off enough to desire to buy slightly more expensive body wash to be appealing to women, yet who are also not well-off enough to afford very high caliber hygiene products. In addition the intended audience must have knowledge of and interest in popular culture to have seen this ad appear on common television stations.
You did a really good analysing this ad on a surface level as well on a more in depth level! I also really liked how you looked at the fine details of the ad which convey specific details that would have otherwise not been noticed. I think it is so interesting how you mentioned the audience is women with male partners. I would never have thought about that but it makes so much sense! Women want their boyfriends/husbands to smell good so in addition to men buying this product, females will as well! Nice :)
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