"Who da man!? You Dah Man! No You da Man!

I personally like the products it smells awesome and their advertisement is often very memorable and affective as I have encountered several men whom use this product even my nephews and brother have used this shower gel for several years now, BUT why? What story is their commercial advertisement(s) telling? Axe shower gel and shampoo is a very popular product for men. After carefully observing their commercials they make it more than evident that their product is geared towards hetero sexual men between the ages of 15-30. I always find their advertisements very humorous!

In recent years many advertisements here in the states have been getting progressively more risky. Much like many music videos and other kinds of television shows plus with the internet barring-none, Commercial advertisements in order to compete uses their 30 seconds wisely.  So in Roland Barthes fashion I will explain the message behind the medium… This is the advertisement bye axe I choose. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtZKL74LgMg (the unedited version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IMwuwrkd3s&feature=related  (the aired version)

The story this ad is clearly telling is the message axe try to convey in each of their advertisements is that the more hygienically clean “these men” are the better chances they have of attracting hot chicks thus having more sex. They formed this commercial as a infomercial not just directly advertising the shower gel but the “Axe detailer” even the name sounds like a auto mechanics language females don’t want to be “detailed” like a car when they wash they want to have a  experience like  in those old herbal body wash commercials.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_u5-ANAyCI  I mean the differences are subtle but still the same.  It still implies that herbal essence can be an “exciting” experience. Just for woman I am assuming masturbation. Which in my personal opinion men masturbate more than woman, it’s like a part of their biological routine but they would much rather have sex then to masturbate unlike woman who usually do it usually as a stress reliever. I remember in high school boys would make fun of other boys who didn’t have many dates or a girlfriend implying that they “weren’t getting none” that “they “beat their meat” often the boy whom these statements were geared at usually  would take great offense to this and declare he doesn’t “eat his meat” and insisted that he got plenty of girls and “gets more ass then a toilet seat” (these boys were asked to leave the classroom for having such an obscene conversation which was disruptive to the class lolz oh high school boys how I miss thee.) But why does Axe shower gel sell? And yes they call it shower gel not body wash which automatically allows me to know this is a wash for men not woman. It sell because it tells the story of any young average Joe using axe shower gel and then becoming irresistible to attractive woman. This commercial just further pushes the point across by getting even more personal saying that this detailer will clean your balls (while making comical by using actual sports balls as a metaphor for actual male genitalia) they use of easy puns with words like “equipment”, “ball sack” they even had engaged the male audience by allowing a attractive blonde to “play with those balls” which she enjoyed this very much. This message is ringing thru loud and clear that to the hetero sexual male Mr. Average Joe you don’t have to be Mr. Rich handsome and Spectacular to get sex with hot chick but you do have to smell great by using axe shower gel and keep you balls clean with the axe detailer because as they said in the commercial no one likes “playing with dirty equipment” However I do understand why they didn’t keep the part in the commercial with the older gentlemen and him moseying in embarrassed to get his old balls cleaned, because this could be  seen as offensive to the older gentlemen implying that he has  “old balls” that he should be ashamed or as just plain disrespectful. But I also see why they put in the commercial to began with as a means of broadening their market to the older gentlemen saying that they too can have sex with attractive woman if they just use the axe detailer to their balls could greatly benefit even be looking and smelling “like new” as they put the camera shot on a older woman’s face in the audience shocked in amazement at how clean they got the old balls. Which tell me that axe product doesn’t want to exclude the fact that older men still have a sex life that can benefit from using axe product too? I really find this commercial very humorous. A lot of guy here in college don’t wash daily and they brag about it and a lot of female including me  find it gross and ridiculous because how can you expect someone to want to have sex with you and you stank? It’s the difference between having yours balls played with or you playing alone which many men would rather not play alone. The story it tells is that good hygiene for men can be very beneficial for the hetero sexual male’s potential sex life. I think they took this advertising route because it was easy one, to play off of the stereotype of the “smelly hetero sexual manly man” or the whole “mans man” ideal. Old spice even got in on this kind of marketing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE  “The man your man could smell like” (lol)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BId3y81bU1U  (Old spice: “Because I’m a man”) This commercial really pushed the  message home that if you’re not using Old spice different varieties of smells that you might as well be a woman because you’re not a man; this is what the  point was of him taking off the mask saying he doesn’t us it cause he’s a woman the  saying as he walks over “just kidding I use them all cause I’m a man” all of this is playing into the ideals of gender roles, gender stereotypes and  male sexuality.

A lot of guy here in college don’t wash daily and they brag about it and a lot of female including me  find it gross and ridiculous because how can you expect someone to want to have sex with you and you stank? It’s the difference between having yours balls played with or you playing alone which many men would rather not play alone. I think that Americas Ideal of sexuality especially right now because of the current politics of Gay rights and Gay marriage being so current people are trying hard to hold on to the traditional ideals of what it means to be a heterosexual male. In which if men don’t fit into this mold they are usually seen as other.  Very neat men who are hetero sexual are called metro sexual. This is what causes the “bullying” we have been seeing in the media most recently. People need to create a label for the other, they have to make an “us” and a “them” it’s how we identify ourselves by means of separating ourselves from others. Other males are threaded by homosexual males they see them as the other they aren’t female yet they are effeminate and they like other men sexually. I think this doesn’t sit well with those who bully, because they are often trying too hard to be perceived as a heterosexual male = The Alpha male. And they too scared to look inwards and discover that their own femininity doesn’t necessarily define their own sexuality thus making them gay. But oh too often they too scared to do this kind of self discovery, usually out of fear of what they may find.  So they bully others who have suspect of somehow being less then heterosexual males. I have even seen this happen to overweight males they are usually made fun of about having breast. Other male call them “man boobs” or “titties” which is another form of tryin to label them female in a roundabout way. So usually when males even jokingly insult each other  they find way in which to immaculate each other by usually  though name calling  such as “sissy”, “homo” or by remakes like “you (whatever the activity is)…. Like a girl” I know guys who affectingly refer to each other as “bitch” of “lil girl” there’s usually a lot of homosexual horseplay or gestures amongst many heterosexual male in order to emasculate one another this was also seen in movies like Waiting.  This also exsplains why male complements include sayings such as: "You dah man!" But what does all of this say about how woman are seen in traditional American Gender roles? It all amounts to woman as being seen as the lesser, even in the 21^st century!