Sociological Images

Dubi sent in a link to Axe shower gel’s website for the Israeli market. Click on the Hebrew text on the lower right of the flag stand to see a video (sorry, I can’t embed it). I assure, you, even if you don’t speak Hebrew (I don’t), you’ll get the general message, and it’s totally worth viewing.

I’m quoting Dubi’s email at length, since it sums up the aspects of the video we non-Hebrew-speakers won’t quite get (though, again, I think the overall theme came through just fine):

This is the new campaign for Axe Shower Gel in Israel. It obviously targets the soldier demographic (military service is compulsory in Israel, and most secular Jews 18-21 years old are in active duty), and generally makes use of Israel’s militaristic ethos. The movie tells the story of a “secret unit” of the Israeli Defense Forces - the cheerleading squad. As you can easily tell, they are depicted as feminine, weak, and ludicrous. The younger woman “interviewed” is the commander of the unit (ha! a woman commanding men. How funny is that? Actually, female commanders of male units, especially during basic training but not only [then], are common in the IDF). The older woman in the white doctor’s coat is the unit’s KABAN, an acronym for the (real) position of a Mental Health Officer. This particular Kaban (sporting a heavy eastern European…accent) explains that “there’s nothing wrong mentally with these soldiers. The only problem is they use their mother’s soap, and that makes them feminine”. The reporter shown later on asks “how do you prefer to face the enemy, with a hand-grenade, or with pom-poms?”…The highly subtle slogan for the campaign is: “Soldier, mom’s soap makes you feminine. Change to a men’s soap!”.

Dubi pretty much sums it up: using female products makes men weak, and we know they’re weak because they engage in feminized activities like cheerleading. And they let a woman (a hot, blonde woman at that!) be in charge and tell them what to do! Only in a crazy, de-masculinized, upside-down world would such a thing happen! And, of course, weak men make a weak military, which means they might not be able to beat the (Arab) enemy.

Notice that at the end of the video, it ends with a shot of the soldiers standing in formation with their pom-poms, backed by a tank that has its guns stuffed with what appear to be flowers (roses?). I don’t know if flowers sticking out of the barrels of guns has the same association with the peace movement in Israel as it does the U.S. (where it is an image widely connected to the 1960s anti-war movement); if so, it appears that an anti-war stance is also being feminized here.

I wonder what female IMF unit commanders think when they see this video (if they do), which says that their position of authority is a sign of an emasculated, weak force? Maybe they find it funny or don’t care at all. I dunno.

Awesome find, Dubi!