Check out this Evinrude commercial I saw on TV this morning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5xWLFHWkO8

I'm wondering if the Dove commercial, rather than using stereotypes solely for the purpose of selling products, is attempting to buck some of the stereotypes. I mean, it seems like the commercial points out some of the aspects of life that prove "Patriarchy Hurts Men, Too" like the necessity to be good at sports, be brave and strong, and be heterosexual. In some ways, I thought the commercial kind of refreshing.

I actually found the old spice ads rather funny. Ok, they're having their cake and eating it too - its still not ok to try to convince men to buy soap because it will make them, you know, clean, but I thought the ads were making fun of the exaggerated stereotyped supermasculinity thats used to sell anything that reeks of femeninity (like soap! Being clean is a girl thing! lol.) or alternatively the sterotypical male images used to sell men to women. ("I'm on a horse"!)

These ads--and the possibility that they influence anyone--is a reminder that it was humans who named themselves homo sapiens sapiens.

I find it interesting that the first old spice commercial, towards women, uses a black man as a symbol of masculinity and sexuality. He is also seen in a position of power, in the "women love diamonds and power symbols" aspect.

Whereas the other commercials seem to be geared towards men, and only feature white actors.

Smell like a man, man

Also: The slogan is
"Don't smell like sunsets and baby powder. Smell like jet fighters and punching."

As a survivor of male physical abuse ("domestic" abuse) I don't manage to find that funny.

I distinctly remember seeing an ad for men's deodorant that poked fun at all of the other commercials--showing various nerdy guys talking about pheremones and attracting women and all that--and ended with a man saying that he chose this deodorant because it "just worked".

I feel like it was either gillette or degree, but I can't find the commercial anywhere now to confirm it.

I don't really have a problem with the recent Old Spice videos, just because they seem to have their tongue so far into their cheek; they come across as a parody of hypermasculinity.

The Dove one, though, bothered me a lot, when it came up during the Super Bowl. It was the tag line: "You're a man. Now that you're comfortable with who you are..." and... I'm /trans/, and I'm /still working/ on figuring out who I am. I'm certainly not comfortable. Way to make me feel like an unperson, soap company.

I think it comes down to Old Spice showing masculinity like a big act, even while they're supporting the act, and Dove showing it like some ideal.

Since my boyfriend uses a shampoo that smells like an old lady, then I assume he *is* an old lady.

Or eventually, he wants to use a shampoo that does not make his scalp sad.

What I would be very interested in, is finding out WHEN and HOW certain types of scents were stereotyped as masculine or feminine. Anyone have any articles on that? (Like roses and vanilla --> female)

Incredibly interesting (and infuriating): Scent of a Woman - Sold for a Man

"Men's colognes have their biggest following among men under 35, African Americans and Latinos [...] The scents themselves are substantially different from what many people expect men's cologne to smell like. When reporters asked men and women to blind-test some of these new fragrances on a recent afternoon near Wall Street in New York, most people in both groups identified them as women's perfumes rather than men's colognes. Some used words like "feminine" or "romantic" to describe the aromas. With that in mind, men might want to be careful about wearing the newest scents to the office. "For work, keep it clean and serious," says Samantha von Sperling, an image consultant in New York. [cause feminine of course is NOT serious... argh!!!]Bob Roberts, a 33-year-old computer-security engineer in Jessup, Md., who took a chance with one of the newer scents, says it took some getting used to. When he first sprayed on Christian Dior's Dior Homme cologne, his wife said it smelled too flowery, "like a women's perfume." But after it settled in, the couple no longer smelled the iris and began to detect hints of cocoa and leather. Now, whenever Mr. Roberts sprays himself, he waits a half hour before getting too close to his wife."

And:
Who else is wearing female-marketed scents?

Personally, I find the Old Spice "The man your man could smell like" (both versions) hilarious. It's such a spoof! I don't care much for the "different scents" commercial, though.

The Dove one, on the other hand, takes itself too seriously, I think. It's trying to be all metro or something, but I find it vaguely irritating.

The Dodge Charger one? What a piece of crap, IMO.

i actually prefer this parody of the dodge ad over the other one.

You know, I really do live in a bubble; based on my social circle and media consumption choices I never encounter this kind of open misogyny, so sometimes I manage to forget it's still going on. Thanks for compiling these, even if it was kind of depressing to watch.

Many of you may find this post, over at the Equalwrites blog out of Princeton University, particularly interesting and related to the discussions above:

http://equalwrites.org/2010/02/09/emasculation-on-super-bowl-sunday/

What if these emasculation commercials are the way they are because advertisers are secretly worried that the so-called feminization of men is going to reduce their ad revenue?

If a man gets interested in a woman, his interest-in-sports is likely to go down (although there are females who very much like to watch sports on TV, I wouldn't expect anywhere near a large fraction.)

What if there is sort of a hidden/unwritten agenda that these commercials are warning against this disinterest ahead of time, so an unattached man will defend his consumption of televised sports and their advertisers as if it really mattered to his masculinity?

I quite liked the Dove commercial, it didn't seem to be endorsing the life that is expected for a person - the pictures were really at odds with the lyrics. It seemed more to be acknowledging that people are put on a treadmill of expectations.

The abrupt "I am on a horse" still cracks me up. It's displaying masculine stereotypes, but it's so way over the top and ridiculous that it's got to be tongue-in-cheek.

The "Men's Last Stand" one is just utterly pathetic, though.

I have to admit something: I really did not like the female parody of the Dodge ad. It was belittling the expectations that society does put on men, and which are, certainly, legitimate. So did the comment, "Poor men. They feel so put-upon with all the expectations of them."

It is important to remember, I think, that "Life for both sexes is arduous, difficult, a perpetual struggle." Both men and women (and also/especially people who don't identify as either) have a world of weight on their shoulders, and we have to respect that life is difficult for everyone in different ways. It does not help to put other people down because you don't think their struggles are as intense as yours.

I liked the male Dodge commercial better in part because he came to a much better conclusion: He is going endure hardship, but then reap the rewards and do something he wants. (The issue still arises of whether driving a masculine car is really what he wants or what society tells him he wants, but hey--they're selling masculine cars.) The female parody, on the other hand, just came off as whiney. (And what was with the line about encroaching baldness?--seriously, that's not his fault, and there's no reason to bring body image into it.)

My boyfriend and I love the Old Spice commercial. It's hilarious in the same way the commercials they did with Bruce Campbell were. I don't buy grooming products for my boyfriend (except for soap, which I'll get to in a minute) so if Old Spice thinks they're gettng me to buy something, they are sadly mistaken. They're just providing me with a hearty laugh, which is great.

As for the Dove for Men commercial, that makes me laugh for a different reason. My boyfriend uses regular Dove because that's what I buy (I like it and other soaps tend to irritate my skin). He doesn't much care what's in the soapdish as long as there's something there when he's in the shower. I could just as easily buy another brand and he'd use that one, too. Dove already has a male customer (via me, their female customer), do they really need to try and convert him to another of their products when he's not even paying attention in the first place?

I was really disturbed by an ad for hall's I saw a few weeks ago that implicated that basically, you're not a man if you have a cold. I wanted to send the link but aint that computer savvy so i couldn't find it. I believe it had some Tanzanian dude swing in to save a coughing grocery store opener so that he could be a man again. I was like, WOW. not just disabled men aren't really men, but even mildly, temporarily disabled men aren't men. men with coughs and runny noses. Thanks, HALLS!

Regarding the last commercial: Jesus H. Christ, this bullshit again! There have been multiple studies disproving the idea that women talk more than men, but it just won't die.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070705_gender-talk.htm: “The wide­spread and highly pub­li­cized ster­e­o­type about fe­male talk­a­tive­ness and male ret­i­cence is un­found­ed,” wrote psy­chol­o­gist Mat­thi­as Mehl of The Un­ivers­ity of Ar­i­zo­na and col­leagues in a pa­per on the stu­dies, to ap­pear in the July 6 is­sue of the re­search jour­nal Sci­ence."

Moreover: "The authors found a small but statistically reliable tendency for men to be more talkative than women overall -- especially in certain contexts, such as when they were conversing with their wives or with strangers. Women talked more to their children and to their college classmates." (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071108171518.htm)

Additional links to discussions on these two studies:
http://www.livescience.com/health/071129-most-talkative.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=women-talk-more-than-men

The two Old Spice ads

The Old Spice commercial did come from the same shop, Wieden + Kennedy, as the Dodge Charger ad.

"Yes, we heard Isaiah Mustafa say that men should stop using "lady-scented body wash" in the first ad. But we preferred to think that was an ironic send-up, just as the entire ad lampoons the absurd claims of the beauty and grooming industry — its implicit claim that buying whatever means you can go on a fantasy sail or horseback ride with Mustafa, and drip with diamonds and get tickets to that thing you like. Or live in a world where the most reductive and sexist tropes are mocked, not perpetuated. [...]

Hold that order. "Manmercials"? Hairy chests and breaking things and crushing cupcakes in the name of asserting one's cowed masculinity? "Smell Like A Man, Man!"? Gentlemen, you have officially missed the point."

I actually did see an awesome dodge charger ad featuring a gender-bending situation where a man was throwing a whole mess of stuff out a 2nd or 3rd story window yelling about a relationship being "over" and the woman grabbing the keys out of a coat that had been thrown down at her and driving off... They called it the "get-away car." While I think the man's last stand may have been misguided at best, to blatantly sexist at worst- I don't think all their ads have been remotely negative, and some, quite funny and different.

This is only vaguely related to the advertising men's product to woman, but have any of you ever walked through the men's underwear section before? the packages are almost always covered in some swarthy oiled man with a huge set of genitals prominently displayed by his underwear. I, myself, and the number of men i have spoken with on the matter, have never been convinced that wearing a particular type of underwear would make their stuff look any bigger. Rather, we all get this vaguely uncomfortable feeling and then make our decisions on whatever kind is particularly comfortable to wear. the question is, is this product being marketed to women, who often do the family clothes shopping? Or do underwear companies think that men like getting an eyeful of sack whenever they get new undies?

I was so pleased when I watched "Woman's Last Stand" in part because the parody is just spot on, and also because I thought some of the statements made by the women are about actual inequalities in power that exist between the genders. Most statements from both videos seem to be complaints about things that men and women would rather not do, but ultimately choose to do (whines). But a few statements stuck out as actual grievances about inequalities in agency.

"I will make 75 cents for every dollar you make doing the same job."

"I will assert myself and get called a bitch."

"I will catch you staring at my breasts but pretend not to notice."

"I will put my career on hold to raise your children."

"I will elect male politicians who will make decisions about my body."

The importance I found in comparing the two videos lies in the difference between the seriousness of their complaints. Some statements in "Woman's Last Stand" complain about a power structure that doesn't favor them and that they don't have a say in (justified grievances), whereas, "Man's Last Stand" complains entirely about unpleasant things that men would rather not do, but choose to do ultimately for their own gain (whines).

The question that occurs to me when I compare these is whether these unpleasant situations marked by lack of agency may actually exist for men in virtue of being men. Men have less power than governments and corporations; and more agency than convicts and minors, sure. But do they exist in oppressive situations where women are privileged? In other words, if Dodge were trying to make a video where men air actual complaints about the unpleasant things they do and can't help but do because they're men, what would those complaints be?

So far, I can think of:

"I will register with Selective Services at the age of 18 and be eligible for the draft."

Looking forward to your responses!

If you would like to read a more longer analysis of these videos, and a few comments on Woman's grievances: http://amyziz.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/mans-last-stand-and-womans-last-stand/