Old Spice Bahamas Ad Analysis
How are viewpoints and ideologies communicated?
Draw on a range of examples to illustrate your analysis:
Old Spice is an American brand of male grooming products such as deodorants, shampoos, body washes, soaps etc. Initially, first targeted to women with men's products being released only before Christmas at the end of the year. However, over time as the men's products found more success it began to focus exclusively on those.
The model used in this ad is Isaiah Mustafa, same model used in the extremely popular video advertisement of old spice called ''The Man You Can Smell Like''. The reference to that video is the ideological message it carries,which is essentially that if you use this body wash you become more masculine and therefore become more appealing to women. The Old Spice Man promotes this unrealistic idea by depicting the ''ideal man''. A lot of postmodern and non-traditional elements have been used in the ad as well. The surrealistic image has Mustafa's head erupting like a volcano and his upper body is covered in sand with trees coming out of it as if it's an island. The volcano erupting on his head could be some sort of implication that if you use Old Spice it will blow your mind due to it being different from other male grooming products. A person fishing a shark is also present on the image and there are multiple lakes on the model's body. A reason why Old Spice sticks to its unconventional ads is mainly because they stand out compared to all the other grooming product ads. They are unpredictable and very memorable. Evidence for that is the heavy success of their ''The Man You Can Smell Like'' as mentioned earlier, which has billions of views on YouTube, that may be another reason for them to incorporate similar elements to this ad.
The text ''Old Spice Bahamas Scent comes from an anti-perspirant mine in the Bahamas. This fact has not been fact-checked'' is intended to be humorous, due to the silliness of words used such as ''the anti-perspirant mine'' which sound absurd and do not exist. The audience is protected by the Consumer Protection Act, 2007 which sets to protect the public from misleading advertisements, which is the reason why information contained in ads has to be fact-checked constantly. The line ''This fact as not been fact-checked'' is supposed to make us laugh and accompanies the style of marketing Old Spice sticks to,which is postmodern, very ridiculous and absurd. The Bahamas is also a place visited by rich people so by using such a scent and having their model being the island itself in the ad, they might be trying to imply that the consumer itself will be closer to the breathtaking place in the Caribbeans.
In conclusion the main viewpoint communicated in this ad is that by using Old Spice you can also become ''the ideal man'', which is the main ideology communicated by Old Spice in general usually through postmodern, humorous and absurd advertisements.
Draw on a range of examples to illustrate your analysis:
Old Spice is an American brand of male grooming products such as deodorants, shampoos, body washes, soaps etc. Initially, first targeted to women with men's products being released only before Christmas at the end of the year. However, over time as the men's products found more success it began to focus exclusively on those.
The model used in this ad is Isaiah Mustafa, same model used in the extremely popular video advertisement of old spice called ''The Man You Can Smell Like''. The reference to that video is the ideological message it carries,which is essentially that if you use this body wash you become more masculine and therefore become more appealing to women. The Old Spice Man promotes this unrealistic idea by depicting the ''ideal man''. A lot of postmodern and non-traditional elements have been used in the ad as well. The surrealistic image has Mustafa's head erupting like a volcano and his upper body is covered in sand with trees coming out of it as if it's an island. The volcano erupting on his head could be some sort of implication that if you use Old Spice it will blow your mind due to it being different from other male grooming products. A person fishing a shark is also present on the image and there are multiple lakes on the model's body. A reason why Old Spice sticks to its unconventional ads is mainly because they stand out compared to all the other grooming product ads. They are unpredictable and very memorable. Evidence for that is the heavy success of their ''The Man You Can Smell Like'' as mentioned earlier, which has billions of views on YouTube, that may be another reason for them to incorporate similar elements to this ad.
The text ''Old Spice Bahamas Scent comes from an anti-perspirant mine in the Bahamas. This fact has not been fact-checked'' is intended to be humorous, due to the silliness of words used such as ''the anti-perspirant mine'' which sound absurd and do not exist. The audience is protected by the Consumer Protection Act, 2007 which sets to protect the public from misleading advertisements, which is the reason why information contained in ads has to be fact-checked constantly. The line ''This fact as not been fact-checked'' is supposed to make us laugh and accompanies the style of marketing Old Spice sticks to,which is postmodern, very ridiculous and absurd. The Bahamas is also a place visited by rich people so by using such a scent and having their model being the island itself in the ad, they might be trying to imply that the consumer itself will be closer to the breathtaking place in the Caribbeans.
In conclusion the main viewpoint communicated in this ad is that by using Old Spice you can also become ''the ideal man'', which is the main ideology communicated by Old Spice in general usually through postmodern, humorous and absurd advertisements.
A well written essay in which you show strong understanding of this post modern advert, the humour and the context of the advert. You imply that part of the humour comes from the mythical masculinity presented, although this point could perhaps be made more explicit. Good work. V
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