I KNOW YOU’VE SEEN THIS. But while it was going viral, BG was staring at her supercomputer hitting refresh every 15 minutes to vote for David Tennant. And we didn’t want this not to go down on our permanent record. So.
Can you smell the aroma of manufactured manliness? Because there is an epic, and pungent, battle underway in the men’s personal care aisle. [Yesterday], Advertising Age declare[d] that we are seeing “the biggest array of product launches for men in nearly a decade and maybe ever.” The major competitors in this pissing contest: Procter & Gamble, which is responsible for Old Spice and Gillette, and Unilever’s new line, Dove Men+Care (apparently a plus sign equals masculinity).
Chances are you’re already familiar with Old Spice’s latest offering –namely Isaiah Mustafa, the charming star of its viral “I’m on a horse” ad, which bashes “lady-scented body wash” and orders dudes to “smell like a man, man.” The spot is full of satire and swagger — a winning combo, especially for men whose choice of personal armor is ironic cockiness. And as AdAge notes, “An ad for Gillette’s body wash, with a fairly obvious proxy for the new Dove product in the shower, pointedly says, ‘Just because it says it’s for men doesn’t mean it is.'” Nyah-nyah, Gillette just said you smell like a woman! Whatchu gonna do about that, Dove?
Nothing, judging from the Dove “Manthem,” which you’ll find below. Above all else, a Dove man is comfortable. Really, really comfortable. He doesn’t need to thump his chest to prove his manliness — that’s what his wife, three kids and home are for, it seems. He’s succeeded as a man (read: a pro-creator and provider) and so he can calmly retreat to his bathroom sanctuary and lather himself with an unpretentious body wash that doesn’t scream “FOR REAL MEN ONLY.” He is settled in his domesticated bliss and doesn’t need a damn horse, OK?
I don’t know about you, but I am fascinated by these dueling masculine identities. Bring on the advertainment.
“Sense of humor:” it’s in pretty much everyone’s top three requirements for a mate, and fair enough (though I say hey, don’t settle, go for “grasp” of humor, or heck, “mastery”). But when it comes to getting laughs, do men (or, OK, lesbians) face a tougher crowd? A New Scientist article about the neuro-circuitry of comedy contains this interesting morsel:
“Men and women…seem to process jokes slightly differently. Although both sexes laugh at roughly the same number of jokes, women show greater activity in the left prefrontal cortex than men (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 102, p 16496). “This suggests a greater degree of executive processing and language-based decoding,” says [researcher Dean Mobbs]. As a result, women take significantly longer than men to decide whether they find something funny*, though that doesn’t seem to spoil their enjoyment of the joke. Indeed, women show a greater response in the limbic system than men, suggesting they feel a greater sense of reward.”
*Margin of error: One Super Bowl. ADS NOT FUNNY**: this we knew in a nano.
Filed under: Treats — posted by Breakup Girl @ 10:21 am
On the one hand, the whole guys-with-lady-parts brand of humor is, you know, not so fresh. On the other, neither are tampon ads featuring girls dressed in white riding horses. So these sneaky ads — which, yes, are from the Tampax people — seem pretty promising as viral marketers, and menstrual demystifiers to boot. Bonus: scrufftastic cutie!
1. Watch venomous anti-gay marriage ad entitled “A Gathering Storm.”
2. Hear lines such as “The clouds are dark, and the winds are strong, and I am afraid. Some who advocate for same-sex marriage have taken the issue far beyond same-sex couples. They want to bring the issue into my life. My freedom will be taken away.” Snarf Frappuccino.
3. Cleanse palate below.UPDATED! N.O.M. was able to have the hilarious Weather Girls remix of their ad taken down! So… 3. You click around YouTube looking for another posting of it and notice with a chuckle just how many parodies there are of this putrid ad and then…
4. Settle on watching Lizz Winstead’s preposterously non-sequitur-filled take on the subject:
Before there was BG, there was supermuscleman Charles Atlas,* who helped the 97-pound weaklings of the world find love by bulking themselves up and punching bullies out. “Chumps” became “champs,” and then the ladies — well, “They obey your silent commands.”
Of course, with your X-Ray Specs, you could see right through all this goofy advertising, but instead — much more fun — you could enjoy, via Boing Boing, this wee gallery of jaunty old comic book ads, which led me to all sorts of [more elaborate] others as well. See you at the ant farm!
e-mail to a friend in need
Before there was BG, there was supermuscleman 
