According to Old Spice, the man wants a girlfriend. According to Argentina's best selling beer, Andes, the man wants a girlfriend. What both brands also agree on is that by their very nature women will only want to be girlfriends if men can comply to a multitude of qualities that men (by their very nature) will never have.
It's a tough situation. Luckily brands are here to help us negotiate our gender differences and expectations:
Step 1 - to 'get' a girlfriend fool the female olfactory sense into believing you are the perfect man (which translates as simultaneously a motorcycle owner, kitchen maker, beach showerer, cake cooker, forest adventurer, swan diver).
Step 2 - once the girlfriend acquired continue to perpetuate the lie by answering her phone calls in a manufactured audioscape to dupe her into thinking you are unable to see her because of a terrible situation beyond your control (diarrhea, hospital emergency, bar mitzvah, traffic jam, karate class, babysitting).
I think it's a an interesting demonstration of cowardliness and fear of solitude which is rarely reserved to men. In many ways these ads are more representative of human traits ( which applies both men and women) and our high hopes that things might hide these aspects of our kind than gender specifics. Although undeniably prince charming fantasies and men lying to the ones they consider themselves the closest to make for funny (selling) situations.
Demonstration:
June 2010 - Old Spice Deodorant
It's a tough situation. Luckily brands are here to help us negotiate our gender differences and expectations:
Step 1 - to 'get' a girlfriend fool the female olfactory sense into believing you are the perfect man (which translates as simultaneously a motorcycle owner, kitchen maker, beach showerer, cake cooker, forest adventurer, swan diver).
Step 2 - once the girlfriend acquired continue to perpetuate the lie by answering her phone calls in a manufactured audioscape to dupe her into thinking you are unable to see her because of a terrible situation beyond your control (diarrhea, hospital emergency, bar mitzvah, traffic jam, karate class, babysitting).
I think it's a an interesting demonstration of cowardliness and fear of solitude which is rarely reserved to men. In many ways these ads are more representative of human traits ( which applies both men and women) and our high hopes that things might hide these aspects of our kind than gender specifics. Although undeniably prince charming fantasies and men lying to the ones they consider themselves the closest to make for funny (selling) situations.
Demonstration:
June 2010 - Old Spice Deodorant
January 2010 - Andes Beer (Del Campo/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi Buenos Aires)
