We all have our favorite commercials. Businesses have been selling their products through commercials for years. How is it that businesses play with the viewer’s emotions to get us to buy their product? For men, it usually involves sex or how guys can impress women because companies believe that any guy will be drawn into a message like that. Most commercials try to get a women's attention through cleaning ads or dinner ads because that’s what they think a women wants to see. Every product is different, so from body sprays to hamburger helper, they all connect to someone.
The ad I will be analyzing is produced by Old Spice and is titled “Smell Like a Man”. Old Spice targets men and makes them believe in order to smell like a man, you have to use their body spray, body wash and deodorant. In this clip, they chose to cast a big, buff, gentleman with an extremely deep voice who is meant to be the man of every girl’s dreams. They did this to convey a symbolic message to women that their man could be like him if he used Old Spice body wash. The clip over emphasizes what the body wash does by giving this image. She, the woman watching the commercial, could be sailing on a boat with diamonds and tickets to all of her favorite things if her man were like the man in the commercial. This is the attention grabber, and it works perfectly to sell the product.
The producer really tries to draw in the viewer’s attention when it starts. The clips starts by showing the buff gentlemen standing outside a running shower wearing nothing but a towel. He addresses the viewer by saying “Hello ladies“. It then goes on to show a series on fantastical and dreamy scenes that promote their product. Besides just imagery, the producers use a series of other techniques to help glaze the message. Audio, camera angles, and costumes are just some of the many.
The audio clips in this commercial change according to the background. In the first scene, you can hear the shower gently running behind the man’s voice. In the second scene, the man is still talking but there is now an audio clip of sounds of wind and seagulls behind the voice. This adds on to the fantasy image by associating a sound, which adds more to the tone with feeling and emotion. The overall tone of the clip is kind of surreal fantasy. They used a fantasy that everyone can relate to and that everyone wants to show in this commercial. There are pretty basic camera shots in this clip. The only camera angles they use are head on shots that alternate from close ups to shots that only show from the waist up of the man. The only time the man’s entire body is shown is at the beginning and end of the clip. There was an assortment of costumes and scenery in this clip, from nothing but towels to a sweater and some jeans. The background varies a lot as well, going from a bathroom to a boat, and then to him sitting on a horse on a beach. The only graphic that is used is the Old Spice signature at the end, accompanied by their catchy little tune.
The structure of the message is a strange one. “Buy Old Spice and be a real man.” is the direct message being conveyed by the commercial, but the commercial isn’t talking right to the men watching it. The commercial takes a weird route of communication by talking directly to men and showing them what they would be like if they used Old Spice, but at the same time, it’s also drawing women in with the whole fantasy storyline. The commercial includes aspects that would draw a woman in as well as a man. By doing this, Old Spice is able to reach out to a wider range of audience members. The stereotypes used in this clip are that all men are supposed to be “Mr. Fantasy Man”, and that all women like their man that way. They also suggest that if the girls have their boys use the product, this is who they will be.
Media producers play off peoples’ emotions by using images to trigger emotions that they know will sell their product. For example, a commercial that is trying to get you to donate to a non-profit organization might display sad images to make you feel bad about their cause. This would make a lot of people more interested in the cause and more eager to donate their money.
The technical aspects support and further the messages meant by a producer by allowing for a more intriguing form of communication of the message. By using interesting images, flashy lighting, and catchy audio to convey the message, the commercial becomes more interesting and more widely understandable to ordinary people.
As you can see, there are many ways that a producer can manipulate his/her message and the people that view it.
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