I think I am going to do my research paper on the Old Spice commercials that we see frequently on television. I think these commercials would be great to research and revise because these commercials just scream M-A-N. The men in the commercials, do everything in their power to say “I am man. Hear me roar!” I get so tickled every time I see these commercials on TV, and I started thinking about what the commercials would be like if they were a commercial for a women’s body wash. The commercials are kind of sexualized for men, so I am thinking if they are that sexualized and the target audience is men, how sexualized would the commercials be if they were targeted towards women? I think it would be great to switch the male’s role in with a female. What would this switch be like?
My audience is just everyday people who watch advertisements on TV. I want my audience to see that men are not as sexualized as women are in commercials. I also want the audience to see what would be different in these commercials if the male role was given to a female. The expectations for this paper will be for me to show how these commercials will challenge the idea of heteronormativity by making the girl the dominant and tough one. I am going to change the commercials around so that the girl is the one using the body wash to get the attention of the guy.
I was thinking I could try to find a lot of sources about how women are represented in commercials. The commercials themselves will be a big information source for me. I also think the Old Spice website will be of some help because it is just MANLY. I will probably need to include a visual of some sort, but I don’t know what to use other than the commercials’ links since they are commercials.
I need to start finding research materials now before I can even get a good start on my paper. I need a lot of information on women in commercials. I think if I start now I will be set.
I am a little worried about finding enough sources, and I am also having trouble deciding between doing my paper on these commercials or possibly a series of weight loss commercials. I thought it might be interesting to put the man in the woman’s shoes for weight loss commercials like Slimquick or Weight Watchers. What do y’all think?
I want to prove that women and me are always represented certain ways. I want to prove that the roles are rarely switched.
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Hi Darby,
ReplyDeleteI just saw one of these commercials last night - the one with the man on a horse. It was hilarious! But you are right: there is definitely a hyper-masculinity occurring within these ads, especially because they are encouraging men to use body wash, AND encouraging women to buy it for their man, so that he "smells like a man."
One thing to think about is how you might flip these ads. What might the message of these ads be if they were more like ads for Dove Beauty wash - ads with the woman showering and smiling that are highly sexualized. You might look into representations of men and women in ads that relate to beauty products, and use that to help you craft a thought-provoking flip. We can discuss this more tomorrow if you would like. ~Megan
I really like your idea, Darby. It's really interesting and original. I've never seen any of these commercials, but they sound like they would be pretty funny in the way they portray men as "manly men." While I was researching for a women's studies class last quarter, I found a really good article about the representations of men and women in TV commercials, and how they are portrayed. Let me know if you want it, it might be really helpful.
ReplyDeleteI also think your idea of switching the genders in the commercials would be really interesting. It would make the audience interested -- I know I definitely would want to read about how the roles would change.
I think this is a really good idea. I was actually thinking of doing tag body spray which has very similar commercials. I think it is interesting that these commercials are targeted towards men AND women because not only are they selling a man's product, but they also are encouraging women to buy it. On the other hand, women's beauty products are ONLY targeted towards women. They would never expect a man to buy his woman a beauty product. Maybe you could go into why this is. So, rewriting this and switching the roles would definitely change your target audience.
ReplyDeleteAlso, do you think that by making the girl the dominant one getting the attention of the guy she will be seen as slutty? It changes the whole idea of the commercial.
I think for resources you should look at more ads of men and women and see how they are represented in them.
I think this will be a really good paper, I look forward to seeing how it turns out!
I really like the idea of doing your paper on the Old Spice commercials. I think it will be more entertaining for you to put the woman in the man's shoes and you could really have fun with it!
ReplyDeleteWhen you rewrite the commercial, you could either hyper sexual or hyper feminize the woman. Have the lady be ultra sexy in a slinky dress, or you could dress her in pink ruffles with glitter. You could even make the woman very masculine and dominating. OR why not take the approach that the Planter's peanut commercial took? The one with the not so attractive girl walks past good looking men who all stop what they are doing to stare...it's because she had rubed the peanuts on her as perfume. ha! So it seems like you'll have a lot of freedom to play with the woman's role in the commerical.
As for sources, I'd say use other ads, like the Planter's peanut one, or other ads that woman get attention and analyze why she gets that attention and who is it from.
Sounds like it'll be a fun paper to read! I'm looking forward to reading it!