As a hard-working, self-respecting woman in America I am somewhat confused..for a lack of a better term. These women depicted in this ad are animals, clawing, diving, and climbing their way all over this man, who, despite his weak attempts to weave his way out of the crowd of women, is basking in glory due to the fact that he is covered in women scantily dressed and literally "clawing" for his attention. While the overall ambiance of the male figure in this ad could be analyzed I would like to focus my attention on the young ladies depicted in this advertisement.
Through this ad I am reminded of the movie Mean Girls, in which high school girls literally end up kicking, clawing, tackling, and fighting each other over status or reputation. This is what is happening in this ad. Their animalistic persona created gives them a shallow sense of character with a lack of self-respect. Who would want to dive onto the ground to fight for a man, who knows absolutely nothing about you..nor necessarily cares?
Although it is this company's purpose to attract a specific target market of men to their product, they are in turn, degrading women by giving them unrealistic qualities and stereotypes. Men who are attracted to this ad believe the fact that this spray will attract women to them as if they need them to feel complete in life. It is not good enough for a man to get to know one women who is attracted to him for his personality, but he now needs a multitude of women to come charging at him to feel confident or good about himself. As long as they maintain good hygiene what's the need for them to drown themselves in the overpowering smell of cologne.
I think you did a good job explaining this one. I had the same idea in my head, but I couldn't put it into words. In particular, the "animalistic persona" statement; the advertisement depicts women as animals rather than people, like you said, thus playing them on a lower rung of society than the man they so desire.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the perspective you used alot. I thought you used very suitable vocabulary and your relation of your character and supporting evidence (Mean Girls) was very creative. I think you hit a good point when you talked about men "knowing absolutely nothing about" the women that they are being trampled by, and you definitely can expand on this point to further your argument. You can look on the nature of the male/female relationship in this regard and show how men tend to be more sexually persistent as opposed to a woman's intellectual interest, and how the advertisement mocks this.
ReplyDeleteLucy, Draco, and Elaine here...
ReplyDeleteWe like the connection of american society to movies through Mean Girls and completely agree with you on this statement. This advertisement is degrading towards women and using the critical feminist theory to analyze the ad was an excellent choice.