Manpaign
Walt Whitman once said of masculinity: “I am large, I contain multitudes.” Advertising and pop culture has mostly been guilty of stereotyping men, but right now, we’re seeing something genuinely quite new and interesting which attempts to portray the ‘real man’. The Old Spice ad has caught everyone’s attention, shifting from macho man to centaur man. Then there’s the new male Dove campaign, which is a very planner-y rollicking ride through modern manhood. According to Unilever, 3/4 of men find it difficult to identify with the men they see in advertising and feel stereotyped and misrepresented. In turn, Dove attempt to tell men they don’t have to be 16 and desperate for sex, a buffed model or a sporting titan to want to smell better. Instead, they can just be themselves. It’s a nice sentiment and conversation-starter. At the heart of these ads is a mockery of macho masculinity used to sell anything feminine. The gag about the subservient man whose life is controlled by a woman is tackled in Dodge’s recent Man’s Last Stand campaign. We are introduced to emasculated men with defeated faces and patronised taglines like, ‘I carry your lip balm’ (sorry paddy!), which are then used to justify the purchase of a Dodge Charger as an act of male rebellion. Of course, when you take on gender you get a reaction and Dodge certainly has with the official female response: ‘Woman’s Last Stand’.
Thanks to Gavin Cumine and sarah rabia for this story.
References
The Independent
The Globe and Mail
Chatting to Ed Warren and Matt Hardisty
