A friend of mine recently described this series of commercials as extremely homoerotic. I spent some time thinking about that. I came to the conclusion that, when [in advertisements] there is a man (or men) without the presence of a woman (or women), there is an excessive tendency to think of that advertisement as homoerotic. However, when a woman appears in an advertisement solo or with other women just as attractive as she is, they are considered sex objects of an undeniably heterosexual disposition - resembling what executives think of as the common-man's fantasy; that is the intent of the production, and sex is the result.
The interesting thing about the old spice commercials - even though it is described as a men's product - many of the ads address women directly. First, they assume that there is a man in the world that this viewer-woman thinks of as "hers," then they show that the man in the commercial is far superior to their man, why? He uses old spice. Why does a commercial that gets most of its play on ESPN between advertisements for remedies to hair loss and erectile dysfunction address women? This is an extremely psychological device. Although the commercials address women - not just at the beginning, but again and again and again - just as many men (if not more based on the ad's placement into certain programming on certain channels) watch it. Does this then force men in the audience to think like a woman? And to acknowledge that everything that this muscle-bound well spoken black man represents is attractive in the classical sense?
The answer is yes.
Does this make many men, and many television executives uncomfortable?
That answer is also yes.
I think what my friend and Old Spice failed to realize when talking about eroticism is that: sometimes there is a person, place, or thing that is attractive from overlapping perspectives. The intent of the imagery matters not. It is how that imagery is interpreted by each individual.
Some of those individuals go and buy Old Spice.
Um, fabulous advertising campaign. Why might this be used on ESPN? You ask some good questions. Why do you think it might air on ESPN? Could it have to do with tone? It has a similar feel to me (with more skin) as the Bud radio ads "This is to you mister ________ man."
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