a discourse analysis of men's body wash ads



As most grooming, cleanliness, and body-care activities and tools (such as brushes and soap) are culturally-coded as feminine, companies aiming to sell body wash to men are faced with the task of masculinizing a "feminine" product and making it socially acceptable for men's use. The way this is usually accomplished, as a cursory glance at the resulting ads will reveal, can be summed up in a word: bluntly. Ad text proclaims, outright, that the products displayed are "MADE FOR MEN" and command the viewer to "SMELL LIKE A MAN, MAN." However, there are also more subtle aspects of these ads which perform normative, heterosexual masculinity in additional ways, drawing on economic, sexual, and combative rhetorical devices and constructing what it means to be a good man.

In the sample that I have gathered, there are both ads with human subjects and without human subjects, the latter of which tend to be more text-focused. In the ads with human subjects, the visuals place an emphasis on musculature, arms, and the torso, never the thighs. Below the waist, they are covered or obscured -- not even a view of the lower back is permitted. In that sense, although the masculine-coded subjects are showering or leaving the shower, the visuals are careful not to sexualize them too much with views of the lower abdomen or upper thighs. Never dissected or shown without their heads, men are whole, complete subjects to be identified with and desired in the sense of desire-to-be-like. As Ricciardelli found in a survey-based study of masculinity and appearance, "in its ideal form, embodied masculinity was associated with status, wealth, attractiveness, and fitness," and that result can be seen across the discourse of men's ads (Ricciardelli 189).

In one ad for Gillette body wash, a shirtless human figure coming out of a shower (who, nonsensically, has dry skin and already has a towel wrapped around the waist) is partially superimposed by an image of presumably the same figure, this one wearing a white (or possibly light blue, depending on how one interprets the filters and lighting) button-up shirt and tie and holding a cell phone, mouth open as though caught mid-sentence. The garments and phone, in addition to the skyscraper in the background, and in contrast to the helmeted, plaid-clad, faceless working-class-coded figure just to the left, call up associations of "businessmen" and class-based economic power.

By presenting the businessman and the showering figure as one and the same, Gillette is drawing a connection between users of their product and a particular kind of man: one who is "successful" in a white-collar career. The emphasis in the picture is not on the half-naked body but on who a man is when he's out of the shower, reinforcing a discourse in which a man's career skills take precidence over his sex appeal. Compared to Axe advertisements, this ad appears to be targeting a slightly older audience, one that has already entered the workforce and whose priorities include career advancement.


The backgrounds of the images encode power in two ways: the power of rawness, and the power of wealth. They consist of minimalistic showers, a rough-looking gray concrete-like wall, abstract solid backgrounds (frequently black or gray, mimicking how the products typically have gray or black bottles), a ruddy leather texture, a beach and palm fronds associated with relaxation and luxury, and the previously-mentioned construction site and modern skyscraper. In these ads, context is either absent, literal (as in the case of the product's site of use), or reminiscent of financial wealth (and hence, power).

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Axe Ad 1. N.d. Graphic. Adpressive. Web. 4 Mar 2014. (http://adpressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/axe-clean-dirty.jpg).

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Gillette Ad 1. N.d. Graphic. Wordpress. Web. 4 Mar 2014. (http://anadaday.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/gilletteodorshieldprint.jpg).

Gillette Ad 2. N.d. Graphic. Coolspotters. Web. 4 Mar 2014. (http://www4.images.coolspotters.com/photos/635457/bryce-draper-and-gillette-fresh-clean-cool-wave-body-wash-gallery.jpg).

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Nivea Ad. N.d. Graphic. New York Times. Web. 4 Mar 2014. (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/business/media/08adco.html?_r=1&)., pp. 134-156.

Old Spice Ad 1. N.d. Graphic. Digital Trends. Web. 4 Mar 2014. (http://icdn6.digitaltrends.com/image/old-spice-commercial-ad-650x0.jpg).

Old Spice Ad 2. N.d. Graphic. Wordpress. Web. 4 Mar 2014. (http://marketingstylee.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/old_spice_the_man_your_man_could_smell_like.jpg?w=630).

Old Spice Ad 3. N.d. Graphic. Cinemablend. Web. 4 Mar 2014. (http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news_img/19857/Jamie_Foxx_19857.jpg).

Ricciardelli, Rosemary. "Masculinity, Consumerism, And Appearance: A Look At Men's Hair." Canadian Review Of Sociology 48.2 (2011): 181-201. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.

Rose, Gillian. Visual Methodologies. 3rd ed. London: SAGE Publications, 2012. Print.