Old Spice Advertisement - Zaid Hasan and Dior Sauvage Elixir - Nethan Aranha

Old Spice Advertisement analysis:

Thesis statement and review (focus audience and public figure representation):

The advertisement commences as a well-known celebrity (Isaiah Mustafa - An American actor and former NFL player) who is well-built and greets an audience of women in order to be able to gain their attention through the spectrum of attractiveness. Isaiah Mustafa further attempts to entice the audience of females by changing his demeanor (eyebrow raising) constantly and utilizing a deep voice which is a technique that biologically captivates females. This is done in order to portray a certain image of how an individual could epitomize if the ‘old spice’ product is utilized, specifically, women’s significant other. 

Information

This advertisement initially focuses upon formulating value of meaning and affiliating it towards the product in order to allure potential customers whom are watching the advertisement into purchasing the product as they adhere to the fact that if they were to consume the product, they can resemble such a prominent meaning (as they had attached in their mind). Isaiah further substantiates the theory in the above as he states the following: “Hello ladies, look at your man, now back to me, now back to your man, now back to me! Sadly, he isn’t me.” This statement helps facilitate the idea behind the concept of “attachment of meaning” which is utilized to allure customers into thinking that consuming the product will ameliorate and/or alleviate their lives, especially the social aspects of their lives. The statement, “Sadly, he isn’t me”, induces the emotions of inferiority in customers as the ideal picture of a man affirms the idea that he is preferable to others due to the fact that he utilizes the product being sold. Isaiah then states “but if he stopped using lady-scented body wash and switched to old spice, he could smell like he is me.” This use of embellishment of the product and degradation of all other products is utilized to regulate the emotional state of consumers through the use of humiliation of the product in order for people to but the product to feel as if they were accepted by society due to their use of the product which attaches to their overall value. Therefore, the purpose of doing so is to be able to promulgate the product of old spice and present value to it so that people derive their value from the consumption of old spice care products. As a result, people aspire to epitomize the prominent figure presented in the advertisement, hence the statement, “Sadly, he isn’t me” with the solution of “he could smell like me” with the addition of the old spice body wash product. 

Tone:

This portion of the advertisement leads to the concept of “attachment of meaning”, it is an approach in which people “attach” value to the consumption of certain goods being sold. The following depicts the complete theory of attachment of meaning. There are two sides present in the normal human brain, the left side for logic and rational while the right is for emotional, intuitive, and visual. The left brain catenates logical bearings while the right brain conforms with associations of relative things. In relation to interviews, the key to being able to understand how advertisements allure consumers is through the right brain where people formulate connections/associations according to things with their everyday lives. Faith is a function of the right brain. “Our human tendency to choose things which make us feel good is hijacked by advertisers and used to make us buy products, often without us realizing it is happening” (adfree cities.org.uk). Basically, what this quote asseverates, is the fact that people nowadays are buying according to how they feel and not reassessing the product and/or service’s convenience. This has been further developed earlier by the patron of this document (myself - Zaid Hasan) in section two. The primary focus of this sector is to be able to identify and explain how “attachment of meaning” affects the human brain. The idea of this contrivance is to be able to connect an enormous and/or well known figure to a certain product and/or service giving it a wider range of meaning. For example, in a recent World cup prepared Pepsi ad, large football figures such as Messi and Ronaldinho are featured in an attempt to enlarge the scope of positive feeling of consumers to Pepsi.

Image:

The advertisement also scopes upon the ‘playing’ with the audience’s emotions as it utilizes constant comparison between the Isaiah and the men in whom are watching the advertisement. This is done in order to create excitement amongst the audience in relation to the concept of being able to epitomize the man present within the advertisement. Another way this is done in the advertisement is when Isaiah holds other desirable products that consist of tickets and diamonds which are utilized to additionally trick the audience into thinking that consuming the product will increase the chances of accessing products such as diamonds and favorable tickets.

Text utilization;

The advertisement then takes the audience to a boat in a body of water to represent cleanliness as the product being shown is a body wash product. In addition, the setting of a boat in a body of water is utilized to depict an ideal location that many would like to be on, hence utilizing it will support the affiliation between the ideal location and the product which can expedite the allurement of the product.

This advertisement was made during a time where the internet was rising exponentially and at a time where everyone utilized the internet, therefore, this advertisement is a powerful way that enables the access of the old spice product to reach millions of people without physical means. This is extremely effective as it enables old spice to digitally access audiences of millions of people without a physical attempt and hence saves a large amount of resources. 

“Anything is possible when your man smells like old spice and not a lady, I’m on a horse”, This technique is utilized in order to create the effect of embellishing the product’s effects on individuals in relation to being able to attach the concept of achievement to the use of the product. 

Therefore, as a result, the product attempts to allure itself to customers in many ways, in many psychological and literal ways that prominently derive implicit signs that entices customers into purchasing the product.

• Zaid Hasan