Through out this commercial the woman is seen as just a sexual object. The toe to head panning of the camera accentuates the male gaze as this is how the male is perceiving her. The entire commercial is a fantasy of the man in this ad. He snaps his fingers and piece by piece her clothing comes off then she goes away for a moment and comes back painted in gold like a goddess. Scopophilia is a large factor in this because the man and woman don't even touch until the end of the commercial but we are shown many times how he just sensually glares at her.
I hope the other women who saw this on youtube found it as outrageous as I did that this is a commercial for a PERFUME and the product isn't shown until the very end in just a tiny blurb.
I think this is a very interesting advertisement, and I think you made some great observations about it. The male gaze as well as feminism are displayed throughout it. I appears as if the woman has zero control over the situation and the man gets anything he wants at the snap of his finger. It seems like this is very common in cologne or perfume ads. It seems like they are all very sexual advertisements and that a man can make a woman do whatever he wants as long as he smells good. The women seem to have zero control over the situation, this one especially, and I think that is where you were spot on about the male gaze.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of the product is to ensure it conveys the idea that "If you buy this, you'll get this". Although it can definately be seen as an overt form of sexism, it is by no means uncommon. The inability for the industry to change does not come from within the industry, but rather from men not being able to change; we want our cake and to eat it too. We want to be able to snap our fingers and get what we desire, regardless of what it is. Media can be looked at as not telling you want to think, but rather telling you what to think about, and ads like this are designed to tell you what to think about. All the PR people within the industry will tell you there is no such thing as good or bad PR; it's just expected or unexpected. On youtube, this video can have as many negative comments that it wants, but it is still getting millions of more views, which means that people are talking about it, and that's what matters to the industry.
ReplyDeleteWoah, that was an interesting ad to say the least. I agree with Kyle that this similar to the Axe's effect. If you have this particular scent that women will flock to you or do whatever you want. I think that these ads for colonge need to change because it is giving the buyers a sense of fantasy that will never come true. No girl is going to fall in love with you or do whatever you want because you smell nice. You should shower anyways and smell nice not for a girl but for you and to save everyone else's noses!
ReplyDelete