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The Man Your Man Should Be Like: Masculinity and the Male Body in Old Spice's Smell Like a Man, Man and Smell is Power Campaigns

Kluch, Yannick
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395662263

Abstract Details

2014, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Popular Culture.
This thesis analyzes the highly popular Old Spice commercials as a contemporary cultural guide on masculinity; it addresses a number of issues related to the construction of masculinities in contemporary American culture. Both Old Spice campaigns under analysis offer great insight into cultural ideals related to the construction of hegemonic masculinity. Through a detailed textual analysis of the commercials in these campaigns, I unravel those ideals and analyze how masculinity is constructed through the protagonists' appearances and bodies, sexuality, behaviors, as well as their character patterns and mannerisms. I argue that while both Old Spice campaigns suggest that hegemonic masculinity is the only acceptable form of masculinity, hegemonic masculinity is perpetuated in two very different ways. In the Smell Like A Man, Man campaign, satire is used as a means to disguise the blunt promotion of hegemonic masculinity. The Smell is Power campaign, on the other hand, uses a very blunt approach: its overt character clearly encourages the viewer to directly align with hegemonic notions of masculinity. Both campaigns are thus representative of a certain ambiguity that is so often to be found in postmodern texts. The analysis in my thesis therefore analyzes how both campaigns serve as prime examples of how paradoxical American beliefs about masculinity are in contemporary, postmodern America.
Becca Cragin (Advisor)
Marilyn Motz (Committee Member)
Rebecca Kinney (Committee Member)
67 p.
American Studies; Communication; Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Marketing; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Womens Studies
American Culture Studies; Mass Media; Film Studies; Advertising Studies; Gender Studies; Sexuality; Womens Studies; Masculinity; Hegemonic Masculinity; Male Body; Body Image; Old Spice; Marketing; Postmodernism; Television Studies; Visual Culture

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kluch, Y. (2014). The Man Your Man Should Be Like: Masculinity and the Male Body in Old Spice's Smell Like a Man, Man and Smell is Power Campaigns [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395662263

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kluch, Yannick. The Man Your Man Should Be Like: Masculinity and the Male Body in Old Spice's Smell Like a Man, Man and Smell is Power Campaigns. 2014. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395662263.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kluch, Yannick. "The Man Your Man Should Be Like: Masculinity and the Male Body in Old Spice's Smell Like a Man, Man and Smell is Power Campaigns." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395662263

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1395662263
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This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.