Can a bubble bath make you more of a man? Old Spice certainly has the answer and isn't afraid to insinuate that either. Old Spice posted the soon-to-viral "Questions" ad in mid-2010 on its official YouTube channel, teasing that very question. The ad mockingly stereotypes aspects of manhood by asking both male and female viewers to rate the manliness of their man or themselves. While “Questions” does little to describe the product it advertises, it proves its merit as effective advertising because it strikes all three strings of persuasion; tickles our love of humor by establishing a mental relationship between the product and manhood by using a perfect virile specimen to convey these points. Our towel-clad idol, Isaiah Mustafa, begins the commercial in what appears to be a shower on a beautiful beach. The scenic backdrop splits vertically down the center and moves away from Mustafa to reveal him rolling across logs seconds before he walks across the surface of a quiet lake while simultaneously catching a falling cake and entering a kitchen where he proceeds to electrically saw a countertop with his free hand remaining until he finally leaves the saw behind and drops the cake before coming to a stop at the top of a waterfall. He then dives off the watery cliff into a bubbling hot tub, which then peels away to reveal that Mustafa is riding a motorcycle. Mustafa flawlessly performed the entire skit while maintaining a stern focus on the camera. As we follow Mustafa through his transitions, he turns to female viewers and poses questions, implying that if their man used Old Spice body wash, then he might be more like Isaiah Mustafa. In his skit, the questions Mustafa asks are meant to exagg...... middle of paper ...... provided the company with an Internet sensation that not only builds and sells its brand, but makes also makes its viewers laugh, question themselves and offers consumers a likeable image and authoritative figure to trust when it comes to virility. After analyzing every ingredient that Old Spice has thrown into their manly advertising cauldron, it's no wonder how they've managed to take the internet by storm. The only question is whether they will be “men” enough to maintain the incredibly popular momentum they have gained thus far. Works Cited “Questions” by Old Spice. YouTube. YouTube, 2010. Web. 10 December 2013. O'Barr, William. "Creativity in Advertising." Advertising & Society Review 11.4 (20010):n. page Network. December 10, 2013.Sarah. “The man your man could smell.” Advertising and society. Wordpress.com, May 13, 2013. Web. December 10. 2013. .
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