A Rant About Men's Perfume Ads {The 5th Sense in the News}
The Sunday Times has a funny pamphlet against over-glamorous ads for men's fragrances. Call it a problem of the clash of egos and upsurge of competitive Testosterone. Looking at said ideal ads for the everyman - there is a big plug for Lynx/Axe ads in the article - featuring the so-called "civilian loser type" one has to realize that if the guys look like your average Joe, the girls are more the babe type. Unfair? Typical? The columnist (whose name I don't see) only grumbles about men's body image.....
"When we men decide to marinade ourselves in unguents and scent, we are expected to take the art director’s chair, decode confusing messages, take an olfactory world tour — Sicilian bergamot, British leather, amber from the North Sea, Australian sandalwood, Argentinian maté — or even call our sexuality into question. We have to take sides. Am I a rugged, outdoorsy Ewan sort or a slick, urban type like Matthew?" [...]
More crucially, what the fragrance behemoths don’t understand is that we men don’t really like looking at other men. Check out the covers of men’s magazines and you will notice that more often than not they feature beautiful women. This isn’t just because men are drooling, sex-obsessed skirt-chasers, but more because the alternative — male celebrities — has a dangerously polarising effect on us. Sometimes we want to be like them. Most of the time, we want to punch them."Read more in How Fragrances Are Advertised To Men.....
Previous Posts in The Fifth Sense in the News:
Portrait of a Scientist & Smeller: Subha Patel
On The Workings Of A Niche Perfume House: Etat Libre d'Orange
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Ewww, just ewww!
I'm no prude, but there is tasteful (even if provocative) and then there is distasteful. This manages to be both the latter and banal. Setting new records for low.
Posted by: perfumeshrine | June 3, 2008