Old Spice Women

The Role of Women in Becoming a Man In the past sixty years, society has undergone a significant change in how its people view women and their role in everyday life. Women evolved from residing solely in the home completing such tasks as housework, child care, and making sure life runs smoothly, to becoming CEO’s of large corporations and fighting in the front lines of war. In this particular commercial ad for the Old Spice antiperspirant spray, the denotative meaning behind the ad can be found by simply observing the ad. Its purpose is to convince its male audience that using Old Spice body means that young men will transform to men. If one were to dig under the comical surface of the seemingly harmless “Smellcome to Manhood” commercial, they would notice not only the association of this commercial with a life of a typical American family in the 50s, …show more content…
It convinces boys they need the product to become men and the parents that their son needs this in order to grow up and become independent. In order to fully succeed in their purpose, the writer of this commercial allowed for the resurrection of old stereotypes in regards to classic American families. The fathers were thrilled their sons were turning into men. This could mean that they were proud they were following in their own footsteps, or happy to no longer have to worry about the many expenses that having a boy entailed. Women were shown sobbing over their newly grown up sons. The sobbing and other types of body language take the form of a sign to suggest that women are more emotional about their children leaving, which allows the audience to perceive them as the primary caretakers. Through careful analysis one could conclude that based on how women were displayed in this ad, the overall perception of women has changed a great deal from the time period