Old Spice Advertisement Analysis

In the Old Spice advertisements featuring Terry Crews and Isaiah Mustafa, the advertisers use distinctive visual elements to portray the idea of masculinity. Masculinity is expressed as physical strength and skill, power, wealth, sexual prowess, and ultimately, success. Masculinity is achieved through the use of facial expressions, physique, and the setting of the advertisement.
The use of Terry Crews and Isaiah Mustafa in this advertisement defines masculinity as being talented and successful. Terry Crews and Isaiah Mustafa are not only successful American actors, but were also former American football players. One of the most effective visual elements is the protagonists’ facial expression. Mustafa and Crews is shown as confident, neatly …show more content…
Another effective visual element is their physical and bodily structure. Crews is often display as violent and aggressive in his commercials. While Mustafa’s dominance and power is embellished through his charm and physical appearance to the female audience, Crew’s power is shown clearly through his large muscles as well as his physical strength. In Smells Like Power and Smell Like a Man, Terry Crews and Isaiah Mustafa play major roles in the construction of masculinity as well as portraying the same meaning with two different approaches. While both Crews and Mustafa have masculine bodies, Mustafa’s body is inclined primarily to a female audience. Unlike Crews’ body portray in Smells Like Power, Mustafa is never shown to be intimidating or fierce. For instance, Mustafa’s muscles are big, but not as huge as those of Crews. The body of Terry Crews is built up for power and coerce. Mustafa’s and Crews’ muscularity, skin color, hair, voice, and tone support the masculinity portray in each of these advertisements. All of these physical features with the exception of skin color are features an individual can have some extent of control or ability to adjust. Each one of these features plays an importance in the showing of masculinity in advertisements. When looking at the male body as a whole and its role in the performance of masculinity, the male body can be identified for masculinity such as the use of bodily hair. Hair plays a very significant role in the construction of masculinity. In both Old Spice campaigns, bodily hair is displayed multiple times in a distinctive way. For example, Terry Crews wears a neatly trimmed beard that covers his face. The beard is significant for a couple of reasons. The beard is a gender signal of the human male, while also suggesting that a man needs to have facial hair in order to be considered