"Smell Like A Man, Man" -Old Spice

If your a man, did you know the type of deodorant you use will define how manly you really are? According to Old Spice their assortments of deodorants and body washes will actually make you more manly. In the commercial I have posted they show a test between regular deodorant and Old Spice, the Old Spice deodorant is more manly because it cause hair to "grow on a mans chest". Of course any viewer with common sense does not watch this commercial thinking that if they use Old Spice hair will actually grow on their chest but it does focus attention on things the viewers may associate with manliness. Such as a hairy chest, being sweaty in a locker room after playing basket ball, even the way the speaker stand reflects certain masculine characteristics persuading the viewer that Old Spice deodorant is for real man. At one point in the commercial the speaker say "If you still don't like it (Old Spice deodorant) we will buy you a stick of something that smells like wildflowers and sham."This part of the commercial serves as a challenge saying to the audience, to men, if you don't like our deodorant you must not be a real man. The commercial also talks about how Old Spice is a perfect for "real man situations such as basketball, re-con and frenching"Implying that their deodorant works great for sports, military and sexual activities. All things that in some sense can be associated with men. Old Spice uses a strong athletic looking man to sell to other viewers what it means to be manly, in hopes that viewers will want to buy their product based on the fact that most men have a need to be more masculine or to prove their real masculinity.

"Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery"

As a culture we tend to imitate what we admire, whether it be a style we find in a magazine, music video, favorite TVcharacter, as well as thousands of other examples. For some WWE wrestling is something to be admired, inspiring a sub culture of mostly teenage to young adult  boys to imitate the moves and stories seen on WWE. This sub culture is known as backyard wrestling. The question that needs to be asked is, is the WWE something that should be imitated and is this spin off of professional wrestling a good thing or is it too dangerous. While scanning You Tube for videos of young men participating in backyard wrestling I came to the conclusion imitation seems to be nothing but harmless fun. While there are definitely some people who take the whole backyard wrestling too far proving it to be dangerous for the individuals involved. More often then not everyone in these videos seem to be playing along in a manor that imitates not only the wrestling but the obvious fake and choreographed routines the professional wrestlers do. It could be argued that backyard wrestling is safer then professional wrestling. Perhaps not in the sense that the wrestlers in the WWE are professionally trained to preform stunts so no one is injured and backyard wrestlers are amateurs making the likelihood of injury greater; however, backyard wrestling seems to imitate the characters, some of the story lines and mostly just the general fun of the sport. Backyard wrestling strips away the constant mocking and scantily dressed woman. In most of the imitations I found on the internet the boys engage in the wrestling as well as some of the theatrics such as picking names and perhaps costume but backyard wrestling is more about the fun of wrestling and playing macho manly characters then it is about constant belittling, mocking of gay characters and violence toward woman. While watching videos of young men imitating wrestling it just looks like they are having fun. One aspect of the WWE that backyard wrestlers do imitate is the idea of dominant and subordinate masculinity. While watching these  clips, such as the one attached, one character is predominantly seen as the dominant male being the character who is constantly over powering the subordinate characters. The idea that even young men strive to become the dominant male can be clearly seen throughout the story lines of both the WWE and backyard wrestling. It is my opinion that backyard wrestling more often then not is a safer imitation of the WEE, providing a fun outlet for boys to express their masculinity and use their imaginations.

Are You Thirsty?

I've never been a fan of American Idol; but every time I have seen the show in passing its hard to miss those red cups, carefully placed in front of the judges each week. What is the reasoning for this placement? Naturally the reasoning is advertisement. The reason is very specific, to get viewers to buy Coca-Cola's product. American Idol is a popular series with a great deal of air time and a large quantity of viewers week after week. American Idol has proved to be a successful series and taken Coca-Cola along for the ride. 

Companies have realized that more subtle approaches to advertisement have a greater influence on consumers. One hour of prime time television contains on average 36 percent commercials (www.marketingcharts.com). I know when watching television I usually record a show first, therefore making it possible to fast forward through the commercials. If possible I will take every opportunity to avoid watching a commercial. Large companies have realized this resistance to obvious advertisement and have taken a more subtle approach, with strategic product placement. Product Placement is when a company who provides advertising dollars to a show, requires their product or logo to be placed within the show for viewers to see. Product placements sole purpose to is sell a product or make a viewer interested in a product in a subtle way. In most cases, product placement adds nothing to the story line or to the development of the characters within the series. 

Those red Coca-Cola cups are an example of product placement. Coca-Cola is hoping that viewers of American Idol will notice those Coca-Cola cups each week and in turn buy their product. So are the judges of American Idol always thirsty while on air? Maybe the answer is yes. What are they drinking? Perhaps one of the wide variety of Coca-Cola products out there, perhaps water, or maybe as controversial as it might seem even Pepsi (gasp). But that's not the point, Coca-Cola doesn't exactly care what they are drinking, as long as they are drinking from their cup, displaying to viewers that American Idol judges support Coca-Cola, and perhaps you should too. 

Picture taken from www.idolator.com