These are 2 advertising for the brand “Axe”.

According to me, this brand is the most famous to put the men at the row of “god”. It is maybe exaggerated, but in all advertising of this brand, the Axe’s products are synonym of power and attraction.

Irrestibility…Once again…It is the positioning of the brand “Axe“. Advertising for the brand“Axe” are always selling dream, and make to fantasm the young boy. The

receipt Sex, Sex ans Sex is still working ….

But in fact,  I think that all this advertising are ironic and made to be take like “second degree”. So why boys are still buying it ?!!!?

 This advertising is for a perfume, from the famous brand Lacoste.

In this advertising, men is clearly showed as an object, symbol of virility and strength. In spite of the target is wanted to be for male, women could also be touched by this publicity.

The keywords of this publicity are simplicity and natural. The colours are balck and white.

I think that men, watching this advertising will maybe be jealous from this man. But may be they would to be like him, so maybe they will buy this product for that reason. It is like “autosuggestion”, if I buy this product, I will feel better.

Perfume is very important, because it is the miror of our personality.

 I just wanted to show some differences, which are existing between men and women, and the importance they are according to shopping. So, here a little study on this topic.

First of all, I decided to choose this topic, because in my opinion, to go for shopping for clothes concerns all people. Nowadays, I think that going shopping for clothes became an hobby, and the pleasure removed the need. It is surprising to see, that this subject touches men and women, in spite of more women have answered to my survey. The age of the interrogated persons is situated in majority between 20 and 24 years old. I got 62 answers, 14 male and 47 female.

The fact is, that in general, everybody likes to go shopping for clothes (54 people on 62). Mentality have evolved , and now, even men like to take care of their appearance. It is interesting to see, that people goes for shopping for pleasure, and not by need.

            At the question “How often do you go shopping for clothes”, most people goes between 1 and 2 times per month (34 people on 62). The other answers are shared between once a week and between 1 and 2 times per year. At this time, sales are not the only reason now to go shopping clothes. The budget allow to shopping is divided between all answers. But the middle price is situated between 25 and 35 €.

The answers are really shared between two. In general, young people prefer to go shopping in chain stores (47 people on 62), like H & M or Zara. But they also appreciate specialized stores (43), like “
La Halle aux vêtements”. It is surprising to see, that few people like to buy clothes on the Internet, but maybe the correlation between the age and this practice is the reason.

It is also interesting to see that the price is the main criteria of choice (43 people on 62), before the originality (40), the quality (36) and the brand (24).

My mistake was to forget a little men. Actually, the brand mentioned in the question were, in my opinion, more for women, even if brand like Zara, H & M and Levi’s are for both sex. The most favourite brand are Zara (34 people on 62) and H & M (29), because I think that this brand mix good price and quality, which is perfect for young people.

It is very amazing to see, that the brand is not important for young people.

I think that when people grow up, taste and mentality evolve and change, and that the criteria of choice for clothes are different with age and time.

To conclude, we can say that going for shopping clothes became a pleasure, for men AND women. The trend evolve with time, and the purchasing criteria of choice for clothes became mainly the price and the originality, before the brand.           

   Fashion’s trend are changing all the time, and in few years, all criteria would be different. We have to evolve with our time.  

According to several specialists, advertising which are addressed has a male public exploit mainly the axis of virility. The pictures of sport, competition, destruction, which represent virility in action would not have their similar to praise a product with the men.

However, in the publicities intended for a mixed public, men-object and the idiot would take a big and growing place  at the sides of the virile characters. 

In general, the men are introduced in publicity like virile, muscular and powerful. Contrary to women, who are seen as weak, frail and vulnerable. The body of the men is seen like an object of force and being able which dominates surrounding space. These publicities send the message that a muscular body, well done and desirable, adds to the seduction of women like men.

For several years now, advertising use men-objects to promote various products.

Some advertising, for example perfumes or clothing, would present in a suggestive sexual way, in the aim of attracting the glance of the consumers.

Concerning the “stupid guy”, he is generally  the total opposite of the viril one. Awkward and often not very tempting, he generally appears in advertising wanting to be humorous.

But we should never forget the humorous aspect, or the second degree, because some specialists fear the negative impact that this type of representation can have on boys and men.

1. The context

The male stereotype has known a real evolution years after years. For a very long time the man has represented the strenght, the virility, the authority. But nowadays, the star post themselves differently: more sensitive to appearance, more anxious by the image which they return to their public.

In our society, physical appearance became an essential point, because it is the first image which one gives of oneself. Indeed, it is so easy by the means of various criteria, as the charm, the style, or humour to be charming. The visual is impossible to circumvent, we have to make good figure, and often that is the reason we are ready to change our way of life, or of consumption.

The new icons which arrive with the sport, TV-reality, the cinema, or of advertising symbolize perfectly this new trend, now called “metrosexuality”

This term even shows a narcissistic man, in love with himself, and which attaches much importance to his appearance. The stereotype of the new male however is very targeted : young townsman with rather high incomes, who is open-minded to the new trend of consumption.

It is just a man, who grant so many importance to his physical appearance, and who want to be charming.

A new market is now opened, and the advertising executives and the media hastened to develop new range of products and new strategies, in order to target these kind of consumers perfectly.

2. Analysis of the advertising 

This advertising of Jean-Paul GAUTHIER for the perfume “the male”, dating from the year 2000, reflects this new trend perfectly. This advertising is a poster showing only one bust of man. The colors are very simple : the man wears clothes of sailor, in front of a background of blue sky.

In spite of the simplicity of the picture, this advertising shows perfectly the evolution of the man in our current society. The man on the image is charming, very aesthetic, while remaining virile. And this, in spite of the make-up. His glance shows a rather sure man of himself, with the almost arrogant glance.

The product is present on the picture, but it is not really proposed. Despite that, the colors and the clothing of the man are the “signature” of Jean-Paul Gauthier : clothes of sailor… The style of the man is rather complex, because it emanates from him a true virility. But in parallel, a strong share of femininity is present all the same.

How to qualify this new tendency? Everybody knows that generally, this kind of phenomenon do not stay more than a few years… But here, this phenomenon stay day after day, and already for several years and get bigger, more and more. We could compare this phenomenon to a turn, a “key” step of our society, where men and women are almost equal. In the Fifties, that were the women, who wanted to be like men, wearing jeans and smoking cigarettes. Nowadays, the trend is reversed, because that are men who try to leave the beaten paths, while deviating from the male stereotypes.

LH, 22nd Frebruary 2007

In the case of our english’s course, for our second semester, we can choose a speciality.

This is a real help for all student. Thus, I really had leaning for the marketing option, because I really think of choosing this option for my third year.

Why this topic ?

I really think, that this subject can be very interesting, because :

• First, it is clear that nowadays, the beauty and the use with “sexual” connotations are numerous, and it would be funny to study all this kind of advertising, and to find the “sense hidden”

• Then, I think that it is really enriching to seek to analyze what it hides behind these advertising with success

• Finally, I am really interesting by the marketing sector, and I would like to work in this domain. So, I find this idea of creating a blog very useful for our personal enrichment.