Ideologies

Ideologies in an Old Spice Commercial

The advertisement I am going to talk about can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE. The link to where I got the information about Old Spice from is here: http://oldspice.com/en-US/. 

Old Spice is a brand that was created by Procter & Gamble (P&G). There are many products that are sold under this brand: antiperspirant, deodorant, body wash, body spray, and fragrances. Several commercials advertising their body washes have been aired and are memorable because of the use of humor. Particular ideologies are dominant throughout the commercial I'm going to discuss.  

Stuart Hall discussed what ideologies are in an article called "The Whites of Their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and the Media" (which is found in the third edition of textbook called "Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Critical Reader," which was edited by Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez). He stated, "I am using the term ideology to refer to those images, concepts, and premises which provide the frameworks through which we represent, interpret, understand, and 'make sense' of some aspect of social existence" (page 81). He also claims that "...the media's main sphere of operations is the production and transformation of ideologies" (page 81). The second statement is particularly true, especially after looking at the Old Spice ad called "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like."

The commercial shows a sequential set of random activities performed by a man who uses Old Spice body wash. He repeatedly says, "Look at your man... now back to me." At one point, he says, "Sadly, he isn't me. But if he stopped using lady-scented body wash and switched to Old Spice, he could smell like he's me." Later on, he stated, "Where are you? You're on a boat with the man your man could smell like. What's in your hand? Back at me. I have it. It's an oyster with two tickets to the thing you love. Look again. The tickets are now diamonds. Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady." Based on these quotes, it is clear what ideologies are being reinforced: it is important for a man to smell good, he can't smell "like a lady," a man has to provide his "woman" with nice, expensive gifts, and you can achieve many things/do or have whatever you want/pursue your dreams (or, as stated in the commercial, "Anything is possible.") if men use Old Spice.

According to Hall (page 81), "...ideologies do not consist of isolated and separate concepts, but in the articulation of different elements into a distinctive set or chain of meanings." Whoever made this commercial is expressing the idea that it is "manly" to use Old Spice and it would be foolish not to use it. In this way, the creators are connecting masculinity to using this specific brand of body wash. By doing so, they're saying that using Old Spice fits into the "chain of meanings" associated with masculinity. Then, C. Wesley Buerkle wrote an article called "Metrosexuality can Stuff it: Beef Consumption as (Heteromasculine) Fortification." On page 88, he claims, "...meat connotes men's assumed dominance..." By claiming that "Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice" and showing that "your man" would be able to buy you tickets and diamonds, the writers of the commercial are saying that men who use Old Spice are dominant because they can afford and achieve whatever they want in a short amount of time without any problems. Next, Dafna Lemish wrote an article entitled "The Future of Childhood in the Global Television Market" (found in "Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Critical Reader"). On page 359, he claimed, "A partial list of the critique of values identified in the forms of American television broadcast to children around the world includes heavy consumerism..." This Old Spice commercial is obviously encouraging consumerism. It's doing it in a way that convinces male viewers that they need to buy the body wash.  

Women and men are being represented in this commercial. Not only does this ad convince men they have to use Old Spice, it makes women believe that men need it, as well. If "their men" use it, they'll be able to go sailing and they'll be spoiled with whatever gifts they want. The way the ideologies are presented and the ideologies themselves are ridiculous because there is no way that using a certain body wash will get you far in life. You achieve your goals because of the time and dedication you put into your work. You have to earn things; everything isn't always given to you. Also, why should women have to rely on men to get what they want? There's no reason why they can't provide for themselves. Finally, deciding what a "womanly smell" is can be subjective: who decided what a woman is supposed to smell like and what a man is supposed to smell like? "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" is clearly full of ideologies.        

Children's Programs

SpongeBob vs. Arthur: Television Show Products

Watching television has become an extremely prevalent activity. It seems like selling objects that are related to popular television shows has become a large trend. It also appears as though doing so wasn't as popular about 15 years ago. To help illustrate this point, two television shows and the products that are branded along with them are listed below.

SpongeBob SquarePants                                                           

• bedding                                           
• clothing
• books
• video games
• wallpaper borders
• clocks
• light switch covers
• pinatas
• keyboard stickers
• gummy candies
• backpacks
• lunch boxes
• CD-Rom computer games
• birthday candles
• sponges
• bathing suits
• towels

Arthur 

• CD-Rom computer games
• books
• dolls

As these lists show, there is a huge difference in the amount of products that are/were branded by these programs. Over the summer, viewers were able to watch new episodes of SpongeBob on Nickelodeon. I watched Arthur on PBS when I was about 5 or 6 years old. Both shows are branded by two of the same kinds of products: CD-Roms and books. It is clear that the types of products made that relate to children's shows has increased steadily. 

All of this branding relates back to spectacular consumption. Matthew P. McAllister wrote an article entitled "'Girls With A Passion For Fashion': The Bratz Brand as integrated spectacular consumption." On page 246, he wrote, "Watts and Orbe's application of Debord to popular advertising campaigns is also valuable for understanding coordinated merchandising and licensing campaigns which aggressively use a combination of media to disseminate large-scale and strategically integrated selling messages, hence the term 'integrated spectacular consumption'." Children see ads for the products listed above whenever they watch a television program. They could see the same commercial with a certain piece of merchandise being advertised multiple times throughout the half an hour or hour long program they watch. If they watch television longer than that, they could see many of the same commercials several times. When you're constantly exposed to a certain ad or message, it's hard to forget it. Also, when kids see that their friends or peers own a certain commodity, there is a chance that they're going to want it, too. In this sense, companies have an indirect way of exposing their consumers to their products. 

McAllister also claimed that "...spectacular consumption is intensely ideological, elevating the commercial and the promotional as authentic popular culture, which bleeds a consumption message over to less commercially oriented content forms" (page 246). On that same page, he also stated "...Goldman argues that advertising applies symbols of feminism in its products to women, and often implies that commodities can provide feminist achievement: purchasing products will empower women." In other words, corporations are trying to convince children that consuming is the cool and right thing to do. Programs and companies try to appeal to customers from the time they start watching a certain television show up until the consumer is no longer interested in the show or products. This could be until the child is either in his/her early or late teens. Companies are clearly very powerful and extremely influential.       

Thoughts & Interpretations

Erykah Badu: Window Seat Controversy 

Erykah Badu decided to be bold and daring while creating a music video for her song Window Seat. It was viewed by several people; many responded to it negatively. Peoples' responses can relate back to articles written by Stuart Hall and Raymond Williams. The way viewers reacted and the way Badu made her video are evidence that what Hall and Williams say about culture and sending and receiving messages is true.

In an article on the Daily Mail website, Badu was quoted saying the following about her video: "I tied it in a way that compared the assassination one would go through after showing his or her self completely. That's exactly the action I wanted to display." In other words, her nudity was part of her message. Some people thought the fact that she took off her clothes was offensive; others didn't like the fact that it was filmed where President Kennedy was shot. In the article "Encoding, Decoding," Hall said that "an event must be a 'story' before a communicative event" (page 508). By filming where she did, Badu was able to create a story, and therefore, create something for people to discuss and respond to. She also helped give her story a little historical context and made a connection to the message she was trying to deliver. That being said, if she didn't film her video in that area, it wouldn't have conveyed as much meaning as she wanted it to. Something similar can be said about Kennedy being shot: if he wasn't killed, she wouldn't have had as much context for her video. The location also gave her video more meaning. As Hall said, "If no 'meaning' is taken, there can be no 'consumption'" (page 508). The way people responded is connected to how they interpreted the video.    

According to Williams' article "The Analysis of Culture," "three general categories in the definition of culture" (page 32) exist. One of them is called the documentary. He wrote, "Then, second, there is the 'documentary', in which culture is the body of intellectual and imaginative work, in which, in a detailed way, human thought and experience are variously recorded." Badu's video falls under this category because she expressed how she felt about a certain subject in video format. Williams then went on to say, "The analysis of culture, from such a definition, is the activity of criticism, by which the nature of thought and experience, the details of the language, form, and convention in which these are active, are described and valued" (page 32). This relates to the certain remarks that were made about this video because critics didn't like the way Badu decided to express herself and where she decided to do it.

On page 35, William claims, "Thus art... can be seen as expressing certain elements in the organization which, within that organization's terms, could only have been expressed in this way." Movies and videos, like Badu's, are considered forms of art. Although some people might not agree, maybe Badu decided to create the video the way that she did because there wasn't another adequate way to convey what she thinks and how she feels. Then, taking off all of your clothes and walking around naked in public is clearly something that is frowned upon. Since Badu decided to ignore this while filming, she disregarded what Williams describes as the "social character" on page 36: "The social character - a valued system of behavior and attitudes - is taught formally and informally; it is both an ideal and a mode." Based on the criticisms Badu faced, one can conclude that viewers were upset that Badu didn't conform to this character while recording. Reading about the ways some people responded to Badu's video put Hall's and Williams' reading into perspective.