Mary Sauve
Ms. Sauve
Ad Analysis
April 15, 2013
The Brazilian TV commercial for Dove Men + Care, posted on youtube.com in March
2013, features a bearded man with long, lustrous, super-model-like hair being questioned by a
colleague about how feminine his hair looks. During this exchange we see the bearded man
assume several hair-flipping postures which we associate with commercials for women’s
shampoo such as Herbal Essences. The creative idea is a parody of women’s shampoo ads
which is successfully funny because the locks look strange on the bearded man, especially as he
assumes the variety of female poses we associate with lady hair ads, such as the hair being
flipped in an elevator or running both hands through the hair as the camera is focused on the
back of the head. The tagline is “women’s shampoo isn’t made for you, Dove Men + Care is”.
The target audience is men – men who are successful, want to have their own products (re:
metrosexual), or be catered to as an exclusive group, and care about how they look, or their
attractiveness, as being something that can be defined as ‘manly’ (hence the beard), and therefore
different from a woman’s vanity (and the products that go with this). The basic need targeted is
approval and personal appearance since the man is being questioned about his ‘look’ by a work
colleague as though it is different, unmanly, or even effeminate; so with this ‘look’ he doesn’t fit
into the work environment and also looks ‘girly’ or not masculine enough to be considered a
man.
Besides the allusions to various scenes in women’s shampoo commercials which are used
to create the parody, there is also the use of slow motion; every time we cut to the bearded man,
it reinforces the movement of the hair, but also the unnatural way the man moves in these shots
with the hair while he is trying to emphasize that he is unaware that his hair is any different than
usual. The soundtrack, same tune every time he swishes his hair, is reminiscent of any shampoo
hair scene, but then the beat changes with the line “sexy in three” – meaning that as a man he is
currently not sexy, but will be in a few seconds. The man’s colleague is shot at a high angle,
from the seated perspective of the bearded man, giving him the aura of power as though maybe
he is the bearded man’s superior at work. The acting choice to have the colleague mimic the
2
actions in an unnatural way is both funny and serves to reinforce the whole ‘unnatural-ness’ of
the bearded man with the hair – as does the beard for that matter, showing an extra manly and
virile looking guy, with a beard, and long flowing lady-hair, all serve to create the juxtaposition
of manly and not manly which the ad wants to reinforce.
The use of media is effective because we get to see all the edited shots of various scenes
from a women’s ad, but done by the bearded man, enhancing the humour. A print ad would be
able to only show a single shot probably, which could be funny, but without the sound effects
and facial expressions, not as optimal as video. As well, since much of the comedy is physical
and visual, a radio spot would also not be as effective. However, while the message is definitely
that if you are a man, you should look like a man, because this exchange happens in a business
environment there is a sexist subtext which could show that women in the workplace, or overly
feminine males, would be taken less seriously as productive workers, or be a distraction to the
general productivity of the office. Also, just because you like having long hair as a man doesn’t
make you less of a man, not does the fact that maybe you enjoy the practicality of buying
shampoo on sale or using what is available. So the gender message is a little confused. All in all
though, the ad works because it has a high likeability rating due to the use of a twist on
familiar ad campaigns which Dove does so creatively well, without being offensive. It is clever,
laugh-out-loud funny, and memorable.