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.