Product Advertisement and What They're Trying to Say: "Cool guy" products

So, in my last post, I wrote about feminine hygiene products, and the way they're generally portrayed in the mass media towards society, or at least Western society. Long story short, we women are disgusting.

Now, how 'bout the men? Well, we could come to the conclusion that men >>>> better than women in the media. I mean, a sweaty shirtless man is pretty much our modern-day Jesus. Mmm, I love disgusting salt. Anyway, this assumption is mostly wrong. Women have the whole "let's be pure and pristine and dry all the time" schtick going against them, but then men, as of late, have the "I can magnetically attract at least 10 different women a day, even the lesbian dykes" thing going on.

First product offender: Axe. Nothing I could say would say more than this ad.
Because, y'know, using some Axe in the morning means that, in a couple of hours, a women with a huge, smooth ass is going to start washing your car as though it's her one dream (next to giving a blow job to the guy's four inch penis).

I'm all for men smelling nice. What with the perception that women must always smell nice and pretty and be completely dry because oh no our little black dress is going to get completely stained and horror of horrors WE'RE GOING TO SMELL...SWEATY. I dunno, I think women can smell better than men under most circumstances. Anyway, it's not about that. It's reinforcing the image that men absolutely must be these sex freaks with uncontrollable penises and who must be chick magnets. This is great for advertising, but the trouble is, most normal, everyday guys I know aren't actually interested in being a playboy, or being a chick magnet, or being party animals. Sure, most men are on sex mode most of the time (sex sex sex...love? no, just sex), but they do have other things to do.

To get my point across, there's a saying here in my country: girls are taught to sit as though there's a quarter between their legs, while guys are taught to take that quarter out. Yeah, there's a disconnect somewhere in there.

Now, to contrast Axe's advertisement, here's Nivea for Men, who recently came up with a pretty good advertisement campaign in order to target a different market from Axe's.

I can't find some advertisement on the internet, be it in picture form or video form, but I can describe the recent commercial I saw. The commercial cuts to your regular nerd guys talking about Axe and its awesomness and whatever. These nerd guys do look quite prepubescent in a way. Then cut to a clean-cut guy with a suite and a briefcase. "I'm not a kid. That's why I use Nivea for Men."

So, it basically tells us that one product means over-sexed and immature that any girl would drag to the sack, while another product means you'll transform into a professional that any girl would take home to meet their parents'. Now, I know that it seems like nothing will satisfy me, but I'm using these products to exemplify something Western society insists on implicating on men: that, from a certain age to a certain age, it's all fuck fuck fuck, while from that certain age onwards, it's "hey, get a job you lazy bum, move out, and settle down".

Why men are subjected to the same evils as women is beyond my perception, but what will continue to bother me for the rest of my life are the social constructions we make up, and which we consequently force ourselves to fit into. Humans, at their most basic, are not either clean-cut or studs in the sack, nor are they virginal or sluts. There are no black and whites anywhere, so why do we keep making them? So we can classify stuff for our own benefit? Seriously, it's less work if we didn't bother.

Still though, I must admit, I would go for the Nivea guy. But then, a woman with her head on straight should.