Old Spice/ Post Modernism

Parody of hegemonic masculinity

• Physically and mentally strong
• Highly sexually attractive
• Assertive
• Breadwinner, rich
• Materially and financially successful
• Smells good

Synergy: In modern ads, old spice interrupts other ads - advertises two products at once
Modern ads have two men - one for women, who is feminine, sexually alluring,  and appears on a white horse, the other is for men, who uses imperatives and is powerful

 

Modernism advertising

 

• Following modernism, the modernist world consisted of:
• Art movement before the war
• Scientific discovery
• Belief in science and religion
• Objectivity/being objective, logical, rational
• The search for meaning
• Unity/authority
• Believing in the truth - there is a point to the world and all that is in it and looking for it
• Absolute truths
• Institutions - science and religion

 

Post modernism - follows modernism and questions its foundations

 

• Post war
• Lack of belief in anything - rejection of grand narratives like religion and science
• Sceptiscism
• No truth, no meaning
• Subjectivity - being biased, valuing personal opinion - the power is in the hand of the individual - when we watch a film - the writer is unimportant
• Intertextuality
• Pastiche/parody/irony
• Mixing up cultures/times/place to create
• A fragmented world made up of hundreds of parts/ no unity
• Hyperreality - the simulated world blurs with reality -  and is often a more attractive place to be
• Emotionless/detached/nothing to care about or care for
• Objectivity - unbiased
• Self aware

Post modernist marketing

 

• Hyper reality
• Fragmentation - pick and mix culture
• Decentering (person in middle of text - dont speak the truth, not powerful) of the subject/identity
• The audience customises/ constructs the meaning and interacts
• Playfulness and irony
• Intertextuality, homage and parody
• Randomness