A Letter Addressing The Axe Underwear Commercial

Advertising not only speaks to consumers in a language of desire and need but also sets up people’s perceptions of how things are or should be. In the past decade or so, advertising agencies have become less responsible to consumers by portraying unattainable perfection. As the representatives of a product that has become infiltrated into the lives of our youth, your company must rethink the ad campaign for Axe Underwear. The current ad goes beyond the boundaries of acceptable and moral advertising, by portraying women as sex driven objects, illustrating the male “loser,” and is overall a sexually pervasive ad.
This commercial for Axe underwear made me question how unrealistic gender roles and sexually explicit content could be taken this far in order to increase the financial growth of an already successful company. This commercial is harmfully appealing to its viewers because it deals with what is known as the “Gaze”; which is the relationship between the person looking and the person being looked at. This commercial reveals this “gaze” towards both the male and female characters of the commercial. First, the male is looked upon as a conquest for the female, who is turning circles around him and examining every inch of his body. However, since he is “confronting the gaze” with an “authoritarian pose,” he is not seen as being objectified. When people compare this commercial to other commercials with reverse roles, it is easy to see that the gaze of a man objectifies the women. Although the commercial has reversed the roles of the gaze, it still attempts “to sell products through traditional gender codes, by portraying [the woman] in demure, seductive poses for a possessive male gaze” (90). It is true that the woman is doing the looking, however the effect of the gaze is caused by how the male responds to the gaze. He remains confident, masculine and authoritarian, and still grasps control of the power. Therefore the woman, despite her attempts, is the one who is left powerless to the gaze.
The message that ads send to the youth about gender roles is an important component that often times is disregarded. Some might say that this commercial is representing the woman as the one who is powerful and in control, however this is not the case. “[F]eminism is taken into account, but only to be shown that it is no longer necessary, because there is no exploitation here, there is nothing remotely naïve … but it is for her own enjoyment” (McRobbie, 8). This post-feminist view directly applies to the Axe Underwear commercial. People often think that if a commercial is illustrating a woman in a sexually explicit way that it is not being sexist but is illustrating her freedom of choice. Instead, this depiction of so called “freedom of choice” leads most people to assume that women often times ask for “it.” This leads women to believe that they should constantly be sexual and fierce, and consequently leads men to think that all women are always driven by sex. As McRobbie stated, women are entitled to “female pleasure” but do not go around hunting down men, which is often the portrayal of women in Axe advertisements.
Lastly, I believe that this commercial also plays on male insecurities and illustrates what Messner refers to as the “male loser.” Most other underwear commercials focus on the selection of a specific brand in order to increase the size of a man’s most important asset (or so they are told). I understand how the Axe underwear commercial is mocking all other commercials of its genre, by illustrating an illusion of size. However, if this commercial is to play a role in the effect of advertising on society, our male population is in trouble.
At first the “male loser” is portrayed as a confident, authoritative figure whose body is being grazed from his chest to his underwear. However, as her hand goes down beyond the view of the camera, his “loser”-ness becomes apparent. Messner’s “male loser” refers to men who “are publicly being humiliated, either by their own stupidity, by other men or worse, by a beautiful woman” (1887). This specific commercial deals with the worst-case scenario for the “male loser” – being humiliated by this “sexualized fantasy object” (Messner, 1887). The male character in the commercial at first seems confident and sexy. However, as the woman’s hand reaches down, a clip is shown of his underwear being pulled on by the female, to create an illusion of an extremely large erect penis. Up until this point the male figure is portrayed in a dominant, exaggerated way, however what happens afterwards is crucial to the influence of this ad. The underwear is let go of and the “extremely large penis” doesn’t look so large anymore, and the male is left with a look of embarrassment. This scene from the ad emphasizes that these women “sometimes serve to validate men’s masculinity,” but also that “if men get to close, these women will most likely humiliate them” (Messner, 1906). Up until the point that the woman lets go of the underwear she is pulling, his masculinity is being validated. However ironically, as she lets go, his masculinity along with the size of his penis diminishes – he becomes the “male loser”. The female’s shocked reaction to how small his penis is, also adds to the “loser-”ness of the male.
This commercial, along with similar messages in our media lead men to think that if they don’t meet the standards of perfection, then they become a “loser.” Through repeated depictions of male perfection, or the obvious lack thereof, men either realize they can never reach true perfection and begin to settle for less or never realize it and constantly strive to perfect their flaws. Consequently, it creates characteristics of insecurity and unhappiness in men.
It is ultimately the responsibility of large corporate companies such as yourself, to undo this new trend of the promotion of idealized perfection. The Axe underwear commercial is unacceptable and gives our youth unrealistic perceptions of aesthetics, behaviors and an overall idealized lifestyle. I urge you to not only take this commercial off television, but to also consider formulating a new ad campaign for all Axe products.