Old Spice Breach in Persuasive Ethics

A lot of times companies violate persuasive ethics, and the sad part is – they know they do. Companies violate persuasive ethics to be more pleasing to there audience they’re targeting. A way for a company to successfully do this is by drawing you into their product, but even that receives backlash from consumers.

An example of a breach in persuasive ethics is the Old Spice Commercial, which is labeled “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”. The commercial first starts off with an African-American male talking to his audience, women. The man started the commercial by saying “Hello Ladies!” It is a bit odd that women are they target audience of a men’s fragrance commercial. The man proceeds to tell woman that “If they’re man used Old Spice” then they would be able to have everything they’ve ever wanted.

            Throughout the commercial, which was roughly 35 seconds, the man moved from a shower to a boat. He told women “if they’re man used Old Spice” they could be on a boat. Following this, the Old Spice bottle disappears from his hands and two tickets pop up then pearls. The man insists that women have been dying to go see ‘that’ show or wanted ‘that’ jewelry.

This is a great example of a violation in persuasive ethics because Old Spice is targeting women, but not in a good way. They ‘assume’ that women want a man who has a boat, can buy her pearls, and tickets to a show. This makes men look good, but it gives the implication that women are money hungry. It doesn’t make sense to target women- when reality is that your target audience is men. After all, it is a men’s product they are promoting.

This is also a breach in persuasive ethics because it encourages men to buy the product for all the wrong reason. Old Spice doesn’t simply say “buy our product because it smells good”, because to be honest- its plain and boring. Men are also being sexualized to look the part of a ‘macho man’, which a fit, strong, and the perfect man. The false reality that Old Spice gives off is that if you purchase their product you will also become (if not already) strong, fit, and the perfect man.  On the Old Spice webpage they stated, “We're not saying this body wash will make your man smell into a romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot, but we are insinuating it.” So, I guess in a sense they aren’t “lying”, but the rest of the sentence ‘but we are insinuating it” as if it will really happen.

This leads to be disliking a product. If they ‘think’ that purchasing a product with ‘enhance’ there ability at something then the likelihood of them purchasing the product is very high. This breach of ethics impacts the situation because it gives off a false reality of both men and women.

                                 -Sharnae White

Courses:

http://oldspice.com/en/content/the-man-your-man-could-smell-like
https://advsoc2013.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/the-man-your-man-could-smell-like/