Old Spice Swagger Ad

In this Old Spice Swagger Deodorant ad it shows a before and after photo of Brian Urlacher, a football player for the Chicago Bears.  The photo of him before using Old Spice shows a nerdy teenager and underneath the top photo it shows a quote by Urlacher stating, “Old Spice Swagger transformed me from this sad little nerd person into the colossal man mountain of awesomeness you see now.  Thanks, Old Spice.”  To the right of the quote there is an after photo of Brian Urlacher and shows him looking manlier and having no resemblance to the original photo.  The message is; if you use Old Spice you will completely transform into a man like Urlacher.  The ad appeals to teenage boys who look nerdy and want to look manlier, be attractive, and physically attractive.  The audience is young men ranging from teenagers to mid twenties.  The ad is claiming that if you use their product you will instantly change from your nerdy self into a manlier version of yourself.  The ad makes a cultural assumption that all boys want to be tough men and that Old Spice Swagger is a quick fix to becoming taller, being more serious, wearing suits, and being successful.  It promises that rather than working out, working hard, and taking a while to become successful and fit, you can use their deodorant and go straight to the end result.  For example, in the before photo, the young man has a medieval neck piece on, a sleeveless shirt, with oversized glasses long, is starting to grow a mustache, curly hair swept to the side, awkwardly smiling, has a sun burn on his arm, and does not have any muscle, all in front of a green backdrop which leads the audience to believe he is taking a photo for a yearbook.  The photo is horrifying to any teenage boy because this photo is seen as unattractive to society.  This boy is the opposite of what we find acceptable in a man.  Then as the reader looks underneath this teenage photo he’ll see Urlacher after using the deodorant and how he is now the opposite of the first picture.  Here, he is bald, no facial hair, wearing a business suit and tie, looks nothing like the boy in the original picture, and has a serious look on his face.  The ad is stating that it can change young boys into what society views as an attractive man.