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.

Facts In Politics

         Tonight in my political science class I listened as we had an open discussion about the two political parties and everyone's views; Republicans and Democrats.  A boy a few desks over from me blurted out how Bush was a terrible man and went on to insult him with vulgar words without actually describing the facts on which he disliked him. Then, A girl next to him rebutted his argument by saying Obama is ridiculous in how he wants the country to become, hers was a bit more fact based but still showed she didn't know the whole story.  The professor watched without giving her personal opinion and let the two students argue the topic.  As it got more heated, more people joined in.  Some classmates took the democratic side, while others sided with republicans not one showed they knew in depth facts about the party leader or the party in general.  How people can be so passionate about a topic, yet so uninformed?  It's simple really, a general overview on both parties is; Democrats are pro big Government and Republicans are pro big business and the parties are developed from there.  Now if people are not educated in something as crucial as their government, how scary is it to think that these same people are the ones who are voting and making the overall decision?  Our forefathers wrote our Constitution to get us away from a form of government that only allowed the king or queen in reign to make laws.  Now that we have a government by the people and for the people, it would be logical for the people to be heavily involved in politics and the general well being of our country.  However, as demonstrated this evening, it is clear not everyone feels the same way.  Each person had a skewed left or right winged version of the truth.  People are too obsessed with the party name and not the politics.  Why vote if you have no fact based opinion?  If each person did their research, watched both the democratic and republican national convention during presidential elections, voted for their state laws not just governmental ones, this country would be much different.  It would be true to form as it was with our forefathers.  If each person voted based on research rather than looks and "coolness" this country would be the wealthiest, safest, and greatest place, because no matter your beliefs, it would reflect a dedicated country as well as a sophisticated one.