Ever think of showering in the middle of a park because some biker chick gave you a bottle of shampoo? Herbal Essences’ biker commercial tries to break the gender barrier normally associated with shampoo commercials.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIs7OJ9FfGE
From humble beginnings as roaming nomads, men and women were assigned different roles in society. These nomads knew how to live off the land by using its resources to better their society. At some point, animal domestication turned horses as an invaluable method of transportation; a method almost always reserved for men. Jumping forward a few millennia, the “iron horses” of today typically provoke the same thought today - that men are the ones riding the motorcycles. Both then and now, these expectations held by the general population set different standards, telling how each gender should live. Herbal Essences wants to remove gender stereotypes from its products, by playing off society’s expectations and going against them through gender role reversal.
The commercial starts out with a girl dressed in leather getting off a motorcycle and showering with the new shampoo from Herbal Essences. After using the product, she has beautiful hair that any other girl would envy. As she walks back, she sees a rough looking male biker and passes him the bottle of citrus flavored shampoo, only to receive an odd glare, but the biker takes her unspoken advice and uses the shampoo to reveal incredible long hair that makes his fellow road warriors stare. Certainly, an element of humor comes into play with his final pose before the narrator ends the commercial with the company slogan.
The commercial is notable because Herbal Essences, one of the leading hair care products, is usually associated with women, but this time the brand tries to appeal to both genders. First, not all women have to be the stereotype, usually associated with superior hair care products. Here, the audience sees that the girl enjoys the rough life of a biker just as much as the guys do. When she decides to clean up though, she is not deterred by the feminine stereotype associated by Herbal Essences. Additionally, the rough-looking biker, one would think, would not care about his hygiene as much. However, not only does he take advice from a girl and uses the new shampoo, but he also makes his friends do a double take at his new look.
Such issues might prompt one to ask, “Why are these stereotypes around?” One explanation comes from the all too common homophobic nature of many Americans in today’s culture. Many men see competing shampoo/body wash products advertized with men who always get the most gorgeous date after using that product. As a result, the opposite idea that that using a “woman’s” shampoo could possibly make a man seem feminine, a trait wrongly deemed unacceptable by many Americans. Herbal Essences’ message reverses this notion because no one would question a biker’s masculinity. Similarly, there is a negative stereotype associated with “biker girls” who are, seen as being uncouth outcasts from society. However, the female biker in this commercial appears quite feminine, while still able to enjoy the open road on a bike. In all, it does not matter what a person uses, society has just skewed the ideas of what is acceptable. As the biker probably thought as he was showing off to his friends, while this is humorous, what in society says a man cannot be “pretty”?
I personally think that this commercial is doing a great job in going against the social's expectation through gender role reversal. No doubt this commercial is funny but I do not think that it makes the product looked appealing to the male customers. The hero in the commercial is not only projected to be feminine with long, wavy and bouncy hair, but also be sexy in the way of female as we can see, towards the end of the commercial, his coat is opened up and exposes his right shoulder a little. In addition, he even shoots a sexy glance. I think guys will prefer to be stereotyped as masculine and tough. They will associate themselves more to such stereotyping rather than what that is being portrayed in this commercial. Overall, this commercial is eye-catching.
ReplyDeleteEven though I thought the ending of the commercial was funny, I think people may find it a bit mocking. Here is a "manly man", but when he uses the herbal essence shampoo it breaks him down into more or less a joke. Even though his friends go wide-eyed at his new look they aren't jumping to use the shampoo next. The girl may have pulled off the flowing style, but the commercial could be seen as only applying to women because I personally have never seen a guy with long, fluffed and luscious locks sitting on their head. Let alone a guy who wants that look. The commercial, however, is over exaggerating, and so guys could look at it and think they want their hair to be smoother, shiner and stand out more so I understand it from that angle as well.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I don’t think guys will buy this product. Firstly, it clearly targets at women. Herbal Essence has a strong scent, and it is stereotypical but true that girls always prefer the scents more than men do. The main character is the woman biker, and the commercial gives her a close-up of her shining long hair (and a close-up of the man’s hair later which looks almost the same). Also it is a woman who is doing the voice. Secondly, even though the man biker uses the shampoo, when he shows off to his friends, he acts like a woman. What I guess is that the commercial is trying to convince the audiences that Herbal Essence can even make a masculine man feminine, it will definitely make you girls look double feminine. Anyway, it is a very funny commercial.
ReplyDeleteI can see the point of view where the commercial would be attempting to play the role reversal and appeal to both men and women and I can also see the point where the man was just put into the commercial as just a "character" or "prop" and its main audience still be females. Either way, the commercial does a good job at using both males and females in its advertisement which probably is more likely to catch a guys attention whereas most hair product commercials usually have an all female cast in their commercials. I do agree with the topic of gender stereotyping in the media which has resulted in a vast majority of our advertisements to be for gender specific products and furthermore feed into the stereotypes and I commend advertisements and companies that have tried to break those barriers by reversing the gender role.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure the commercial does a good job of convincing males to buy the product. The commercial definately uses stereotypes of men in a funny way and shows a man using the product, but the man becomes feminine like when he uses the product. The man's friends don't look at him in awe and seem like they want his hair. They just look at him like if he had gone crazy. The commercial therefore mainly targets women. The badass quality that this woman is something a lot of girls want, while still keeping their "girly" qualities and this commercial shows that herbal essence shampoo can cater to just that.
ReplyDeleteI agree that people do have stereotype on men using a "women" shampoo. They seem feminize for some reasons. Also, people have the stereotype on biker girls. This commercial is great. It takes away these stereoptype feeling on me. Men do not have to use those powerful shampoo only, they can use "women" shampoo if it is good for his hair. On the other hand, bike girls can be good ones too. They are not necessary outcast from our society. Everyone has their own interests. They can choose what they like to do. Therefore, no matter which shampoo people use, it do not apply any differences on people personally. Everyone has their own way to live in society. We should treat everyone the same and respect each other.
ReplyDeleteAs many people mentioned earlier in the comments, I agree that this is not effective at appealing to the male consumers. It is indeed a humorous commercial, but it does play on the homophobic humor. I do not think that is what men are looking to buy. It does come off as a bit “girly” and though his biker friends are in awe by this new look, most males do not want that kind of attention from their male friends. I find it interested how the characters change from before the shampoo to after the shampoo. The man start off looking rough and hardcore, but with his new hair is all bubbly and has a lovely bounce in his steps. That emotional transition was pretty much the same experience for both of the characters. A common stereotype about bikers in general that this commercial conveys is the black leather suits, tattoos and the bandannas. I find it interesting how in the “biker dude” stereotype, there isn’t much difference between the male and female dress style and how they are supposed to behave.
ReplyDeleteI personally don’t think that many men well want to buy this product because it portrays that they won’t be that manly. I thought that it was very funny that they used the stereotype of men being more feminine. I thought that was great. It made me laugh. In the blog you guys asked, “Why do these stereotypes happen or occur?” I believe that these stereotypes occur because many straight men don’t want to appear gay because it is degrading to most men. Personally I would hate if someone thought that I was gay because I know that I am not, and it would bother me. This was a comical commercial was very funny and I really enjoyed it because I have a friend who has this product! haha
ReplyDeleteWhile this commercial does a good job in reversing a stereotype using humor, I don't believe that that it was targeting the male audience. The idea of a man being looked at as more feminine does not make most men want to buy that product. The commercial does, however, leave a lasting impression on the female audience. Most women like the idea of being rough and tough while still maintaining their girly image, and this commercial shows just that.
ReplyDeleteThis commercial is very humorous in how it makes the tough biker guy have great hair and everything, but just like everyone has said, it does not really make men want to buy it. After using the shampoo, the big biker acted more like the woman than a tough guy which is what bikers are trying to be. If they had shown women loving his hair then maybe that would have convinced more men to buy the product. But the commercial showed him becoming more feminine after using the shampoo. Most men do not want to be viewed as feminine because they do not want to be seen as homosexual.
ReplyDeleteThis commercial is great, because it presents a stereotype with a very humor way. I think this commercial is mainly targeting on the female audience. Because this commercial is just show what most females cares most, which is something like young and beautiful forever. However, I guess this commercialis going to be unconfortable with certain male audience.
ReplyDeleteThe commercial mainly targets the women audience. Using the products, the soft long hair and fragrance really appeal to most women. Ladies prefer this kind of shampoo to make their hair, especially long hair, look and smell better. However, the products may not have enough attractions to men. The effects of the shampoo men what to receive are different from women. For example, men may do not prefer their hair with strong fragrance like women.
ReplyDeleteIt is a little known fact that all bikers have a gorgeous head of hair, some just fail to show the full potential of their long, flowing locks. Take Bon Jovi for example, a very popular rocker in the eighties. His hair is a godsend and he even wrote a song expressing his proclivity for taking a ride on his very own steel horse, even if he was wanted dead or alive. Bon Jovi was able to maintain his stunning hair while living the lifestyle of a biker because he knew the secret to fantastic hair, unfortunately such knowledge is priveleged and many of today's bikers are left in the dark. Herbal Essences has been able to make a connection between the secrets of feminine hair care and the plight of the helmet-haired biker and has offered a product to end all sorrows. The biker's friends in the commercial look so suprised because they have seen first-hand the power that lies within the hair of the biker and are hopeful that they too can unlock the true potential of their own frazzeled locks.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this commercial use a funny way to illustrate how nice will Herbal Essence bring to your hair, i don't think it is targeting to men. Because this is a kind of stereotype but it is true that every woman want to have long shinny hair, and most men don't care about that. Even though the manly man in the commercial was kind of proud of his hair, it just want to show that Herbal Essence is strong enough to make man's hair soft and shinny like woman's. Anyway, it is still a great commercial.
ReplyDeletei think this commercial is both accurate and clever. I think that there is no question that the given stereotypes exist for bikers as well as Herbal Essence Shampoo. Personally, i have always associated herbal essence with women, assuming that it was a product line targeted at only women. The use of bikers to open up the product to men is simply a clever and humorous advertising strategy.
ReplyDeleteWhile this commercial may use humor, I also do not believe it's attractive to male consumers, especially those who see themselves as very "manly" or tough, such as those bikers. I interpreted the bikers reactions at the end as, shock and disapproval rather than excitement over the idea of a hair care product.
ReplyDeleteThis commercial is done in a humorous and clever wasy. It trying to appeal to both gender by showing that shampoo is feminine enough for a female and macho enough for a male to use. By using the biker in the commercial it trying convey a message that even tough guys and girl use this shampoo making it more appealing for the general public to use.
ReplyDelete