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BobbyGill-60528031Looking at this old spice ad reminded me of a few memories I had growing up. In middle school, after gym class, I think almost every boy would use old spice or axe spray mask body odor. When someone would use a spray that wasn’t axe or old spice, everyone would be confused and judge the person. Now I wonder why did we only use axe or old spice? It was due to ads like this. At a young age, we thought it was cool. To be a man, we had to smell a certain way, or look a certain way. Now I finally realize the effect that these ads had on us. It made us think that we had to be or act in a certain way to “be a man”. I think that everyone wanted to fit in from a young age that we went with the flow and kept using these sprays. Now there isn’t anything wrong with these sprays, but what makes them better than any other spray? The reason behind it was that I felt a sense of accomplishment. I wanted to be like my dad. Using old spice made me feel like a “man”. I feel as if this ad in particular is pushing toward an extreme view. Either you smell like this and you’re a man, or you don’t and you’re not a man. Ads like this shape a societal view of the regular man. Looking at other old spice ads, you can see that every person in the ad is in similar body shape and seems to be enjoying themselves. I think that men should be able to feel comfortable with however they want to look, smell, or even feel.  Old Spice should not push a certain view of a “man” through their ads.

This new ad allows for openness among men. Smell however you’d like! I think this could actually lead to Old Spice trying new and different scents rather than the selective few they have.  There should not be a certain emphasis on what a man should be or do. Old Spice should acknowledge that everyone is different and work on making ads that aren’t very similar. They focus on similar body shapes, so they should be able to look into making ads with different body types. I think that being a man shouldn’t have certain expectations from society. Men should be allowed to express feelings. They should be allowed to be different from each other. If someone wants to smell different, they should be allowed to do that. A man shouldn’t have to live his life being scared of action because he is afraid that that action is different from what society is use too. He shouldn’t be getting judged because he is different. Now to relate this to me, I didn’t know this growing up, I just wanted to be “cool”. I think if I had this knowledge before, I wouldn’t have been afraid to be different. A lot of boys growing up use these sprays because they want to be “cool”.  I hope this new ad actually inspires those boys to do what they want. They should feel that they are capable of using whatever spray they want. They should know that these ads are pushing men to act in a certain behaviour. These boys should know that they are allowed to express themselves. Certain ads like the one above should be inclusive and encourage everyone to be different, not be the same.