Nivea for Men: Strangely Sexist Commercial

[Jaimey]

I just saw it again and it's basically a bunch of teenage guys who wouldn't be considered 'cool' or 'popular' all saying things like they want girls to smell them (when they're all sweaty and stuff...a couple of scrawny, probably freshmen/really young football players) or it won't help them get a girl (the exchange student...I found that more offensive personally, he's Asian and he says "It won't help me mate", and then there's another guy saying he wants girls to smell him...I don't really know how to describe him other than not 'cool') and then at the end it's a very well dressed, handsome man who says something like "smells good and it's good for your skin, why not?"

I don't think this one is anymore sexist than body wash commercials aimed at women. It's just a commercial aimed at a target audience.

[Some Kid]

I just saw it again and it's basically a bunch of teenage guys who wouldn't be considered 'cool' or 'popular' all saying things like they want girls to smell them (when they're all sweaty and stuff...a couple of scrawny, probably freshmen/really young football players) or it won't help them get a girl (the exchange student...I found that more offensive personally, he's Asian and he says "It won't help me mate", and then there's another guy saying he wants girls to smell him...I don't really know how to describe him other than not 'cool') and then at the end it's a very well dressed, handsome man who says something like "smells good and it's good for your skin, why not?"

I don't think this one is anymore sexist than body wash commercials aimed at women. It's just a commercial aimed at a target audience.

This, pretty much. It's just presenting an alternative to childishly over the top attempts to smell "manly". If it's sexist, than every commercial aimed at women is too.

[Elwood]

I tend to buy "girly" soaps because they contain moisturizers. I think the one I'm currently using is Aveeno. I have dry skin, so I need the extra lotion.

I don't like scented stuff, though...

[RilianXI]

I just saw it again and it's basically a bunch of teenage guys who wouldn't be considered 'cool' or 'popular' all saying things like they want girls to smell them (when they're all sweaty and stuff...a couple of scrawny, probably freshmen/really young football players) or it won't help them get a girl (the exchange student...I found that more offensive personally, he's Asian and he says "It won't help me mate", and then there's another guy saying he wants girls to smell him...I don't really know how to describe him other than not 'cool') and then at the end it's a very well dressed, handsome man who says something like "smells good and it's good for your skin, why not?"

I don't think this one is anymore sexist than body wash commercials aimed at women. It's just a commercial aimed at a target audience.

This, pretty much. It's just presenting an alternative to childishly over the top attempts to smell "manly". If it's sexist, than every commercial aimed at women is too.

Commercials targeted at women usually are horribly sexist. But they don't go so far as to equate the term "grown-up" with the term "man", as this commercial clearly and irrefutably did.

[Ryles]

It reminds me of a toned down version of that Axe bodyspray/deodorant/whatever it is. Shamefully pathetic and sexist. Anything marketed that way is not getting my business, ever.

I find them hilarious. Also, we find them quite alluring. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a gay tailored version just to see the commercials.

After the axe where the guy sprays it on and the girl ends up in a leopard-print bikini and him in a loin cloth, that'd be FUNNY AS HECK. XD

I keep wondering if I should get guy bodywash/etc to smell more like it. I think I need some for when I leave to college, but I've always used stuff like vanilla. Not sure if I could find a guy one I like. :/ Had a hard enough time with the deodorant.

[Kladeos]

Huh. I generally don't pay attention to how I smell or how other people smell, unless they're wearing an overpowering perfume or smell bad. I don't tend to use scented products just for their scent (if that makes sense). I don't really differentiate between "feminine" scents and "masculine" scents, although my experiences in a girls' changing room do suggest that "feminine" scents are those that seem very edible... Like candy. And fruit.

[RilianXI]

It says Nivea for Men is "The body wash for grown ups". It's either contradictory or sexist. I think I shall contact that company about it.

[Some Kid]

I really can't see how anyone can see something sexist in it. It just didn't discuss women, neither as examples of maturity or immaturity. It didn't equate "grown up" with "man", it just didn't mention that women can be grown up too, and seeing how it didn't associate women with not being grown up, I see no problem with that.

I'm with you about the common concept that masculine traits are more "practical" or "grown up", and it's a silly, sexist concept, but that commercial isn't the place to find examples of it.

[Red Haze]

I really can't see how anyone can see something sexist in it. It just didn't discuss women, neither as examples of maturity or immaturity. It didn't equate "grown up" with "man", it just didn't mention that women can be grown up too, and seeing how it didn't associate women with not being grown up, I see no problem with that.

I'm with you about the common concept that masculine traits are more "practical" or "grown up", and it's a silly, sexist concept, but that commercial isn't the place to find examples of it.

THIS.

You guys have been missing the whole point of the commercial if you think it's sexist. It's a body wash for GROWNUPS--not as opposed to body wash for women OR for kids. It's as opposed to body washes by companies like Axe, which are targeted towards adolescent men and allegedly reeks. If anything, you should be wasting your time complaining about Axe commercials, which imply that women automatically become sexually uninhibited and animalistic by the mere scent of Axe.

Some of you really need to work on your comprehension skills before you start complaining about sexism in media that clearly isn't there.

[JC]

You guys have been missing the whole point of the commercial if you think it's sexist. It's a body wash for GROWNUPS--not as opposed to body wash for women OR for kids.

Not to point out something that's too terribly obvious. But i believe the product is called nivea for men, not nivea for grownups so your logic doesn't really follow there. If it had been then you might have made a fair point, but it wasn't.

[Reg]

I agree with the poster who pointed out this commercial is simply targeted at an older demographic who may want a BodyWash that doesn't smell like a heavy "Babe Magnet" cologne. The commercial is satirizing why teenage boys like products such as Axe. I think the commercial is really quite clever and like it, and don't see it as sexist so much as it is poking a bit of fun at sexist portrayals in other commercials for body washes and the like. And obviously it is doing its job if it is getting so much attention, even if it is the "what the heck is that about??" type.

[RilianXI]

I'm not going to buy their stupid product, so their commercial did not do its job.

[ChildOfTheLight]

I'm not going to buy their stupid product, so their commercial did not do its job.

That's rather like saying a casino didn't do its job because you won $50 at blackjack.

[Kladeos]

I think a commercial has done its job when its stupid jingle won't get out of your head.

[RilianXI]

I'm not going to buy their stupid product, so their commercial did not do its job.

That's rather like saying a casino didn't do its job because you won $50 at blackjack.

If my net gain was 50$, then the casino lost money on me.

And the commercial isn't succeeding in getting me to give money to the company. So it fails.

So how exactly are you thinking the commercial did its job?

[Tomaat]

no commercial is 100% succesful. In fact they could have said, pick up our product in the store, carry it to a manager, and will give you $1,000 cash just for touching it, and there would still be people who won't go out and do it.

Just because the commercial doesn't work for you, doesn't mean it won't result in hundreds of thousands of dollars of profits from them


its sort of like the experient where those guys put up an internet banner ad that said "click here to download a virus for your computer." You would think that would be enough warning to tell people not to click but in the hour it was up around 56 people clicked to download it.

[ChildOfTheLight]

I'm not going to buy their stupid product, so their commercial did not do its job.

That's rather like saying a casino didn't do its job because you won $50 at blackjack.

If my net gain was 50$, then the casino lost money on me.

And the commercial isn't succeeding in getting me to give money to the company. So it fails.

So how exactly are you thinking the commercial did its job?

A casino wins because the odds of its games are in its favor. If it gets a lot of people to sit down at, say, the blackjack table, some will win, some will lose, and the overall flow of money will, in the long run, be toward the casino -- probability dictates that it will.

If a high enough percentage of people who see this commercial buy the body wash, then the company will make a profit. That's the commercial's job. That percentage isn't 100% or anything close, so you can't say the commercial failed just because you (one person of millions in the audience) didn't buy it. (Allegedly, many spammers have a success rate of about fifteen in a million, but they keep spamming because it's almost free to do so.)

[RilianXI]

Reg said the commercial was doing it's job, specifying that job as "getting attention". In other words, hey implied that the commercial had done its job on me. But it has not, because its job is not to get attention but to get money for the company.

[Tomaat]

You are posting here about it thereby helping this product get publicicity. And publicity is what causes the commerical to be a success. Just by posting in this thread, creating discussion about this product, you are proving that the commercial was a succesful tool used on you. If it wasn't succesful you wouldn't have had a thing to comment about the product.

There are companies that intentionally create ads that they know will cause a stir just for this reason.

[RilianXI]

You are posting here about it thereby helping this product get publicicity. And publicity is what causes the commerical to be a success. Just by posting in this thread, creating discussion about this product, you are proving that the commercial was a succesful tool used on you. If it wasn't succesful you wouldn't have had a thing to comment about the product.

There are companies that intentionally create ads that they know will cause a stir just for this reason.

It didn't succeed on me because I'm not going to buy the product.

Are any of you going to buy the product because I made a thread about it?