The Lynx Advert
For those who don’t know Lynx is on if the major brands of male deodorant. There have been many other Lynx adverts in the past and they are designed to appeal to the older male audience. This advert is titled “If only” which straight away suggests that the advert is going to show what someone or a group of people wish for or dream of, what they would like something to be like. The opening starts with a woman standing outside a London tube station in the rain. Her hair is wet and she doesn’t look happy. But then as the camera gets closer to her she puts on a smile and says
“Hi, your not late it’s my watch, its always fast.” This is a strange thing for a woman stood out in the pouring rain to say. From when she starts speaking it is clear that what the camera is seeing is meant to be what the boyfriend of the women is seeing. The camera is taking his place or showing it from his point of view. But its what the woman actually says that is surprising because its not what you would have expected her to say. It is very uncharacteristic. I personally would have expected her to rant on about how she had been waiting in the pouring rain for half an hour or something else along those lines. I am not alone in thinking this, in fact most males of our species would expect to see exactly the same thing and that is why you can tell as soon as she says this line that the product being advertised must be for men. Very few women would find this line amusing because it’s taking the mickey out of them.
The picture then changes to a different woman sitting on a couch and background music then begins. “You look so sexy playing air guitar.” This line is again something that you don’t often here a woman say, and never hear a woman say it seriously. Again the camera is seeing everything through the eyes of this woman’s boyfriend. The next scene starts with a view of another woman but you can only see from her waist to her neck. The camera slowly moves up and she say’s “Oh nice, you noticed my breasts.” The camera reaches her face and she is smiling pleasantly at it. This is yet another line that you don’t often hear women say because staring at a woman’s breasts often end with the man getting slapped.
The next scene shows a woman standing the looking at the camera and she, “You forgot my birthday” The thought running through my mind is that the mood has changed. He’s not going to get out of this one. It is a very stereotypical view women often have of men is that we often forget there girlfriends or fianc�s or wives birthdays. I have seen many Television shows where this story is played out and it often leads to the couple fighting, occasionally plates are thrown (but not always unfortunately), the guy goes out and buy’s his wife something special, says sorry and they make up and live happily ever after. But to my horror this is not what happens here.
The woman goes on to say, “That’s ok, you’ll remember my birthday next year” Never!! A woman would never say that. But the advert is titled If Only so it is what men wish that there women would say so I’ll go along with that for now. All of a sudden there is a different woman coming down the stairs looking rather angry and swinging what appears to be a female undergarment (panties). “She means nothing to you!” she shouts. “Well if you put it that way, I forgive you.” Obviously this woman’s boyfriend has had an affair with a different woman. A very popular line with men after there better halves have found out is to tell them that this other woman meant nothing to him. Usually the woman doesn’t care and breaks up with him anyway but that’s the point this advert is trying to make.
Yet another woman appears. Now most women dislike comic books and are more into fashion magazines etc but this next one is obviously somebody’s dream girl. “That’s so funny, I collect comic books too.” Very unusual. Well it is not as unlikely for you to hear a woman say that as it is for you to hear a woman say what the next one does. She looks lovingly at the camera and says in Spanish, “I could listen to you talk about football all day.” Now another very common stereotypical view women have of men is that all that we talk about is sports (and cars) and they often complain about it. The last scene and instead of a woman the picture is of a can of lynx deodorant inside a bathroom cupboard. The door opens and a very average man uses it. The advert then ends with the slogan appearing across the screen.
“The Lynx effect.” This advert doesn’t employ the use of any special effects, vibrant colours or big flashy messages flying across the screen because these things will not attract its target audience. This advert is aimed at young men especially, so the advert is comical and has many beautiful women in it to attract that audience. It does have background music which was made especially for the advert. There is no singing. The music starts slow and has a very.
The adverts title “If only” is very appropriate because the advert is showing what most men would like women to say in the common situations that are played out in the course of the advert. What the women say is in fact the complete opposite of what they would say, but the advert wants men to believe that using Lynx will make the women say what men want them to. The Lynx effect is supposed to overpower the women into worshipping men. Obviously this doesn’t happen but hey men aren’t all as smart as me and most of them would do anything to get a woman. It’s pathetic really.
