Shake Weight

Recently, due to circumstances I won't reveal (okay, I will; my friend had never seen these commercials before! I had to share), I was watching the Shake Weight commercial. It's always good for a laugh, but then I saw that there was a men specific ad for the Shake Weight (the difference? It's bigger and longer...) Check it out:

Original (for women):


Shake Weight for men:



Trying my best not to sound like a pretentious, fresh-from-first-year-university kid with three sociology classes under my belt, the difference between these ads interested me. I'm trying to think how my sister, who majored/minored in Creative Writing and Women's Studies (see: opinionated, and knows how to express it) might analyze these ads. Unfortunately, I'm not nearly as word-savvy, nor do I quite know the proper terminology to judge these commercials (first year sociology tried it's best, but I'm not quite ready for this).

But, in basic English, I found it interesting how the different companies use such blatantly different advertising points to sell the exact same product. I guess everyone is like "well obviously I'm aware the advertisers work different angles for different demographics, but that's obvious." However, seeing them right next to each other makes it seem almost ridiculously in-your-face. You Boy. You like boobs. Cars good! You Girl. You Passive. Take care of skin. Soft skin make you pretty! Ya know?

These aren't the best examples (it's surprisingly hard to find the commercials you actually want to see, in English, on YouTube), but the different approaches to sell essentially the same product to the different genders is interesting:
L'Oreal Anti-Fatigue Moisturizer Ad (for men) vs Neutrogena Energy Renewal Creme (for women)
AND 
Garnier Anti-Dark-Circle Eye Roller (for women) vs L'Oreal Hydra Energetic Eye Roll-On (for men) (sorry, I couldn't find an English version. But you get the idea) 

And finally, because it's probably the most obvious comparison out there...
Axe Shower Gel (for men) vs Dove Body Wash (for women) 

Just a thought. Think about it!