Men take new paths, and ads tag along

IT WASN’T that long ago that commercials for the body spray Axe spoke to a certain type of male fantasy: Guys used the product and women who looked l i ke supermodels flocked to them.

However, the latest campaign from Axe, introduced in May, is all about expanding the idea of masculinity. A video poses the question “Is it OK for guys . . .” and applies it to everything from wearing pink, to having long hair, to being bad at sports.

Men – Axe and some other American brands seem to have suddenly discovered – are not all heterosexual, sex-driven bodybuilders.

“It used to be one rigid rule for what a man should be,” said Rik Strubel, the global vice president for Axe, which is owned by Unilever. “That, thankfully, has changed.”

This updated portrayal of masculinity by some brands is reminiscent of “femvertising” from roughly a decade ago, said Juliet Williams, a gender studies professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Advertising aimed at women then featured “the opportunistic appropriation of mainstream feminism”, she said.

And while these brands are heading in the right direction with how they portray men, Williams said, advertising still tends to stick to clichés.

“When you look at the images, they’re still superstereotypical,” she said. “Even if he’s changing diapers, he’s still going to be a buff dad wearing plaid or a white T-shirt.”

With more men taking a more active role in the daily responsibilities of child care, Dove Men+Care is unveiling its “There to Care” advertising campaign on Monday. In the campaign, the skin care brand – which is also owned by Unilever – shows how grandfathers, teachers, uncles, coaches and brothers can influence children.

This kind of “dadvertising” has boomed the past two years. During the 2015 Super Bowl, for example, several commercials featured men as caring fathers.

Advertisers have long ignored the reality of masculinity, said Michael Kimmel, a professor of sociology and gender studies at Stony Brook University. Kimmel has worked with Dove Men+Care to evolve its marketing to men.

But while more brands than ever are portraying girls and women with more respect, some hamburger, beer and pickup truck brands continue to rely on traditional definitions of masculinity.

“We’re really in a moment of the mainstreaming of the idea that girls can be anything,” said Williams of UCLA. “We haven’t seen the same shift with men. It’s still ‘boys will be boys’.”