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Males are never depicted in advertisement of shampoos, you always see women, as if men are condemned to always have short hair or no hair at all, because obviously the ads only show women.
This is a kind of propaganda, with a message that is clearly saying: "see, long hair for women only". Such an attitude implies that men dont use shampoos to wash their hair.
Some ads even associate a woman having orgasm, ie she`s moaning whilst shampooing her hair. It sounds clearly like the sound track of a porn movie.(Clairol herbal) Bulls hit !
Another ad shows a woman moaning whilst shampooing her hair and when she comes out, her boyfriend (who`s bald) compliments her and she tells him: "you like me only for my body".
On the other hand, man are always portrayed as having thinning hair problems and any shampoo ad involving men is always about thickening shampoos !
If long haired men were used in ads, I bet shampoos sales would rise.
This is clearly media misrepresentation.
???? They do show men in some shampoo and conditioner ads. Garnier is one of them.
While I generally agree with you,T a r i k h, I was surprised the find that this months OUT magazine-- a lifestule mag for Lesbians and gays-- is chock full offashion ads with long-haired men. If the old beliefthat gay men dictate / lead fashion trends if true, perhaps it's only a season awy that mainstream print ad will have some longhairs!
On the other hand, I have a theory about why long hairs aren't more visible in the media. Since most men experience some level of hair loss in their life, and since men largely control representation thru media, I think long hairs are largely absent from such images to reinforce that shorter hair, less hair is more masculine. It's just an effort on the partof ad execs to establish looks they can pull-off as the norm.
Just my two cents as I wake up on a beautiful Saturday morning.
peace, Pete
So what? Most men have short hair. The more people an advertisment reaches, the more effective (in terms of cost) it is!
Actually dude, I was browsing through a mag over at my sister's house, it was some sort of fashion/beauty magazine and I came across an ad for Matrix's new shampoo "Glowtrix" and lo and behold the model they used was a guy with beautiful long, straight dark brown hair about to his shoulders. It was a welcome change to see!! :)
Maybe you are just looking in the wrong area. There is an
ad for an excericise product featuring Tony Little, a man
with long hair. His hair isn't as long as it used to
be but it is still long.
It would certainly CAPTURE people's attention!!!
Maybe advertisers should consider that angle!
There are many long-haired men in ads, you just haven't looked long enough....
Take a look at Calvin Klein ads, Giorgio Armani, even MEXX ads, most men in their ad campaigns have long hair.
No, I mean SHAMPOO ads, mate.
Cheers
The media associates long hair with women, and reflects that association in its advertisements. Similar associations can be traced between women and cleaning: How often do you see a MAN using the newest Swiffer Wet Jet product or scrubbing with Mr. Clean, or even doing the dishes for that matter? I can tell you that women sure as hell aren't the only ones that do such work (Personal experience speaks on my behalf on this one...)
There was a commercial a while (couple of years?) back that had a long haired man (and I'm talking about past shoulder length) with some women in a rather artsy TV ad for a shampoo. He and the women were leaning forward at one one point flipping their hair. Another scene had him and one other woman back-to-back and leaning away from each other with their hair tied or braided together to demonstrate its strength using the product. I believe it was for Nexxus. It was something to see.
Just read the newest issue of GQ. Lots and Lots of men with long hair in the ads. Most had almost shoulder length hair and all of them looked great. These were clothing ads.
Tarikh,
It can hurt to feel left out but the predominant absence of long haired men from shampoo ads is an economic decision and not meant as a slight. Commercials for shampoo more often are selling to women because they are the predominant buyers for their family. I suspect men making their own shampoo purchases are not considered a large enough segment to target because a shampoo ad might remind them to get shampoo but not be after a specific brand. The average guy probably shops for price rather than name on the bottle. Shampoo sales in general could go up with more guys in commercials but a company is only interested in their brand's sales improving.
There is also the unfortunate reality that for some people, of limited thinking, a long haired man is a turn off and a business does not want to harm larger sales for the slight effect of gaining the loyalty of long haired men. Advertisements have nothing to do with portraying the world as it is. Instead, their goal is to give the consumer the idea that only their product will solve whatever their need is.
Elizabeth