Wednesday, April 20, 2011

What do men think?

I went out today evening to buy some supplies and a fried chicken take-away .. To celebrate the successful completion of my third mid-semester tests .. So i'm looking at this pretty big billboard for Jockey .. There's a handsome model lying across on a bed in tidy-whities .. And then i think, who is this ad catering to?

When women browse through a lingerie catalog, we're looking at the undergarment advertised .. We keenly observe what sort of support it would provide .. Whether its available only in cotton or do they have a line in silk, lace, etc .. We look at the price; the higher it is, the happier we are .. But, of course if you're a not-rich college student and you're going through a La Perla catalog, the $350+ tags will bring ur moods down .. But still you wonder how wonderful La Perla must be (i do) ..

Now let's take men .. Only for about the past 2 decades, the metro-sexual attitude is beginning to get to men .. I'm not thrilled about it but its nice to date a man who takes just about more than 5 mins when he's getting ready for a date (Yes, ka .. you :P ) .. Real worry is when they join you for mani-pedis ..

Anyways, coming back to my chosen topic for today, I was genuinely puzzled how the ad was gonna make more men buy their underwear .. Given how majority of India's or at least, Tanjore's male demographic is straight, i really do not understand how the handsome model can do the job he is intended for .. When we women see a beautiful model wearing something, we almost always want it cos we somehow delude ourselves into believing that we too would look as pretty as the model if we bought n wore the dress .. But i'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way for men ..

So what i wanna know is if that billboard would make a man want to buy that underwear.

2 comments:

Yash said...

It is all about brand name retention.
How well do you think one will will remember the lame generic advert with the ugly model dressed in a vest and underwear standing with his arms crossed?
Compare that to a much bolder handsome sculpted man who is asserting his dominance in the bed by lying there wearing the awesome product.

Another thing is identifying with the culture/status symbol of the product being advertised. Seems like this billboard might target the man who is affluent enough to be able to afford a gym membership and as a result has enough spare time to go to a spa and get groomed on a regular basis. But then even people who may not really have these luxuries want to be able to associate themselves with the upper class and will go and buy that brand.

Ken said...

Makes sense .. it's lame .. but then so are most of our primitive instincts