Gillette: You have to be very man
Summary
«You have to be very man to admit that you are afraid, to swim against the countercurrent, to put your family before any title, to change while being yourself, to give visibility to those who do not have it, you have to be very manTo be very queen, you have to be very man to be you »
Introduction
We are faced with a commercial announcement, broadcast on television and published on social networks. The video is narrated by the famous Spanish actor Paco León, and throughout him more people are coming out, such as a disabled actor and a drag queen, and of course in the end the slogan "you have to be very man" and the Gillette logo. The publicized product are razor of the Gillette brand. But this announcement tries to go further, tries to break established gender roles, which we will discuss later.
Type of argument
In this advertisement we do not find any type of product presentation, which does not play any paper. What we find are rhetorical arguments, which are based on subjectivity to convince ourselves to why we must use their products).
In this announcement of Gillette’s shaving blades, argumentation is clearly rhetorical. We are trying to persuade to leave gender roles where we are told that a man has to be impassive, just look for himself, and focus on his professional career, by the time we abandon them we will know that the brand will always be available for all kindsof man.
Within the rhetorical argument class there is the emotional argument. The issuer relies on the idea that as men we seek inside us and we are not ashamed. We also see an ethical argument, since it is taken for granted that the brand is known enough so that throughout the video we are taught to men shaving with the blades of the brand, and we know what its virtues are.
Another characteristic of this "spot" is innovation. Gillette’s vast majoryou can be").
Communicative functions
The communicative function is the appellation, since its final objective, is that the average consumer of the brand (the middle -aged man) ends up convinced that there are more prototypes of men, abandon their toxic masculinity and acquire the product anyway. This function thought that it stands out especially in the phrase "you have to be very man to admit that you are afraid".
We can also observe an aesthetic or poetic function. There is an order in the message, starting with a "you have to be very man to admit that you are afraid" and ending with a "you have to be very man to be a queen". The advertisement function is to deconstruct the figure of man: starting because it is good to admit that you feel fear and ending that you have to accept that there are more types of men.
Pragmatic description
The issuer of the advertising message is the Gillette company, which are the ones who want to sell their product. That company generates consumption goods, so they hire an advertising company that prepares the appropriate message, and in this case they have hired the famous actor Paco León to relate the message. Before building that message you have to carry out a market study, to specify what potential consumers are.
The message is an advertisement on Gillette shaving blades, which in this particular "spot" have a secondary role. The real message is a reflection towards its average consumer on its masculinity, a fairly risky movement.
This message can be divided into three parts:
- Heading: "Men have always been told how we have to be". The first line of the narrator, which serves as a hook for the receiver to make an introspection
- Body: main message of the ad. Presents a challenge and new arguments to the receiver aimed at convincing it.
- Slogan: It is the final element with which the message closes and condenses it. It is a brief but concise phrase and easy to remember, and full of senses. It must be brief and shocking, which is recorded in the mind of the receiver. "You have to be very man" alludes to the trajectory of the brand.
The channel used are television channels and social networks such as YouTube, Twitter or Instagram
The context: this announcement was conceived in response to the controversial announcement of the brand "The best man you can be", to try to appeal to the faithful public they had worked for many years.
The code used for the announcement is: the verbal and the graph, both are complemented, deriving in a balanced and natural structure.
General characteristics of advertising texts
The function of language and advertising text is to convince the receiver to consume a product. There are certain characteristics with which these texts are built:
- Brevity and condensation, which affects both text and image. The images usually contain elements with great connotative force. The text of an ad is always brief, so that it allows its immediate memorization
- The multifunctionality of the resources used, which aims to attract attention, involve the receiver, and record the message in your memory
- Heterogeneity. The message is built by audiovisual and verbal codes
- Transgressions of linguistic norms. Very frequent resource for which the receiver is tried to surprise and capture his attention
- Tendency to reiteration, in order to ensure the memorization of the message
- Variety of linguistic and syntactic resources even in the shortest texts that can appear an extreme simplicity
Linguistic characteristics
Phonological and graphic plane
The textual structure of the ad is composed of the body and slogan.
As for the graphic component of the ad, I would like to highlight one of the final sequences where the photographer Rubén Errebeene (also known as Ariel Rec, his alter Ego Drag Queen) comes out without teaching the product in the foreground, but to give more strength to theAcceptance message trying from the brand, followed by a final assembly of all video participants, narrated by Paco León.
Returning to the textual part (in this case audio) you can refer to the enumeration "you have to be a man to admit to being afraid … you have to be a man to be a queen"
The statements in general are brief, although the message in general is quite powerful and concise.
Morphosyntactic plane
Syntax in ads is usually extremely simple. In this case we start with a prayer without nominal phrase "men have always told us how we have to be", used as a declaration of intentions and as a hook for the receiver.
These syntactic constructions are separated by commas, are simpler, and facilitate the reception of the message.
All verbs are in the present indicative (admit, swim, give, etc.). This present is a timeless type, expresses something that is not subject to the passage of time.
Lexical-semantic plane
The language used is the connotative, which is used figuratively. Apart from communicating information, it also brings feelings and sensations. Your presence can be verified by the use of expressions such as being afraid or swimming against the countercurrent.
We can observe a characteristic which is to capture the viewer’s attention through surprise and innovation. Eg. You have to be very man to be a queen.
It also emphasizes our qualities as men to persuade us to acquire the product.
Another characteristic is that it condenses the message to be fast and effective. It also takes up ideas that are associated with the product, in this case, the idea of being a better man every day.
Other characteristics that we can find are:
- The repetitions: you have to be very man to feel fear, you have to be very man to give visibility to those who do not have it
conclusion
In conclusion. This is an advertising message of the Gillette brand so that people associate their groundwork ideas to the brand’s own ideas. We cannot forget that this announcement was conceived in order to redeem its brand after a commercial controversial where they invited their consumers to abandon their toxic attitudes, which did not take them very well, assuming this great economic losses for the brand. This announcement, despite having a considerable controversy around him, managed to control damage and received better criticisms.
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