Julija Baranova: 1030250

Julija Baranova: 1030250

Lynx video adverts from psychoanalytical theory

For this part of the collaborative blog I will be exploring several Lynx video advertisements for male antiperspirant products from the psychoanalytical theory perspective, focusing on the gaze, fantasy and sexuality in particular. 

After researching different types of media that could relate to psychoanalysis, I came across Lynx advertisements on the television. I thought these adverts are perfect for this particular subject as they fit perfectly with the criteria of the gaze, sexuality and fantasy.  I could not agree more with the writing of Sturken and Cartwright (2000, pp. 217) on the subject of advertising and how it relates to Lacans theory of the mirror effect,

It is an essential element of advertising that it promises to us an abstract world which we will never experience. When John Berger wrote that advertising is always situated in the future, he was referring to the way in which the present is depicted in advertising as lacking in some way. Here, it is helpful for us to return to the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan. He suggests that desire and lack are central motivating forces in our lives. Out lives are structured by a sense of lack from the moment that we recognize that we are separate entities from our mothers. This separation, experienced as a splitting, marks the point from which we recognize ourselves as subjects apart from others. We are always searching to return to some state of wholeness that we believe we once had prior to this moment of recognition.  We constantly strive, through relationships activities like consuming products, to fill that lack. All of the Lynx video adverts seem to suggest that a subject’s life will be complete with a beautiful woman by their side after using the product.

First of all I will be analyzing the AXE effect advert, this particular video takes place on an island, which is portrayed as a utopia for male subjects, as the island is filled with beautiful women from different ethnic backgrounds (fig. 1 and fig.2) wearing very little and showing a lot of skin. It is clear that an exotic vibe has been purposely created to make the consumer more interested in a product. As Sturken and Cartwright (2000, pp. 105) state, …to establish exoticism and enact Orientalism can also be seen in contemporary advertising, where products are often sold through ads that attach notions of exoticism to their products through images of places that are coded as distant and elsewhere. It is also apparent that this advert seeks to appeal to male audiences by stereotyping various female ethnicities as being exotic and different. Which leads on to the topic of fantasy and the way this advert intends on leading the male viewers unconscious mind into a state of fantasy and desire in order to sell their product. Evans and Hall (1999, pp. 356) quote, Freud saw the model of fantasy as being, Laplanche and Pontalis (1968:13) suggest, ‘the reverie, that form a novelette, bot stereotyped and infinitely variable, which the subject composes and relates to himself in a waking state’.  Once the subject starts to desire and fantasies about being the male in that particular advert (fig.3), he will want to feel fulfillment of that desire and in order to do so he will have to purchase the product.

(Unknown, 2010, fig. 1)

(Unknown, 2010, fig. 2)

(Unknown, 2010, fig. 3)

The second video that I will be analyzing is Pull Gently this advert takes place on a private jet plane whose passengers are only male (fig.4) with one attractive female stewardess (fig.5) showing the instructions on how to undo a bra instead of the standard health and safety procedure. This advert particularly touches up on psychoanalytical theory of the Gaze, in this scenario male is the spectator as he is the ideal subject and female stewardess is just an object of spectators gaze. The video clearly shows the way passengers hold a possessive male gaze while the stewardess is being subtly seductive when interacting with a bra. As Mirzoeff (2002, pp. 391) points out, the male position was the privileged place from which to look, while the female place was simply to be looked at.  

One might question the reason why the stewardess is instructing male passengers on bra techniques, when the advertisement is aiming to sell an antiperspirant. The answer to such question is quite simple, in this day and age male audience don’t need a connection between the imagery and product itself, it’s the pleasure of being shown a desire and sexuality that matters most.  Levine (1990) writes,

More noticeable and already well established is the trend in advertising toward reflecting contemporary attitudes toward sex roles. Advertisements today frequently picture women as sexual aggressors, or at least equal sparring partners, rather than available sex objects. And fantasy can be most potent when least pornographic. 

Europeans also have a far higher tolerance for erotic imagery, even when it has no apparent connection to the advertised product.

Despite this text being published twenty-two years ago, these videos support such statement and show that the same rules still apply in advertising today in term of the footage not having the connection to product. However the mentality of women being portrayed as sex objects has progressed towards a negative side, as females are objectified more often for the advantage of successful advertising business. Sturken and Cartwright (2000, pp. 196) highlight such change, an older concern for saving gave way to a new emphasis on spending and on imagining that the path to betterment was through the increase acquisition of good. In the changing culture, the feeling that life was often troubling and overwhelming prevailed. As a result, the idea that everyone was potentially inadequate and in need of improvement took hold.

(Unknown, 2011, fig. 4)

(Unknown, 2011, fig. 5)

The last advertisement video I will be exploring is Even angels will fall, in this video a regular male appears to have a girlfriend who is an angel (fig.6), as a female she is portrayed to be beautiful, innocent yet clumsy at some points. Towards the end of an advert viewer is shown a scene where both of them are in the bathroom, male subject sprays himself with the antiperspirant and another angel (fig.7) falls into the apartment. Such scenario could only appear in someone’s fantasies and desires, yet again the advertisement is seducing male subjects mind in to wishing for similar lifestyle. As Brenner (2003) writes, like Freud and the psycho-analytic view of fantasy, the modern media representation of the genre fantasy is also deeply rooted in fantasy as desire, an escape from reality through an imaginary scene representing the fulfillment of a wish. The advertisement business tries to trick male subject’s into fantasizing about unrealistic events, purchasing their product while unconsciously thinking they could get at least a few steps closer to being the lucky male on the television screens.

This particular advertisement also aims at those males who may be single or in an unhappy relationship, as previously mentioned Lacan’s theory of the mirror effect is also applicable in this case. As males that lack female attention or certain traits their mother has that they unconsciously want to see in their partner, it is easy to assume that they would be looking to fill such void by purchasing the product and hoping to feel satisfied with bot product and their life. As Sturken and Cartwright (2000, pp. 213) point out, …this relates to the therapeutic ideology that ads participate in when they promise to improve our lives. In speaking to the viewers/consumers about changing themselves, they are always interpellating consumers as in some way dissatisfied – with their lifestyle, appearance, jobs, relationships, etc. Many ads imply that their product can alleviate this state of dissatisfaction.

(Unknown, 2011, fig. 6)

(Unknown, 2011, fig. 7)

To conclude, after researching several Lynx video advertisements among the psychoanalytical theory subjects such as the gaze, fantasy and sexuality, it is apparent that advertising businesses use psychoanalysis to stimulate subjects unconscious mind towards purchasing a certain product even if the footage of an advert has no direct link to what is being sold. In todays advertising industry, sexuality seems to sell there fore women are being objectified while male gaze stays possessive towards sexually presented females in the advertisements. I believe that in the future we will not see much of a change in this business.

Word Count: 1406

Bibliography:

Evans, J., Hall, S., 1999. Visual Culture: The Reader. Unknown: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Mirzoeff, N., 2002. The Visual Culture Reader. 2^nd ed. London: Routledge.

Sturken, M., Cartwright, L., 2000. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford: OUP Oxford.

Levine, J., 1990. Fantasy, no flesh. Unknown, [e-journal] 145 (2), Available through: Business source complete [Accessed 20 April 2012].

The University of Chicago, 2003. Fantasy. [online] Available at: < http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/fantasy.htm> [Accessed 16 March 2012].

AdScientist44, 2010.AXE “BILLIONS” WORLDWIDE COMMERCIAL. [video online] Available at: < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43kWidygD9g> [Accessed 20 April 2012].

Thelynxeffect, 2011. Lynx Jet- Pull Gently. [video online] Available at: < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsI0M3mFh_Y> [Accessed 20 April 2012].

Thelynxeffect, 2011. Lynx Excite TV Advert – Even Angels Will Fall. [video online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfeVEAZkJqM> [Accessed 20 April 2012].