This commercial reenforced the tough image of guys, as it also implied that no real man would focus a full 30-60 seconds on his clothing, shopping, etc., but it does something else, as well. When I watched the documentary "Merchants of Cool," I was intrigued by a lengthy discussion of something Sprite was successful with a while back. Sprite had a campaign in which famous athletes would hold up a Sprite and say things like, "Yeh, you're gonna be real cool and everything in your life will be perfect if you just run out and get yourself some Sprite because I tell you to." In other words the advertising made fun of itself and at the same time said to the consumer, "we know you're too smart to fall for that kind of marketing." The narrator referred to it as a "we get you" technique ("get" as in understand): we understand you so much better and respect you so much more than those traditional advertisers. But---of course that in itself is a marketing technique and it was wildly successful until, the narrator suggests, people started to see it for what it was.
Has anyone else noticed similar ads?
