Commercials for grooming products
How do commercials for men’s grooming products create or challenge social constructs on masculinity? To answer this question, you will explore several commercials in this lesson and their stylistic and structural features.
- As a class, watch the four commercials below (Texts 1-4). Create an online document which everyone in your class can edit in real time (such as a Google Doc). After watching each video, add to a rolling list of short answers to this question in your Google Doc: According to these commercials, what does it mean to be a ‘man’? Discuss how these social constructs can be harmful.
- Get into groups and assign each group a different commercial (Texts 1-4). Look back at your list from the previous activity and discuss your answers to the following question: How does your group’s commercial use the stylistic and structural features of film and commercials to construct their messages about masculinity? Study the page on Film and commercials in the Text types section of this Support Site for a better understanding of these features. Present your group’s analysis of your commercial to your classmates
- So what can be done to challenge harmful social constructs on masculinity? Study Texts 5-7 and discuss how these commercials challenge harmful social constructs.
- Texts 3, 5 and 7 have received a lot of praise and criticism in the media. Do some research on one of these texts (or another one of choice), together with other classmates who would like to research your text. Find 2-3 questions from the Areas of exploration to guide your research. Discuss how your text relates to and deepens your understanding of one or more of the seven Concepts. Present your findings and discussion points to your classmates.
You may want to do your individual oral on one of the commercials from this lesson and a global issue that you explored, such as hyper-masculinity. In this case, be sure to explore other advertisements, billboards and social media postings from the same campaign in order to create a 'body of work' (BOW). Find other examples of your global issue in the BOW. Refer to these in your outline and presentation.