Sports Pages #12 (Formerly SP#14)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaJFnGGECJo

The commercial I have found is of Troy Polamalu endorsing the head and shoulders hair product. Head and Shoulders hair products are usually for women. The product they have introduced in the past few years is called Head and Shoulders for MEN. I believe that this company wanted to expand their sales to cover the male market.

The brand head and shoulders was already well known, and well known to be used by women. The problem now was getting men to use it. So they turned to one of the manlier sports, Football. Not many male players have long hair in sports, so finding a long hair player who is top ranked is a gold mine for Head and Shoulders. They used the masculinity of the sport and the masculinity of Tory being one of the best all time safeties and hardest hitters to show that this product can be used by men.

In the commercial the two obvious things are as I mentioned above, football and Tory. The next part that shows it’s a manly product to use is the fact that it is set in a locker room after a game or practice. The men are all pretty manly and they are not hiding this bottle of Head and Shoulders they are openly handling it. The whole message continues to be that it is okay for men to use this product. I believe their strategy works out well for them and they do display this product as very manly. When they show a close up of the product it is also showed in a manly way. There is a close up of a wall with showers going on behind it then and hand tapped up slams the bottle down taking the center view. They could have had just the close up of the product but to have it slammed down by a taped up hand makes more of the masculine statement.

In all I believe that the Head and Shoulders company is really trying to appeal to the male audience by making their product masculine. They do a good job of accomplishing their goal by using, football, tough men, tough setting, and a key main character.