Super Bowl Ads-How dumb do they think men are?

One thing that we didn't discuss in much detail in class was the theme in the Super Bowl commercials which seemed to claim that their products cause women's clothes to come off. First, when a Dorito's bag is opened, the women's clothes fly off. Later, we see that by going to GoDaddy.com, Danika Patrick will strip down and shower with the 20-something super model/German teacher. If that isn't enough, you can go back to GoDaddy.com and women will flaunt their enhancements. Clearly, a new marketing strategy is to adopt a new strategy of creating products designed for men for that 20% of consumer choices made by men.

Judging by the Super Bowl ads, however, how dumb do they think men are? Then again, this strategy seems to have worked for Axe, despite the corporate conflicts with their Dove campaign. And the Old Spice body wash ads feature a man/horse creature and sufficed to say that they don't have the head of a horse and lower body of a man. Then their's the "man stink" ads (I can't remember what brand this is for). These strategies are a far cry from Garnier-style commercials where key product benefits are given by well-known middle-aged actresses. The sophistication gap is pretty apparent. I think a particularly smart cosmetic ad right now is for the stiletto mascara which claims to do the same to your eyelashes that stilettos do for your legs. This is a well-crafted metaphor creatively cross-referencing another product category. "Man Stink" or "eat our chips and women's clothes fly off" don't quite compare.

So...apparently these advertisers think men are pretty dumb and they may be alienating those female purchasers as well.