Old Spice Being Spicy

Ok so we are kind of beating a dead horse with this one. But this is what I want to write about, so I am gonna write about it. Here is a meme describe what this topic will be like in a few weeks:

And speaking of memes, Old Spice commercials have become a prevalent on the internet. Various parodies have made it an incredible viral sensation. Even sesame street did a parody:

Yes we have all seen the commercials. Aren't they great? Ok, so yeah, they have a shirtless guy selling deodorant. They aren't marketing that part to men, we discussed this in class. But old spice wasn't always that way.

I admit that I was one of the junior high boys who rushed out and bought Axe body spray after those commercials that were targeted toward me. Yes, I realize that I am a victim of advertising, and that is being pointed out to me daily this semester. I remember that the competitor of Axe at that time was called Tag. Does anyone even remember Tag? Old spice wasn't even something that I considered. It was something that my grandfather wore. Obviously Old Spice recognizes that mentality:

As a junior high boy, I thought that the axe commercials were really funny. I actually still think that they are funny. Yes, inappropriate at times, but that's what junior high kids live for. I remember seeing this comercial one day (actually, several days):

I didn't get it. I was not impressed. It is obviously sexual, but not as extreme as the Axe commercials. It's not really funny. It didn't sell me on the product. I forgot about Old Spice, until the famous ad with Isaiah Mustafa started airing. That was funny. I enjoyed it. And I immediately made the switch from Axe to Old Spice.

I guess I didn't realize how sexual these ads were, and how the company was selling their products. The girls lounging around and saying "Ahoy" was the most sexual thing I had seen from the company, and it didn't really impress me. But now I see it. After doing some research on the Old Spice web site and seeing a screen saver that detailed the different types of bra clasps there were and how difficult they were to undo, I finally got what this is all about. The sex appeal wasn't selling me on the product, but the product is trying to sell me a sexualized worldview, wrapped up in a blanket of funny commercials.

That's a hard thing for a Christian. Sex is everywhere. C.S. Lewis said:

“If anyone says that sex, in itself, is bad, Christianity contradicts him at once. But, of course, when people say, 'Sex is nothing to be ashamed of,' they may mean 'the state into which the sexual instinct has now got is nothing to be ashamed of'. If they mean that, I think they are wrong. I think it is everything to be ashamed of. There is nothing to be ashamed of in enjoying your food: there would be everything to be ashamed of if half the world made food the main interest of their lives and spent their time looking at pictures of food and dribbling and smacking their lips.”

This is especially applicable today. Job 31:1 says "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl." But that is a really hard thing to do in todays sex-obsessed culture where it is being paraded in front of us so that people can make money. Is it possible to only pay attention to the humorous blanket that seems ok, but ignore the sexual meaning underneath?

Also, I mentioned this ad in class, and people were shocked, so I wanted to attach it to my blog, because it kind of fits: