According to Walter Fisher, storytelling is a perfect example of human nature. The easiest way to comprehend human communication is through storytelling. He believes that as long as a story being used to communicate is interesting and exciting to the receiver, facts and evidence fall wayside in favor of a compelling story. Per this theory, advertising is composed of an intention to persuade through entertaining storytelling rather than a rational collection of facts and arguments.
Most aspects of advertising fall easily into this paradigm. People love to gather and gossip regardless of how factual the information they are being told is. Everyday Americans across the country consume celebrity fiction through the internet, television, and magazines. …show more content…
Old Spice is known for effective storytelling through the use of humor and their ability to appeal to multiple age and gender groups. In the advertisement, a soaking wet, colored, and fit young man sits upon a motorcycle on a gazebo of sorts. Behind him is the great outdoors of nature, and in his hand he holds the iconic Old Spice body wash bottle. The scent and shape of the bottle is not seen as extensively necessary to sell the audience on buying the product, but rather the imagery being portrayed through the ad.
Emotions evoked through this depend on the consumers. It compels men to feel as though maybe they can be young and attractive too if they use the product. The tagline “Smell Like A Man, Man” challenges their inner masculinity, in turn evoking a desire to prove how macho they are. The man pictured actually does not have a six pack but still manages to exude confidence and therefore appear sexy. This subconsciously appeals to the insecurity of some men who do not have the “ideal” male body. Women may feel frisky or sexually attracted to the man portrayed in the ad. Both genders may find it comical considering how the man looks kind of ridiculous sitting on a motorcycle in the middle of nature on top of a deck. On a smaller note, he is also soaking wet in a pair of jeans, so I personally feel uncomfortable even thinking about it, but that's not as important as the other emotions