Katie Allen
Ms. Cook
Writing 122
8 February 2009





Nivea For Men Body Wash: Is it all Grown Up?

David Foster Wallace’s recent essay entitled “E Unibus Pluram” analyzes many aspects of television’s effect on American culture. One critique of an ad for Isuzu, featuring an “Oily, Satanic looking salesman” who told “whoppers about Isuzu’s ability to run on tap water”, states that this ad “invites viewers to congratulate themselves for getting the joke, and to congratulate Isuzu, Inc. for being “fearless” and “irreverent” enough to acknowledge that car ads are ridiculous and that the mass audience is dumb enough to believe them. The ad invites the lone viewer to drive an Isuzu as some sort of anti-advertising statement”(61). Similar tactics are at work in a recent Nivea for Men Body Wash commercial. By mocking the absurd marketing strategies of competitors such as Axe and Tag, Nivea invites viewers to feel "in on a joke" while simultaneously promoting their product.

The newest Nivea television advertisement begins with a close up shot of a bottle of Nivea for Men Bodywash held in a teenage boy’s hand. A school bell is heard in the background as he skeptically assesses the product. “Nivea for Men Body Wash, huh?” The camera angle changes and we see that the teen is in a high school hallway. “Dude,” the scruffy looking white boy says as he looks into the camera in an irritated manner, “Who uses a body wash to get clean?”

The scene changes. Two high school football players are loafing by the track. #23 is a Scottish looking fellow, and #67 is black. Runners are going by behind them, giving this scene the feel of a sports practice. #23 smells the product and says, “If the babes can’t smell it from here, I’m not interested. And the name’s gotta dominate. I dominate!” Then both players make a laughable fist pump gesture. A whistle signals the end of this scene. Cut to a nerdy Asian boy of about 17 also holding the Nivea. Behind him are a bicycle rack and a park. Nerd boy looks from the product to the camera and moans in a dismayed voice, “This won’t increase my ability to mate!”

The voice of the Italian grease monkey in the next scene is heard slightly before he is seen leaning on his suped up red auto. (A make on the car is conspicuously missing.) He is in front of some sort of school building. “They need to feel me, they need to hear me, they need to see me, above all they gotta smell me,” he says in a fast, cocky tone. “They gotta be attracted somehow.” At this point, most viewers will be smirking at the ridiculous statements of each of these boys.

The fifth scene starts with upbeat background music. A reasonably attractive man of about 28 wears a smart suit as he walks casually through the streets of a metropolis. “Doesn’t dry your skin,” he reads as he walks. “Doesn’t reek,” he states concisely as he stops to give it a whiff. “Isn’t that the point?” At this point we get a close up of his face as he gestures coolly with the product. We see that he’s got very nice facial features compared to the boys of the previous scenes. Throughout most of this scene, Nivea’s web address is displayed in an unobtrusive gray in the bottom right hand corner.

After this, the background music kicks into about third gear and viewers see a bottle of the body wash next to the words “The body wash for grownups”. This message is superimposed over a man lathering himself more slowly than I’ve ever seen anyone lather themselves in my life. Somehow, the sexuality of this scene is still subtle. An authoritative male voice-over exclaims, “Finally, a body wash for grownups. Nivea for Men has a fresh, subtle scent, and it’s good for your skin.” The camera cuts back to the good looking man. “Works for me,” he concludes, giving the product a manly pat. The final scene consists of a dark blue background with Nivea’s logo, a bold typeface of the words “Nivea” (in white) and “For Men” (in smaller blue print against a silver background). At the bottom of the screen, still smaller white letters spell out “What Men Want.” The voice-over reads the words.

The demographic this ad targets is clear: young men or boys eager to appear grown up and masculine. While it pokes fun at some of the advertising techniques employed by Axe and Tag body products (both of whom target a similar demographic), it also cleverly tries for the same appeal. Nivea builds off of the assumption by the aforementioned brands that marinating your body in cheap cologne is conducive to sexual attractiveness.

The ways in which the young men at the high school are portrayed are specific to the stereotypical clique that they represent. Differences notwithstanding, each of them is meant to seem young, naïve, and desperate for female attention. We as an audience are expected to mock the implied fact that so many young men have bought into the mentality that a product can define you in terms of sexual attractiveness. They each look at the product, smell the product, and emphatically reject it because 1) It doesn’t smell strongly enough to attract women, 2) The cleansing properties of a product are apparently of no importance to them, 3)The name doesn’t “dominate”. In contrast, the older, successful looking man regards the product in a very aloof manner. His response is positive, but not excited. We get the impression that he is a busy man, a man who has better things to think about than body wash. The product is an afterthought.

Which of these men seems the most attractive to the viewer? Definitely the last one, in the shower, with his Nivea. In this way the implied message is paradoxical. We are lead to believe that it is silly to equate sexiness with one’s brand identity, yet the sexiness inherent in the last man as compared to the earlier boys does in fact equate attractiveness and maturity with the product.

Although, this advertisement largely uses humor and sexuality to attract viewers, Nivea does put in a quick word for the actual advantages of it’s product. In the final scene, the attractive man tells viewers, “doesn’t dry your skin”. In the steamy shower scene we learn that it has a “fresh, subtle scent”. These elements are present, but they are not in the foreground of the commercial. In general, this ad assumes viewers are familiar with the Axe and Tag's approaches and posses preconceived, negative notions about advertising. By making fun of advertising, Nivea implies that the creators of the ad are not trying to pull one over on the viewer. The viewer is smart. The viewer is in on the joke. In this roundabout way Nivea uses pathos to make their appeal. The ad makes the viewer laugh; it points out to the viewer the absurdity of marinating in cheap body wash or cologne; it bolsters the viewer’s ideas about not being owned by a brand, and yet, at the same time, it advertises a new "more mature" brand.

How effective is this strategy for Nivea? According to Corporate Media Relations of Beiersdorf in Hamburg, Germany, Nivea is the largest skin care company in the world (although it’s main following is in European countries),and the Nivea for Men line accounts for 20% of sales. The creators of this ad are trying to boost the sales of Nivea’s men’s products by directly challenging two of it’s main competitors: Axe and Tag. Compared to the Axe and Tag commercials, Nivea’s ad is a breath of fresh air. It appeals to the viewer's intelligence, a highly valued commodity. By using humor, they’ve attract attention and entertain. If Nivea For Men Body Wash is as mild and underhandedly sexy as it’s advertisers claim it to be, I’m sure there are many who would choose this new product over marinating in Axe any day. Kudos to Nivea for using a sophisticated approach to appeal to a more sophisticated audience of men who want to smell good to attract women.