The Honor of Being a Man: Gender Meanings in Dove + Care Commercial

Abstract

Advertisements are tools to market products, which include ideology and compositional meanings to persuade consumers. This paper aims to investigate gender stereotypes in a 68-second advertisement of Dove Men+Care through semiotics analysis and connotation and denotation theory. The analysis process examines the signs of the commercial and the meaning produced by the signifier and signified. Also, it explores the meanings that lie at the first order of the signification process (denotation) and the meanings that lie at the second level of the signification process (connotation/ideology). The results show that the commercial highlights masculinity and reinforces stereotypes of men by depicting them as they are supreme in society in terms of their physical appearance and their professional status. The findings also indicate that stereotypes against women are still present and that physical feminine attributes (such as long hair) constitute a real danger to masculinity.