Nike Commercial Men vs. Women
This commercial heavily focuses on competition between men and women. What does this commercial have to say about men and how they respond when women are succeeding physically and are able to compete against them?
Things to consider. celebrities, selling the product, interaction
I first have to say that this is an amazing commercial because its sort of the "great equalizer". The initial reaction of the woman to step up and how that spread showed that everyone has an inner competition that corsses all boundries. the mentality was almost simmilar to that of the olympics, pride and gragging rights without any hate or discrimination. I did notice how in the background of most flashes a set of banners in support of men whereas the women get the more pirority spots like when the one woman changed the sign on the back of the car, this moment was in the foreground and in turn had more attention. Of course men are going to fight back and try to win. It's in our nature! we will play with other guys from an early age in mannors that always result with a winner. this goes the same for competition with women. running is a great medium because it doesn't play in favor of either sex like weight lifting would for men(steryotypicaly).
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Sam, that this commercial does act as a “great equalizer” in a way. In it the women and the men are always neck and neck, trying to beat one another, but always ending up fairly even. It is true though, that some gender stereotypes can still be seen, as in the beginning where the women start off behind the men in the competition. Setting those aside though, the commercial does portray men and women as equals for the most. Unlike most instances in our society today in which women are shown as being inferior or a step behind men. I also agree with you on the fact that the commercial shows healthy competition between genders.
DeleteI agree with both of you that the commercial is trying to show a healthy competition, from which, I think the Nike Company is trying to sell their “Nike Spirit”, so they are kind of suggesting that wearing the Nike products could allow you to have that “Spirit”, so that people who want to be sporty and competitive will buy their products.
DeleteI noticed that whenever the men took the lead, they used their physical advantage. However, women always used some tricks to be in the lead, such as using the quantity advantage, pulling out a guy’s earphone, spraying water to a guy, and throwing a guy’s shoes outside the window. This shows the social concept that men are naturally stronger then women.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you Xuan. The men definitely used their physical advantage when competing in this race whereas the woman seemed to use decoys in order to get ahead. This may seem discriminating or stereotypical, but in reality men are naturally stronger than woman. That's why the Olympic games separates women from men in most physical competitions.
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DeleteI think that is a very interesting point Xuan. What do you, or anyone else, think that the creators of this commercial are trying to say about men and women? Is it trying to say that women are smarter than men and that men are stronger than women? Do you think the commercial written by a man or a woman? If you look at it based off of your observations it seems to me like it definitely could be written by a woman. Do you think it was intentional that the author wanted to portray this message or was it more just focused on competition and those aspects just naturally appeared? Is this empowering to women or just exposing their obvious disadvantages to men? Just more things to think about!
DeleteI noticed this, too, the very first time I watched the commercial. I thought it was really interesting that even though the commercial was trying to get the point across that the "race" between whether men or women were more socially active, they still would have the women "resort" to underhanded tactics. Also, there were a few times when some men reprimanded other men for socializing with the women, signifying that there still is a gender struggle between men and women.
DeleteI found this Nike commercial to be very interesting. It highlights the competition seen between genders in our society. Men and women are in competition with each other from day one and it never stops. As this commercial demonstrates, women are always trying to surpass men and men are always trying to stay ahead of women. The focus of this commercial is mostly on women. The camera is often focused on a female character running, trying to beat a man or trying to keep her position ahead of a man. I found the first scene to be a tad stereotypical. The fact that women were behind the men in miles run from the start is a gender stereotype in and of itself, signifying that men always have a leg up in the world. Nike uses competition to sell their product. They fuel men and women to purchase the training product by making it a competition between genders. They also use celebrities like Roger Federer and Eva Longoria to sell their product, which puts out the idea that one should purchase the product because said celebrities use it.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest thing that stood out to me in this commercial was without a doubt the beginning. Two stereotypes relating to men were shown at the very beginning of the commercial. The first one was the fact that the man is laying down and appears to be sleeping at the very beginning of the commercial. This reflects the stereotype that men are lazy, while the woman is already up and ready to run. The other stereotype that is reflected is that men are physically superior to women, based on the men being ahead at the beginning of the commercial. As the competition goes on, it seems to become more and more even, culminating in what appears to be a tie between one specific man and woman that the commercial is focused on. This would indicate that men and women are ultimately shown to be equal when looking at the commercial as a whole. It is also stereotypical how the commercial plays off the classic idea of competition between men and women.
ReplyDeleteWow! Are you trying to say that women do whatever necessary to get ahead? Are women that devious that they need to do all these little tricks to stay ahead in a man’s competition? I do agree with Xuan that society’s concept that men are naturally stronger than a woman. ExceptI see that this young lady is giving it her all till the end, so is she not showing society that she also a strong competitor? I find it interesting that the men are rooting each other on, with the high fives and the old men hollering GO GO! Men thrive on competition they get pumped up, thinking that they can beat anyone especially if it is a female competitor. It is great at the end when they both are head to head and she gives him a little push god for her that she fought till the very end.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Juanita in the, in the commercial the women were doing trickeries to the men competitors to try and throw them off their game. The women could keep up with the men without having to do pranks on them. The fact that the lady is pushing herself all the way to the end and motivated to win shows that she can be just as strong as the men competitors. Men do thrive on competition, especially when it comes to competing against girls the men do not want to loose because they will feel a lack of manliness and honorability. This commercial was a great way to show a competition between men and women can be equal even with the stereo type men are naturally stronger then women.
DeleteI also agree with Juanita. The woman is constantly working as hard as she can to beat the man. I also think the video shows that women can do anything men can do. In the beginning, the men are way ahead on the website, but after the first woman signs up, the women start to actually compete and stick with the men, even at times surpassing them. The women in this video are foils to the stereotypical woman who is of submissive nature and let the males dominate them. The women don’t give up without a fight and even at the end the men and women are neck and neck in the race.
DeleteIn response to Billy’s post, I also found it interesting that they often had the female characters playing tricks on the males. It brings out the idea that the men have the advantage and that women have to continue to outsmart them in order to catch up. If you look closely all of the girl’s attempts to slow down the guy were done in a flirtatious action. Even though the commercial presented that woman can be equally, if not more athletic than males it still presented woman in a feminine way. I’m sure that they tried to present them in this way because it gives the female consumer the notion that they are equal to men in their will to compete. On a side note, I was curious to know if anyone thought the idea of girls trying to catch up to guys is an attempt of competing for gender equality.
DeleteI would have to say that this commercial emphasizes equality between the sexes opposed to one being the more dominant role. It was interesting to see how at first the men were ahead of the woman seemingly without much effort however when the woman came together and tried to out-do the men a competition arose. The men used their masculine strength to prove that they were most competent by passing the female runners. The woman then would use their endurance and run ahead of the men so show they weren't passive. The commercial basically ended in a tie which proves that the Nike brand gear is sufficient to both sexes and worth the investment.
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DeleteI really agree with Melissa about how this commercial strives to show that Nike gear is perfect for both sexes. The commercial doesn't really lean to grab just one gender's attention, it grabs both by saying that men and women are equal if they choose to wear Nike while they compete. It also uses celebrities to get their point across by saying, "hey even celebs use this great product!" I also noticed that they use a very diverse group of men and women to show that not only is Nike for both sexes, it's also for any ethnicity. Plus, the runners ran on all types of roads all around the world, which demonstrates that wearing Nike shoes are good for running on any type of surface.
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DeleteEquality might not exist here. At the end when Ibrahimovic runs between the two women, wouldn't he be winning? Also what is Nike trying to say when they have Eva Mendes hide/ throw away Tony Parker's shoes? Are they saying that women can only win if they are cheating? Nike while trying to show equity does have any famous female athletes in the commercial only men. They chose to include Federer, Torres, Ibrahimovic, and Tony Parker. The male athletes that were chosen also came from a wide variety of sports. Soccer, basketball, and tennis were all chosen. I don't feel that Nike was trying to show equality as much as reach a popular audience, so they included women to just cover there demographic. Another to be aware of is how much the score increases when Ibrahimovic a famous soccer player runs past a regular women?
DeleteAn interesting point about the celebrities. But the only two athletes I recognized were Tony Parker and Federer, and the only female celebrity was Eva who-ever-Tony-Parker's-wife-is. So in a commercial completely devoted to the fact women can compete with men athletically, the only female celebrity they show is a...tv star? Is that perhaps more telling that they couldn't find any women athletes with any sort of fame or recognisability?
DeleteOne major point I would like to start off with is the one that at the beginning of the commercial the female is watching a commercial to do with the "competition" through Nike. She then looks at her roommate or significant other, who is fast asleep on the couch. So initially this competition started off between just two people, her and the man. If we look deeper at this, we can pull out that competition is brought about by the fact she wants to out run her man, so she enters the "competition". Another point is the one that most people don't see. Nike has set up this "Men vs. Women" challenge to see you runs more, but really it is a ploy by the company to just sell more product, which is the goal of most companies. However, in setting up the competition, Nike has put into effect the stereotypes of men are greater than women and that women will do whatever it takes to beat a man. In doing so, men and women wanted to win so bad that even famous actors and athletes joined into the cause. But what were they really racing for? Was it to help better their own health, or was it simply just to see who was the "better" gender? In the end, Nike never gives you a distinct winner or loser so you assume with the graphics shown it is a tie. Also, in the end, the competition shrinks back down to focus on just the couple shown at the beginning of the video. Is this to say that in the end competition among genders only derives from a single group of people in society?
ReplyDeleteI like Zach's point about the couple in the beginning. Assuming it was a couple, it shows how competition is essentially the motivation for buying Nike products and for using the products. Competition becomes more important than the actual relationship. I think the contest is a representation of real life competition between men and women and this commercial is a satire of how far men and women are willing to go to outdo each other. The humor is women being overly aggressive and shoving men out of the way. They go to extreme measures such as the woman throwing the man's shoes over the balcony to add humor but still show the point of how competition is important and this is how Nike plans to sell their product.
ReplyDeleteOne point most people seem to be missing is, they're attributing something that is widely assumed to be a stereotype, when in actuality, the belief reflects reality with hard factual evidence and is no longer stereotypical. The simple fact is that at every comparable level of fitness or athletic level, men dominate women going away. There is a reason you do not see any women in any capacity on any level of any competition. Men are stronger than women isn't a stereotype as there is endless data to back it up with facts. This is confusing for women because feministic empowerment messages tell you, you can do anything, but the reality is everyone has limitations they must accept. I'm short. I'll never play in the NBA, and I don't need the external validation from some shortness empowerment group to tell me its ok.
ReplyDeleteI agree that men winning an athletic competition against women isn't a stereotype and is rather based off of fact. I do believe however that men and women are constantly trying to out perform one another and it is somewhat a stereotype that women like to think they are better than men, and men like to think they're better than women. The end goal is to get people interested in running and buying Nike shoes rather than trying to prove that men or women are more fit as a whole.
DeleteThis is a classic battle of the sexes example. It's a good advertising theme because men and women constantly want to think they can be better than the opposite sex. Battling against the opposite sex is something that nearly everyone can relate to and be a part of. As other people mentioned however, it is interesting that the women were trying to slow down the men with distractions and obstacles rather than just outrun the men. It's not that women can't be as athletic/competative as men, it is just a biological fact that the majority of men can outrun women. This makes the competition a little unfair and biased towards men. The commercial does make it seem that the competition is close between the men and women though, and is trying to encourage everyone to go buy Nike running shoes so that they can support their "team" and win.
ReplyDeleteI do not feel that the competition is a little unfair and biased towards men. Yeah, we generally divide competition into appropriate categories or divisions based upon age, gender, weight and experience. This is because these factors may result a big difference in the competition. However, for this one, male and female have the same ability which is running. It is not testing for who is stronger, who is faster, but who is willing to run. I will call it a kind of willpower competition. Who has the willpower to run longer. Who will win the competition. Opposite sex can sometimes be a good adversary when the equal mind is rooted under every men and women’ mind. We are just refusing to take defeat lying down.
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