Commercials Are Weird and Biased
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Commercials Are Weird and Biased

They're Designed for You... Or Not You

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Commercials Are Weird and Biased
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Skip those boring commercials like everyone else to get to what you really want to see on Youtube, except for these two commercials. The “Mow the Lawn” commercial stops people from clicking through by advertising with its crazy style of singing and dancing with metaphors, while the “Dollar Shave Club” commercial stops viewers at a glance with swearing and male humor from the start. While both of the commercials cultivate comedy to sell razors, they are appealing to different audiences and therefore use different techniques. For the most part, the men’s commercial uses information to sell the razors while the women’s commercial uses bright colors and singing to sell the razors. Both commercials utilize comedy and strange props to stress their points but are vastly different in an array of decisions.


The first commercial is called “Mow the Lawn,” with an all-female cast, this comedy ridden commercial attempts to sell razors to women by simply singing and showing women doing yard work. The commercial begins with a sexily dressed woman sitting in a fancy home with a cat on her lap, wanting to be happy and then jumps to her in a new, bright, tight outfit with others dressed similar, singing “Mow the Lawn” with pink lawn mowers (ViralVideoChart). It is referenced a multitude of times that “mow the lawn” is a phrase referring to shaving a certain region of the body as the women wink at the camera during certain phrases and even blow some weeds off of a statute in that vicinity (ViralVideoChart). With large, brightly colored garden tools, a variety of women from different races, and singing, the idea seemed to come across strong about where to shave and that women should shave but no women are ever shown actually shaving, and the only reference to the brand is the words across the screen at the ending (ViralVideoChart).


The second commercial, called “Dollar Shave Club” with an all-male cast, is a comedic razor commercial filled with information and male humor. Beginning with a man introducing himself as the founder named Mike, the commercial follows him around a warehouse as he talks about the product and why other brands are not worth the extra money (DollarShaveClub). As he makes an allusion to Roger Federer, a tennis player who is supposedly taking money from the expensive razors, he states, “I’m good at tennis,” as a joke and then misses hitting a tennis ball (DollarShaveClub). With random props and a small cast, the founder informs the audience of the facts around the reasons to buy from his company and not from others (DollarShaveClub).

There were many ideas that were similar in both of these commercials. It was interesting to see that both commercials were about shaving while neither showed a person actually using the product to shave. Both commercials have the goal of leading to more sales of their product, the razor, and both commercials used comedy to acquire more audience views.

The “Mow the Lawn” commercial was clearly meant for a female audience for a multitude of reasons, such as the cast only included women and had a bright, pastel color scheme. The “Mow the Lawn” commercial had only women cast in fancy outfits that showed off their legs and arms (ViralVideoChart). While the women were doing yard work, they were dressed as if there was a time jump back to the 1960s. The main character of the commercial started in an all black, short outfit that made her look sexy and then jumped to the next scene in a tight, bright tank top with a spotted short skirt and heels to mow the lawn with the other women dressed similar.

The “Dollar Shave Club” commercial was clearly meant for a male audience as the cast was made entirely up of men, the main character was the “founder” of Dollar Shave Club, and was dressed in business casual attire while walking around a warehouse with boxes of razors. Mike, the founder, begins the commercial by informing the audience about the low cost of his product, who he is, and that his product is fantastic. The outfits of the characters in this commercial include Mike wearing business attire of a pressed shirt, tie, belt and slacks with a short scene of another white man in the background in casual attire, and a hispanic man in casual attire helping Mike. These outfits make sense for the place they are and the work they would be doing.

The props in the commercials are very odd and create the atmosphere but also most of the humor; for the “Mow the Lawn” commercial all of the gardening tools are giant and pink. Starting with a white woman sitting on a fancy couch with aesthetically pleasing plants in the background of a home, the scene quickly changes to a large group of diverse women in neighborhood yards. All of the yard equipment used, including lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and other large tools, are bright pink. The bright colors are supposed to grab attention and new viewers along with having a very stereotypical woman just dance along with hard work in the scenes. The women often winking and their other motions lead the viewers to assume they do not simply mean they are “cutting the hedges.”

These props could be offensive to some women who actually do work and would alienate a large group of their audience. There was also a subtle but very metaphorical prop, the cat was furry in the first scene of the commercial and then was bald in the last scene of the commercial. All of these props and scenes lead to the message of shaving for women, but not the exact brand for this product leading to confusion for people wanting to buy from the company who sponsored the commercial.

The second commercial, “Dollar Shave Club” had very random props throughout the commercial that fit with the humor used for men. In the beginning of the commercial, the props consisted of a desk to look professional and then random junk on walls to look like a normal office or to seem cool. The sign and other props that come up periodically through the commercial were mainly to add humor to the ad such as the paper he walked through holding the razor. Mike addresses many issues with the ideas of the razor through props such as the razor being easy to use and then showing a toddler holding the razor above a man with shaving cream on his head and the man not looking worried but instead, reading a newspaper. Most of the references Mike makes throughout the commercial are met with some sort of prop and some props do not even address any issues he is talking about but just look random and makes the commercial more exciting and funny to watch.

The information given on the “Mow the Lawn” commercial is unsatisfactory as the word choice is mainly “Mow the lawn” and then have different women talk about, “trimming the hedges.” This women’s commercial has a repetitive song throughout the entire episode and does not compile any facts to purchase a certain razor. The only information given about the razor is at the very end when the name pops up on the screen. They have a variety of women from different races to stress the point of different “hedges” but they are simply repeating the same phrase to grab attention but not inform the listeners.

The “Dollar Shave Club” commercial was filled with ethos, pathos, and logos. After his introduction, the first words from Mike, the founder, were, “for a dollar a month, we send high quality razors right to your door,” to define the company that has sponsored the commercial, define the product, and inform the audience of the price. He then informs the listeners that his razors are “f***ing great” which appeals to the male humor in the commercial and logos by him telling the audience to trust him. Throughout the commercial Mike appeals to ethos and makes allusions to other razor companies, “paying $20 a month on brand name razors? 19 go to Roger Federer. I’m good at tennis” (DollarShaveClub). He states this information to make people listen to the fact that they are paying too much for a product they could get for cheap with him. With pathos, Mike yelled, “your handsome grandfather with polio didn't need that [fancy razor] and neither do you” (DollarShaveClub). These statements lead to very informed viewers.


While the first commercial was simply a repetitive song, the second commercial was filled with facts and information. Both were eye catching commercials that served the purpose of bringing in an audience that would rather put the commercial on mute or skip it altogether. The humor kept the audience listening and both made people think about shaving while neither showed a person shaving. The purpose of a commercial is not only to grab attention, but also to convince the audience to purchase a particular razor. While both commercials make people remember them, the “Mow the Lawn” commercial could be taken as offensive, alienating some audience members and other audiences would not know which brand was being advertised. The “Dollar Shave Club” was informative and funny but reading through the comments it did not lead to a great deal of people actually taking the chance on the new innovation in shaving. The shipping the razors to the house leads to some concerns as people like to physically see their products in the store. Both were interesting, eye catching commercials, but they each had issues with their targeted audience.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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