How to Buy Your Way into Being a Man
Have you ever felt like to be a man, a real man, you needed to own that special product? Have you craved that tool, toy or trinket that would make you feel like a man? I know I have.
For generations marketers have subtlety told us that being a man means owning special products, products that affirm our masculinity. What these products are, specifically, varies with your age, economic strata, and geographic location.
What is the one universal product that every man desires to affirm his manliness? (Hint: Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Corvette) Yep. It’s that exceptional car. Or, here in North Idaho, it might be that seemingly indestructible truck.
We grow up fantasizing about that woman and that car. We admit to our friends the car we want before we admit the woman we want. We cut out pictures of that car. We dream of driving it. We dream that having it will get us that woman. We dream of having sex with that woman. We dream of having sex in that car with that woman – the ultimate fantasy.
What was your fantasy car? What was your fist car? Who was she? Did she perform for you? Did she put out? Was she reliable? Did she get looks from others? Were your friends jealous?
Our adoration of this romanticized embodiment of our power as men, if not created by marketers, is certainly exploited by them. While expertly conveying the subliminal message that if you do things for women you are less ‘manly’, no commercial ever took more advantage of a man trying to be a man through his car than this one.
The women’s responses are, if a little confronting, also illuminating.
Tell us about your relationships with your cars.
