Degree Deodorant Wants to Protect Me From My Emotions
OK, well, this is not actually fat-related, but we do tend to go for a side-serving of feminism in the FA realm, so I am going to hijack FFF today to discuss something that has been boiling around my head for several weeks now, ever since I noticed that my stick of Degree antiperspirant (which I buy because it really is a great product for people who are active with sports and fitness, what with the body responsive stuff that makes it work more when you are all hot and sweaty) was labeled with a sticker on the cap: “Extra responsive in emotional moments”.
WTF, Degree? You think I bought this product because I am a hyper-emotional female who cannot control herself but is super-paranoid about being stinky when I am either weeping, in abject sadness, or raging about on a hormone-fueled rampage?
Well, I didn’t…
I bought your product, and have been buying it for years, because it MAKES ME STINK LESS WHEN I AM BUSTING MY ASS BIKING OR CLIMBING OR PLAYING DERBY OR WHATEVER!!!
It’s not anything to do with my emotional state, thanks so much.
I was, shall we say… irked about the sticker.
But then, oh then, I saw the latest advertisement for Degree for Men: Adrenaline Series!!!
It’s got a muscular, outdoorsy dude (who also wants to smell good) slapping on some Degree and then going for a mountain bike ride where the front wheel comes off his bike and he proceeds to ride down the mountain on the back wheel, going over all kinds of obstacles — because he is JUST THAT BADASS — and then finally catching up to the rolling wheel and jamming the bike back down on it and riding on down the trail. All presumably while not getting sweaty and stinky because Degree — and here’s the motto — “Protects Men Who Take Risks.”
Degree!!
We have a product for Bold, Daring, Awesome, Ass-Kicking Men… AND, don’t worry you frail, weepy, emotional ladies, we’ve got you covered too! Because when you are finished with your crying jag, we think you’ll probably want to get it on with risk-taking man and you won’t want to be sweaty as your wild emotional swings take you from pathetic to horny in 3o seconds flat!!
OK… so I had hoped after seeing the commercial that perhaps I was reading too much into a simple sticker on the stick of deodorant.
So, I went and checked out the websites.
May I present Degree for Men…
Embrace the THRILL OF ADVENTURE, Men!!
If you can see the products, you’ll see that the Degree for Men product is for dudes who race cars and climb rocks and play football! Manly men who need manly deodorant!!
Now, If regular “Adrenaline” deodorant isn’t strong enough, not to worry, there’s “clinical strength” too…
You can see from the writing that 1 in 4 people worry about excessive sweating, and Degree has awesome body responsive technology to take care of that for you.
So, now lets take a quick look at the Degree for Women home page…
Ahhhhh… soothing flowers and pretty smells. No pesky “sports” or “activities” to bother us in our little mountain meadow. Nothing that indicates that we might WANT to work up a little sweat every now and again.
There’s even a little game that lets us “Score the confidence it takes to get much closer,” which is a PAC MAN game. I really have no idea where that fits into the scenario, but surely the only reason I would need deodorant is because I want to “get closer” to someone.
But let’s just say that I happen to be kind of an extra-sweaty person, like the man in our scenario above who needs the protection of a clinical strength product… not to worry — here we go!
I feel a strong need to call out the text…
Women feel emotions more than men and emotions can make you sweat five times more than usual
So… men are unfeeling automatons who only get excited by risk and danger… women are emotional wrecks who need protection from their feelings.
And I am not even going to get started on the “OMG” line of products for teen girls.
This whole line of advertising is incredibly offensive to both men AND women. As though men have no emotions and only want to go barreling through life bounding from one risky venture to the next, and women are all wrapped up in pretty smells and emotions and not getting white marks on their slinky black dresses (this is from the other products on the site too).
Degree used to market themselves as a product for active PEOPLE who needed extra protection when they were ACTIVE and SWEATY.
I am not sure why they took this spin off into Sexismland, but I can tell you one thing, the next stick of deodorant I buy is not going to be a Degree product. At least not until they clean up their marketing strategy and stop basing it on tired old gender stereotypes.
Not a problem boycotting Degree, I only use crystal salts, since I trey to limit the amount of toxic chemicals I put on my body.
How well does that work - I might give it a try!
I use the crystal salt for deoderant and it works great on getting rid of smell but it wont stop you from sweating at all.
As Jen says, great for smell, nothing for sweat. However, as ikky as it is, you don’t want to use anti-persperants, anything that blocks the pores from doing their job is not good. I know some ppl can’t deal tho, and use them anyway.
Do they know that real adrenaline stinks? Do they never hear about the punge smell of fear? I will never use a deodorant called adrenaline, the smell is disgusting.
GAAK! This is pretty much why I gave up on watching or looking at advertising and tend to buy no-name or generic product. Great way to avoid all the BS.
This is the kind of thing that while I completely understand why someone might be annoyed … I just won’t use the product, and I move on. The ads are silly. I use Secret Clinical Strength because I live in the armpit of Hell, and I need it. Nothing else enters into the equation.
I’m not trying to give anyone crap for caring, but it strikes me as a bit healthier to acknowledge that the ads are asinine and move on.
The advertising isn’t really what I find problematical in cases like this, except in that it is a symptom of a prevailing attitude. The company probably did a focus group and “discovered” that male participants indicated an affinity for the macho athlete imagery, while female participants indicated an affinity for the flowers and emotions imagery.
The issue comes in when you consider if they REALLY DID prefer that. It’s the old men and cats question — ask a hundred men if they prefer cats or dogs and 99 of them will say dogs. Even if they then go home and talk baby talk to their cat while spoon feeding it canned food and kissing it’s little cat head.
Exhibit A, my husband. For the record.
Basically, when asked questions about preferences, people tend often to answer the way they think someone of their apparent physical gender SHOULD answer. Especially if they are being asked by an actual person (who may judge them) as opposed to a sheet of paper or a computer terminal.
It’s a chicken and egg situation… is the ad a sign of a prevailing attitude, or is the prevailing attitude the reason the ad was made the way it was?
Great points, Erin. I love cats too, but I also love dogs. In fact, I love most animals, but if asked, I’d probably say dogs. Gender expectation? Maybe. I’ve just always grown up that way. It’s interesting to think how those messages influence us, though.
And I’d say they definitely did a focus group for this. Or maybe their previous ads directed at sweaty men and women weren’t doing so well. Who knows. It all comes down to the bottom line, though.
Peace,
Shannon
So the fact that I’m sitting in a fragrant meadow of flowers while crying and reading Twilight knowing that my husband will never be as romantic as Edward might be a problem?
Can I overshare here for a moment?
I sweat like a whore in church, which is way more than I did when I ACTUALLY WAS a whore in church like 20 years ago. I need me some super deodorant but sadly always end up with whatever is on sale at CVS. This is unfortunate for those who have to sit next to me.
You make me laugh, you little Catholic Whore, you.
Peace,
Shannon
Nice Blog.
I’ve thought a long time about gendered advertizing. When my daughters were little I’d watch commercials and see that the little girl commercials had fairies and tinkling music and immature sing-song voiceover. And the next commercial (the boy version) was rock music, rock-em sockem aggressive hyper masculine voiceover and lots of action.
I made a game of imitating the voices and they sometimes didn’t like it (‘cause dammit’ they like polly pocket) but mostly they had fun. And learned.
Now we make fun of makeup ads (we’re not phosphorescent, we’re not supposed to glow ).
Welcome Tammy.
I think that’s a great game to play with your daughters. Mine are a bit young for it, yet, but I have a feeling we’ll be educating them of the false reality presented in them. And, also, they LOVE Polly Pockets too.
I thought it was cool, though, when our oldest, Linny, started preferring Diego to Dora. She had no clue that Diego is aimed at boys and Dora at girls (or at least it seems that way), she just loves the animal rescuing.
Peace,
Shannon
I love this. I love dissecting advertising for bullshit.
And what does it say about me that I felt more at home on the page with all the fluttery flowers and butterflies? I have a serious aversion to adrenaline.
You missed another great line from the clinical strength for women page: “Degree Clinical Protection prevents your emotions from getting the best of you.” Not only will it stop you from stinking during your fits of hysteria, but it actually PREVENTS the hysteria in the first place.
It’s like the advertisers are marketing this to women in the 19th century, draped across their chaise lounges with servants fanning them. “Oh, I’ve got the vapors, if only I wore Degree for Women!”
Peace,
Shannon
Adrenaline series? ADRENALINE SERIES???
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I’m sorry, I just couldn’t stop laughing after I read that. Reminds me of the classic Powerthirst video.