Advertising more or less deals with drawing attention to a product or service, through a public medium, in order to promote its sales. They highlight facts or certain qualities that make a product ‘desirable’. This desirability is enhanced when a group of signs (as a combination of the signifier and the signified) with an evident sense of exaggeration are used as a language to communicate with the audience. This coded language imprints differently on different people depending on their cultural values. These cultural values are guided by the individual conceptual maps that people have and how they make sense of it in relation to the objects in the material world.
However, advertisements work on a much greater level where representation works on the principles of shared values and meanings. They undeniably speculate on the conscious and unconscious state of the millions towards which they are directed.
Keeping this aspect of advertising in mind, Old Spice can be taken up as a commodity to understand meaning construction which is at the heart of culture and also understanding how ‘Myth’ works as a wider cultural message or theme.
Old Spice is a household name when it comes to male grooming products. It is essentially an American brand which is manufactured by Procter and Gamble. It has been in the market since the 1930s with fluctuations noticed in its sale owing to the competitive nature of the market, but in recent times it has gained popularity among the younger customer