Use of Hyper-Masculinity in Television Carl’s Jr Advertisement
A majority of advertisements targeted toward men, has taken advantage of male insecurity by using hyper-masculinity to sell products. Carl’s Jr, a fast food burger company, has been infamous for using hyper-masculinity in their controversial adverts. Hyper-masculinity is an exaggeration of masculinity traits, including aggression, violence, toughness and objectification of woman. In their advertisement campaign featuring the X-man film, one of their adverts featured Mystique. The main theme of advert was abundant to not only the use of hyper masculinity, but even going as far as questioning the manhood of those who do not eat jumbo size burgers. Volkey noticed there was an increase…show more content… During the commercial, when the model is about to take a bite out of the burger, a caption on the screen appears with the words, “MAN UP”. It seems as though the advertisement is suggesting that by eating a burger at their fast food chain is making you a man. Carl’s Jr advert is playing into society’s stereotype of how a man should behave, even though it might not be an accurate representation of a man (Megan Vokey, Bruce Tefft and Chris Tysiaczny 565). This type of advertisement is very effective against insecure males who feel the need to become more of a man. While later in the advert, the male model turns into Mystique, a female, to finish a bite of bacon; with the caption “EAT LIKE YOU MEAN IT”(Carl’s Jr), it does not go against Volkey’s claim. If anything, it reinforces the claim. Because not only is she not eating the large size burger and instead choses to take a small bite out of the bacon, she is being objectified as well. However, they do show her eating the bacon with aggression, which is more of a male characteristic, so in this regard it does go against Volkey’s…show more content… Granted subtle, the advertisement manages to include this hyper-masculine trait when the male model looks at the burger and takes a bite out of it. When he looks at the burger and bacon, his pupils become dilated suggesting a fight or flight response. He takes a moment to think and he chooses to fight, or in this case takes a bite out of the burger. A counter argument is that the male model pupils did not dilate and in fact, it was Mystiques pupils. However, this does not matter since Mystique’s eyes are on the male model. Young men identify with this characteristic of hyper-masculinity for the simple fact that it is a manly trait in society. Even though we do not know if Carl’s Jr is intentionally capitalizing on hyper-masculinity, it certainly seems as if they know by advertising this way will be more appealing to the vulnerable, especially when the model is the ideal image of a
