Yogurt commercials have a reputation of marketing their product to women for weight-loss and probiotic control, so seeing a Dannon Oikos yogurt commercial marketed toward men is a new change, although the commercial relies heavily on semiotics that make the yogurt seem more “masculine.” By using a football player as the spokesperson, instead of the typical white woman seen in yogurt commercials, the brand is marketing their yogurt toward a male based audience. The football player opens the commercial by screaming accompanied by six fireballs surrounding him, which are not typically things that one would witness in a grocery store.
When the football player comes across another man in the protein aisle of the grocery store, he stops his entourage of marching band members and cheerleaders to take this man and his wife to the yogurt aisle. Even though the commercial is not aimed toward women, the man in the store is still accompanied by his wife because the grocery store is typically seen as a place for home makers such as wives and mothers.
After seeing the yogurt, the man is still skeptical, but the yogurt is clearly for men because of the high protein content and the black packaging. When the man’s wife tries the yogurt, the words “not a low calorie food” show up on the bottom right hand corner of the screen, proving again this is not a yogurt made for women who only eat yogurt to lose weight.
By looking at the messages shown by the color of the yogurt container and the timing of the message about the calorie content, one can see that all of the signs presented in this commercial and the packaging of the yogurt point to the idea that this product is intended for men. This Oikos commercial is full of subtle messages that place men who are attempting to increase their protein content at a more dominant position than women and other- more feminized- men.
