Wayne Rooney is an English football player who plays for Manchester United. In the past couple of years his popularity has grown and due to this, so has is use in advertisements. However, because Rooney represents a certain type of male; the masculine hegemonic male, his use in advertisements seems to be limited to just sport related and hence, Rooney’s talent is the main selling point of the products. This is important to not only audiences who have certain expectations of him, but for Rooney himself who’s image he wants to portray is the ultimate powerful male on and off screen, on the pitch and in advertisements. Rooney has a “stylised repetition of acts” (Butler in Fuss, 1991, p140)
His star image is seen as stereotypically masculine because of his rugged look, beard, very hairy torso and tattoos, but also his masculine, almost ill mannered way in which he speaks.
“Masculinity is produced in actions and signs which connote ways of performing powerfully” (Macdonald, 1997, p283)
The first example is of Wayne Rooney advertising ‘Nike’ notably the sponsor of his team Manchester United for the promotion of the Euro cup 2008 (Web –reference 1).
On the pitch Rooney is known to be brutal and forceful and so this image plays on that, standing out to audiences as quite a savage picture. Rooney is featured sodden in a blood-red paint contrasting to the white of the background and white of his skin, portraying the England flag. Rooney’s expression is a big part of the advertisement, his screaming war cry and tightly clenched fists shows the emotion he holds for football. This pose also resembles Wayne Rooney’s celebration goal gesture that he shows on the pitch, again using repetition of the familiar.
This image also cries masculinity as not only is he promoting what is seen as a masculine brand related to sport, he is also topless and isn’t afraid to get dirty. His persona in this advertisement is shown as being aggressive, which can be related to his persona on the pitch (repetitive stardom), but also passionate about his job.
“Men are usually shown as being dominant, active, aggressive and authoritive” (Strinati, 2000, p184)
However, although Rooney himself is almost promoted as the saviour of England’s World Cup campaign, the image caused a lot of controversy. The image was condemned as:
“'offensive', 'exploitative' and 'tacky' by MPs and church groups” (daily mail, 2006)
The image was seen as being religiously offensive, as Rooney is stood in a Christ-like pose and therefore brought resemblance to crucifixion.
“Labour MP Stephen Pound said the advert was truly horrible.”
“This is such a horrible image and is so horribly war-like that it can only be described as Nike being crass, offensive and insensitive as they try to hitch poor old Rooney to their commercial band-wagon.”(Daily Mail, 2006)
Nike however, stressed that the image was not meant to cause offence. This type of miss-interpretation of the image could have caused great harm to Rooney’s star persona and cause fame damage, as these mistakes get as much attention as their celebrity status.
“Negative discourses- from failure, death, mental illness and notoriety, to ‘hate’ for celebrities” (Holmes, Redmond, 2006, p287)
This shows how being controlled by media industries can affect how a star is being portrayed. However, within this advertisement Rooney was seen as the victim, as MP Stephen Pound suggested “hitch poor old Rooney to their commercial band-wagon”.
David Beckham is an English footballer who currently plays for Milan and was one of the most popular soccer stars in the late 1990s and the early 2000’s. However, in contrast to Wayne Rooney, as Beckham proposes the metro-sexuality male who takes more care, time and money on his lifestyle and his appearance. This type of male challenges a theory put forward by Brownmiller (1974):
“The truth is men have barely tampered with their bodies at all, historically, to make themselves more appealing to women under the masculine theory that real men do not trick themselves out to be pleasing (they have better ways to prove their self-worth)” (Brownmiller, 1974, cited in Tyler, 2003, p8)
With his good looks, higher pitch more effeminate voice, different hairstyles, such as using a stereotypically girly hair band, wearing nail varnish, his different and ever changing fashion and most notably his sarong wearing stage (web-reference 5), Beckham has become a global lifestyle icon.
“Beckham is the über-metrosexual, because he is a sportsman, a man of substance--a "real" man--who wishes to disappear into surfaceness in order to become ubiquitous--to become media. Becks is The One, and better looking than Keanu--but, be warned, he's working for the Matrix” (Mark Simpson, independent, 1994)
Not only does Beckham advertise his own brand of clothes and fragrances (worth millions) making himself a brand name he also endorsed other brands such as Pepsi, Adidas, Brylcream, Armani, Vodaphone (his voice was used in vodaphones voicemail), sharpie markers, Gillette and Marks and Spencer. This shows that Beckham’s use in advertisements goes beyond the football and how he is used to promote products and create large profits for media industries.
“Celebrities are brand names as well as cultural icons or identities; they operate as marketing tools as well as sites where the agency of the audience is clearly evident; and they represent the achievement of individualism- the triumph of the human and the familiar- as well as its commodfication and commercialisations (2000, p13)
The first example is of David Beckham posing for Emporio Armani underwear.
As soon as this advertisement aired Emporio Armani’s profits immediately rose by 15% (Web- reference 6) This advertisement will not only win Beckham fans, women and men arguing that Beckham is put in Laura Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ but also challenging it as women are looking at him ‘Female Gaze’, but also he knows he is being looked at, but also gives men a false hope and ideology that buying these underwear (consumerism) will not only make them look as good as he does, but also get them a woman as attractive as Victoria Beckham. Beckham within this advertisement has become so popular and well-known; he has become the face of Armani.
Although in comparison to Rooney, Beckham is seen as the metro-sexuality male, this picture of his ripped, tattooed body, groomed but masculine hair style and stubble shows otherwise. The fact the picture is also in black and white, gives the image a more bachelor feel to it, making it quite masculine. The image also shows a great deal about Beckham, it shows that he is happy with his sexuality and type of masculinity and isn’t afraid to pose in skimpy underwear, a shot you wouldn’t see Wayne Rooney doing as he would be afraid of how he is portrayed. However, this image also caused controversy and wasn’t seen as a bid to show Beckham being comfortable with his type of masculinity:
"It demeans him, and it demeans soccer. What it's saying to children is that talent is not enough, you also have to sell your body, and sell it in a sexual way” (Michelle Elliot, 2007)
David Beckham represents a notion of modern masculinity and although it is different from the type of masculinity Rooney shows, Beckham’s fans are always behind him and continue to support and admire him through many of his metro-sexuality acts.
"I'm sure they will once again rise to the challenge of defending David Beckham's fearless championing of England's masculinity." (Mark Perriman, 2007)
In conclusion it is apparent that celebrity star personas are perpetuated through the different types of advertising. In the case of Wayne Rooney, his masculinity is also maintained throughout his endorsements and his advertisements are limited to his ‘talent’ all about him being on the field. As with David Beckham his celebrity star persona and metro-sexuality is not perpetuated as much as he is a global lifestyle icon and has a variety of endorsements, portraying him in a range of different ways in order to make the product sellable to a wide range of audiences.
Within the Media studies course I really enjoy analysing film/advertising etc from the gender view. I love looking into post feminist and feminist views i.e Laura Mulveys 'Male Gaze'. During this particular assignment, I also really became interested in looking at the male gender view and also the 'other' or metro sexuality. I also went on to look into 'metro-sexuality' Hegemonic male vs. Effeminate male (The other) the notion of the 'other' in an assignment focussing on a personal favourite figure of mine Gok Wan.
Gok Wan himself imposes a binary opposition. Gok is not seen as a Hegemonic male as he is not white and he is also gay. Gok shows feminine behaviour by knowing all about fashion, working to style women and enjoying shopping. He also calls himself ‘Aunty Gok’ implying that he knows he’s feminine and plays up to this. However, Gok seems to have his foot in both camps as although he has feminine traits, he still dresses as a hegemonic male which eliminates this binary. Gok’s most known style is his suit. A suit is generally related to a hegemonic male, who is powerful and of high status however, Gok sometimes feminizes his look by wearing a low cut t-shirt underneath. The colours of his suits are also mostly black, which is quite a boring and miserable colour and is not normally related to a gay or camp male. Lots of colour and drama is normally the stereotypical view of a homosexual male.
Through Gok Wans series of ‘How to look good naked’ it is shown that women accept to be told what to wear, be touched and helped get dressed by Gok as he is gay and so it is seen acceptable and not in a sexual way. However, if it was a heterosexual male this would be seen as unacceptable and for the pleasure of the male, constructing a clear binary between them.
