Analysis of Lynx Unleash The Chaos (2012)

The advert I will be looking at will be the lynx advert for Unleash The Chaos. (2012) This is a rather amusing advert, created to try to sell their latest deodorant Lynx Attract. (A clever play on words as ) The main narrative arc of the advert is that boy falls for girl or girl falls for boy, which results in a chain reaction of slapstick proportions.

In the past, Lynx advertisements  have offered sterotypical representations of masculinity and femininity (gender relations, in particular). This advert breaks the mould. Formerly,  the Ad executives at lynx have always faced controversy due to their usually stereotypical, sexual portrayals of women such as women being saved by a ‘knight in shining   armour’ or given an extremely miniature role of just being the ‘prize at the end of the road’. Whereas, in this advert the women is not showed in an extremely sexual manner or the prize of the man, as they are both treated equally in the advert. (I.e. they are both looking for each other) The men in the advert are not particularly commanding or depicted as physically strong, they are just, well, people, which is exactly like the women in the advert. One sex is not regarded as superior; they are both regarded as equal. This is further developed in the fact that in most of the shots where a duo is seduced by each other, you see both of them together, and both people are in the centre of the camera, outlining that they are both important, not just one of them.

The main message of the advert seems to be that lynx attract is so strong and incredible that it will make you completely lose your train of thought when you find someone wearing it, which may (or may not) result in the complete destruction of civilization and possibly mass manslaughter. (due to people forgetting what they are doing, eg driving) The deodorant will enchant your partner so much, that it will truly ‘unleash the chaos’. (which really isn’t an ideal message to be sending about your product, but hell that’s just me)

Overall, I think that this advert is essentially parodying the extremes of being attracted to someone, in this case one person falling for another leads to disaster as cars crash and trees set on fire for some reason. Lynx is essentially trying to reinvent themselves by using an idea that is totally unique and unlike anything they have done before to try and increase its target audience. (as an advert which has elements of humour, would be much more successful than one completely based on boy falling for girl) HOWEVER, despite the fact that they tried to shy away from their usual themes, there was a shot where young sporty women emerge from a bus wearing extremely tight and revealing red thermals, which gives off some form of sexuality of women due to the colour red usually being associated with love. Finally, to further promote their product, lynx includes logos of social networking websites, where people will be able to ‘follow’ the product and if necessary, find out more information about it.