Jimmy Johnson can go...LONG? New Extenze Commercial.
Monday, February 15, 2010
, Posted by JD at 6:30 PM
If you know me, you know that I RARELY, watch television. Last night I was up late doing God knows what with the TV playing in the background. I heard a familiar voice talking about the male penis...I look up and it's Jimmy Johnson (yes, that Jimmy Johnson, former Cowboy Coach-turned-Fox-football-analyst Jimmy Johnson). I was in shock.
This reminds me of the time I saw the Bob Dole Cialis commercial! T.M.I. Using well-known formerly powerful or macho men to sell products is nothing new as companies use these icons to try to appeal to the male desire to be virile. Johnson's colleague Howie, also an analyst on Fox, was at one time shilling memberships to nutrisystem for men. I get it that. But something about Jimmy Johnson selling extenze...a product that I thought was a scam for a long time...just seems weird. I'd feel more comfortable if Johnson (hahahhahha his name is Johnson!!) were selling Viagra or some other erectile related drug, but Extenze is about penis SIZE not function.
Here's a quote from the Extenze web site:
There is simply no reason any man should feel short changed with the size of their penis, when you can take Extenze and get that bigger, harder penis you have always wanted. You only have to take one each day to see the kind of results so many have already experienced. It works with your body to naturally increase your penis size with time. It sounds so simple, because it is!
Does this mean that up until recently Johnson had a small Johnson? But he's so cute! :-(
A few quick thoughts….
You said “hahahaha his last name is Johnson”. I’d like to add, hahahaha and his first name is Jimmie (think KRS-One). Euphemisms aside I think this is a great segue for a discussion about sex and gender.
A little over a decade ago I was one of two females on an IT team at a prominent investment bank. We managed several important corporate applications and had to deal with both Y2K and the transition to the euro. We were continuously stressed. The guys on the team found an outlet at a nearby strip club-during our 14-16 hour days they would occasionally take an evening break at this club and then return to work reinvigorated. I never understood the connection between looking at titties and writing/editing code. Afterall, I saw titties everyday when I showered, I grew up with four older sisters (more titties) and played sports in college (even more titties) -and can safely say looking at titties does not increase your mental aptitude or stamina (else I’d stare at my own titties more). I privately marveled at my male co-workers ability to de-stress. I also know men and women view sex differently. But I had other thoughts too. The other female on my IT team was a VP and our boss. Sometimes I wondered if the men I worked with needed to see those women on poles to deal with their female co-worker and boss. Was there some sort of unconscious psychological benefit from their sexpeditions?
The EXtenze commercial reminded me of the anecdote above and has me thinking about sex and gender (mainly men). Initially, I wondered why Jimmie Johnson, a successful, well respected figure in the sports community would associate himself with this product. 15-20 years ago I don’t think any prominent male, sports figure or otherwise, would have endorsed a sexual enhancement product. Clearly, the stigma of a male who lacks a measure of virility has been muted or perhaps even removed. The psychology around this issue is much different. How else do you explain Jimmie Johnson, a man who has found the pinnacle of success at the collegiate and professional level in America’s most hyper-masculine sport peddling a product that corrects a *short-coming* few males would publicly admit to just a decade or two ago? When I juxtapose Johnson’s commercial with the sexual overtones and gender cues in the Go Daddy and Dodge Charger Super Bowl commercials it is interesting to consider cultural dynamics related to sex and gender and how these messages are being consumed by both women and men in our society. Sometimes I feel as if there is some sort of heterosexual male identity crisis.
I would love to see someone who studies gender and pop-culture comment on this blog post (perhaps @DrGoddess on Twitter). Personally, I think heterosexual males are in a mental tug of war with issues of manhood (e.g., what it is, what it looks like, how to express it) and these issues are surfacing because of the advancements made by women in our society. Generally speaking, I do not believe heterosexual men fully support equality for women (else, there would be equal pay, less misogyny in movies, TV, music, etc.,) and I think this plays out in things like the “man’s last stand” Dodge car commercial and to some extent the Go Daddy commercial where the successful female in a male-dominated sport willingly objectifies herself --- using her traditional female value (beauty) along with the sexual innuendo suggested by the other female in the commercial (all done for male fantasy/consumption). The EXtenze commercial feels like an odd male redux of the feminist cry or in this case “I am male because I have a large penis and I want to fuck forever, hear me roar”. In all cases I think more women should pay closer attention to how men negotiate their feelings around themselves (modern vs “traditional man”) along with how they respond (consciously and unconsciously) to the advancement of women. To dismiss or reduce this to “men are sexual beings, sexually different, enjoy sex more…” may be short-sighted.