Wildly homoerotic wrestling, sweaty dudes, half naked men, "when you're young, you're gold."
If you couldn't tell from the hair, it's Abercrombie and Fitch.
Selling youth, the appeal of young men (to older men?).
Winning, success, freedom, independence? - How about a play on "golden age," and an appeal to intergenerational relationships? (The targets of this ad being the predominant buyers of Abercrombie clothing: Frat boys, gay college students, and gay forty-year-old men.)
"Abercrombie and Fitch does not try to sell clothes." No kidding, their ads feature almost no clothing. They should advertise through clever slogans based upon sophomoric jokes "Abercrombie jeans -they look good piled on the floor of your bedroom."
We're back to Nike selling control. Will we breach the notion that Nike is marketed to people who may be socioeconomically oppressed? People who may have to "take" control if it isn't sold to them with a pair of $200 shoes?
Second Commercial: It's supposed to be about beer.
You want a high life man. "An investment in the high life is an investment in your future."
This is an ironic commercial, not marketing beer to women, but to people who buy High Life and realize that it's cheap, crappy beer that will get you drunk. The idea of a woman who can control her husband, thinking she can buy different beer, or change beers, to change her husband, is absurd.
How about sparking rebellious feelings in unmarried men who drink crappy beer to get drunk? "She thinks she can control me by buying different beer. I'll show her, I'll puke in the sink."
That's what the ad is selling.
Score one for the straw man.
