Macho advertising

While I have found that advertising geared towards children's toys have become less macho; the same cannot be said about movie advertisements geared towards children.

This image of the upcomming DVD version of Dreamworks; How To Train Your Dragon, shows the main character standing in the front with his arms crossed. This pose could be deemed the don't mess with me pose. The pose is seen here again in an image of Charles Atlas, who was at one point considered the World's Most Perfectly Developed Man.

Mr. Atlas' likeness was used for many years in an add campaign for the exercise program he designed. This add campaign is considered one of the longest running and most successful add campaigns of all time. Is this a conicidence? I don't think so.

The reason this campaign was so successful is the same reason why advertisers still use it today; young boys and men associate macho with strong and strong with being a hero. Let's go back to the dreamworks movie: How To Train Your Dragon.

I have seen and enjoyed the movie, and can tell you the main character is not macho at all. Then why is it that all of the advertisements for the movie depict him as such. In the image above he is depicted as the classic macho hero, conquering the beast and getting the girl. Why?

Because as I said before as kids we learn that if your a boy you should be macho; if your macho your strong and if your strong your a hero. Now this may not seem like a big deal however, there are many implications in allowing your child to fall into this way of thinking.

• What happens if your child is not macho?
• What is the implication if your child is a girl?
• This train of thought leads to conclusions that are false.

The reality is not everyone who is macho is strong, just look at the village people. Not everyone who is strong is a hero, Mike Tyson, for example; and not every hero is macho. We need to help our children understand that being macho or strong, doesn't define who we are or what we can be. Perhaps if they start to understand this GI Joe's can go back to looking like real people.