5.2.6 Coty ‐ My Life (Appendix 14)
The "My Life" advertisement by Coty for a cologne spray appeared in the December 2006 issues of FHM and Men’s Health and the January 2007 issue of FHM. As a global cosmetics company Coty produces and markets a range of products that include fragrances, colour cosmetics and body care (Coty in a Snapshot, n.d). The full single page advertisement is split into a grid of six cells of equal width, but the upper 3 cells take up around 75% of the height of the page. The upper three cells each contain a photograph of a different male performative in city locations. The cell on the far left features a white male standing with his
hands in his pockets looking to the left of the page at something out of frame. The middle features a black male walking towards the viewer, with his gaze focused directly at them. On the far right cell is a black male who is also standing with his hands in his pockets and he is gazing slightly to the left at the viewer. The lower left cell features a product shot of the cologne spray next to its packaging. The middle block is a dark blue square with the logo for My Life knocked out in white. The final square features a turquoise block with “Coty – Paris – New York” written in the same blue as the previous square. The photographs in the advertisement similarly have a blue tint. The layout forms a horizontal triptych, a convention discussed by Kress and Van Leeuwen:
The triptychs in modern magazines and newspaper layouts are generally polarized, with a ‘Given’ left, a ‘New’ right, and a centre which bridges the two and acts as
‘Mediator’ (2006: 198).
Language does not work by expressing a natural meaning but rather by making a distinction within a system of difference and relationships (Saussure, 1983). Thus, the white male acts as the ‘given’, the central black male as the ‘mediator’ and the black male on the far right as the ‘new'. The black male in the middle shares traits with both of the other performatives – his clothes are more casual than the other black males but they are both wearing blazers.
While the two males on the right are black, the central black male and white male share similar clean cut styles while the black male on the right has wild long hair dreadlocks and facial hair. The male representing the ‘new’ offers a representation of a newer masculinity that is not white.
All three males engage in non‐transactional reaction processes, however, at the interpersonal level the two black males are breaking the fourth wall and demanding the gaze of the viewer – and due to their cold expressions they are looking at the viewer as an inferior (Kress & van Leeuwen 2006). The white male’s gaze is an offer, thus, evoking curiosity as to what he is looking at out of the frame on the left. In this sense the viewer is left to imagine what he is looking at, thus evoking a sense of empathy and identification with this performative (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006: 68). In layout design it is a common principle that the viewer will follow the eye line of a person or anything with an anthropomorphic face in an image, a practice supported by eye tracking tests (White, 2011). It is interesting then that his gaze leads the viewers out of the advertisement and away from the black males.
The black male in the centre is the most salient performative, as a consequence largely of his central position; in addition he is involved in the only action process in the text. It is a non‐transactional process as there is no goal. However, from the perspective of the interpersonal meta‐function, the actor is walking towards the audience. As the three males are depicted in entirely different photographs, this strong framing is indicative of individuality and differentiation (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006: 203). Yet the similar colour scheme throughout with a blue tint and desaturated colours seem to indicate more that the performatives are individuals rather than stressing significant differences between them. All of them represent the desired masculinity that the brand is trying to associate itself with.
Both the white male on the left and the black male on the right have their hands in their pockets, which, as noted previously, is a recurring pose of western masculine discourses signifying confidence and strength.
The advertisement was produced in South Africa as part of a larger campaign that included a television commercial with the same three models. In it, the commercial cuts between the three models delivering a voice over as they walk around the city. Here is a transcript of the dialogue in the commercial (Black Male 1 denotes the central black male while Black Male 2 denotes the black male on the right):
and the ‘girl’. The choice of 'girl' rather than ‘woman’, again suggests infantilisation (Goffman, 1976; Jhally, 2009).
Arguably, this text does not construct a white hegemonic masculinity, rather constructing a metropolitan consumerist hegemonic masculinity. The vertical triptych even suggests an acceptance of the transferral of hegemony from being white to a non‐racial hegemony, with a progression from a white performative to a more African/black performative and a masculinity that is part of both worlds as the mediator. However, the white male’s eyeline looking out of frame could arguably suggest some tension with this new FHM. The South African fashion retailer Truworths has an exclusive carriage deal with the brand. Daniel Hechter is a global fashion brand, which is described on their corporate site as follows:
Fashion from Daniel Hechter conveys a lifestyle feeling, rendering the brand both authentic and appealing. (Brand Daniel Hechter, n.d.)
Most of the space in the double page advertisement is taken up by a single photograph of a black male leaning against a pillar looking out into the distance off the right side of the page.
The man is cropped just below his chest. Overlayed on top of him on the left page is the copy “An invitation to view Daniel Hechter collection ETÉ53 2006”. On the far right is a column, which is slightly smaller than half a single page. On the top of the column is a block