Re the “Just For Men” commercial when the gray bearded guy is in a bar, and there’s two sports announcers commenting on the scene, one of whom is 59 year old (and apparently grayless) Walt Frazier.
A handsome gray bearded guy (who is naturally honest and kind to small animals) is trying to pick up a girl and she turns him away because of the gray, and the sports announcers say “Ooooh, rejected…no play for Mr. Gray!”. “Mr. Gray” takes the hint, and crosses to the “dark” side, because now his hair and beard are as brown as a bear cubs’, and the woman eagerly accepts his attentions.
I’m a a robust, single, 46 year old manly man, and I’m going (well mostly gone) gray.
Eh, as a woman, I suggest that you ignore the commercials. That stuff is so obvious, it just makes a man look like he colored his beard with a magic marker. It’s not an attractive look.
I use that product to dye my eyelashes. It smells weird.
I hate those commercials. They remind me of the 70s or something. Which is probably the point because guys with gray beards remember the 70s too. “Hey if it weren’t for this big white Santa beard I bet I could get a hot chick to disco dance with me like in the olden days!”
I’m certainly not going to do anything to eliminate my whites and greys! I’ve been waiting for them and now that they’re coming in I’m enjoying them, and someday I’m going to look very nice in long flowing hair and beard like Gandalf.
Women look stunning and gorgeous with long white or grey hair and should also never be made to feel that they should dye it.
Disclaimer: I have nothing against people who want to color any or all of their hairs, brown auburn pink green lavender, regardless of orig color, yadda yadda.
“No play for Mr. Gray!” - that is, not from shallow, vain Madison-Avenue-Land women who place a guy’s hair color high on the list of dating criteria. Don’t let the commercials bug you, astro; when was the last time you saw actual human values accurately portrayed in advertising?
At 41 Sweetie has salt and pepper hair and a beard that is going fairly white around the edges, which he dyed brown a couple of times when we first started dating, before I assured him I thought he looked much better without it.
“Clyde” is a long-time basketball broadcaster and his schtick is that he rhymes a lot. It’s pointless, but he has a little style at least. The commercial is working with that.
Philip K. Dick wrote a story in the '50s in which the advertising industry relied on little flying micro-robots that got in your face with little insinuations designed to chip away at your confidence for profit. “You’re not really going to let people see you with those yellowy teeth, are you?” “Gosh, your skin’s oily. You know, there’s stuff you can buy for that.” “You know, you might start to sweat and stink later in the day. Are you prepared for the consequences?” “I think there might be a bit of dandruff on you.”
His characters were constantly batting them away like horseflies.
My boyfriend is 36, is hot, and has salt and pepper hair and beard. I wouldn’t change it for anything. My ex-boyfriend had silvery hair, which I thought was hot and sexy. When he started dying his hair, I thought it looked stupid, although I never said so or reacted like I thought it looked stupid. He turned into a complete and utter asshole. Coincidence?? I think not.
I think it’s sickening that not only have advertisers ruined the self esteem of countless women by telling them that absolutely nothing about them is OK as is- everything must be plucked, dyed, cut, colored, covered up, or reshaped- but now they’re starting on men.
No hair? No sex for you.
Grey hair? No sex for you.
Pot belly? Forget it.
Not using our fabulously scented deoderant? No dice.
I’ve seriously never, ever heard a friend of mine say “I like him, but he’s bald. No way!” or grey, or whatever. I don’t think most people hold others to that high a standard. But boy, the media and advertisers do.
Preach it, Zette. When the revolution comes, these scummy advertisers will be among the first aginst the wall… along with spammers, telemarketers who call residences, and spyware creators.
People have enough problems hooking up and staying hooked up without these scum undermining us at every turn. I pit them.
:: looks around ::
Great! This thread is already in the pit!
:: maniac grin ::
You fuckers! I’ve spent ten years pulling myself out of the pit of self-hate and near-suicide, and I don’t need you pulling me back at every turn, feeding back my self-doubt and unworthiness to me. I’m finally getting to the point where I can (on good days) imagine that there just might be someone out there who would be attracted to me, and you advertiser scum come along and tell me I’m a worthless old fart because I’m over 40 and my beard is starting to go grey. You know that the worse I feel, the worse I will take care of myself, and that’ll make me feel even worse…thus building more market for your crap. If I had killed myself, YOU would have borne some of the blame.
This is not something you hear in the media. Thank you. And thanks to Sensualips as well, who said that she was attracred to her former husband, who had–gasp–a pot belly? You know, someone who looked like a normal human being instead of the freaks you advertisers portray? I should have know something was wrong when I was at art school and they told me that fashion drawing uses stylised and completely-unrealistic proportions for the human figure. But little did I realise how bad it would get.
My hair’s been going gray since my 20’s, and my beard finally followed suit about five years ago. I can’t imagine dying either. These commercials pander to the base insecurities in us all, and thus are disgusting, slimy pieces of shit.
Hey, just try being over-40 and gay! If you’re a middle-aged gay man, you are essentially invisible in gay media, which sells hairless, buffed-up twinks as the acme of male perfection. I’ve always been attracted to older man ever since I was a teenager, but it is impossible to find positive, upbeat images of mature men in gay media. Oh, sure, there’s the bear subculture, but I get very tired of the whole “woof” BS that goes on.
