Lux has finally gone into the forbidden territory – the luminous beauties who used to symbolize the soap have been replaced. In the most unexpected way. By the most unlikely candidate – Shahrukh

Khan !

Shahrukh Khan- the 40 something superstar who earns crores in real life sits in a bathtub, smiles at you and tells you that it is lux that makes his skin glow.

What works for this ad is that it make you sit up, rub your eyes and REGISTER this ad in your mind, memory and thoughts. The most common reaction is ‘A man – a grown up man acting in such a ‘feminine’ way ! Tauba Tauba ! Ise kya hua ! How ‘unmanly’ !’
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That makes me think about my own conventional thinking - When my four year old son reaches out for my lotions at the dressing table, I see myself running from wherever I am and snatching it away from him with ‘Guys don’t use those things’.

Lesson number one of life : You are a man ! (even though you are a four year old child), and you are not allowed to cry / play with dolls / think of looks / shout when you see a cockroach /…….the list goes on).

Ironically, the same does not apply for girls. Girls can wear trousers, ride motorbikes, wear their hair short – they might even be admired for showing such guts. What is interesting is that it’s not just women who expect a man to be ‘all man’ but even men who look down at other men if they show any signs of ‘weakness’.

Some men who could not take the stringent pigeon holing have discovered a new way to go – the metrosexual man – the man who takes pride in his appearance, the man who is sensitive, caring and does not mind changing nappies and helping his woman out in housework.

So far, we used to have men who would jump into the shower with something like ‘Aramusk’ in their hand, come out in four minutes flat and are dressed and out of the house in two minutes. They would gag at the mention of a ‘facial’, dance a jig if you suggest them to get a ‘pedicure’ and would not know anything beyond an ‘Aftershave lotion’.

However, nowadays, there are many men who are getting facials , pedicures, manicures done and are still as ‘manly’ as a man can get.

Despite the mindsets changing to some degree, the boundaries of the metrosexual man are still unclear and hazy as the men themselves are wondering ‘how much’ is acceptable ?

If the goal of this ad was to make you notice it, it has succeeded. We are talking about it, discussing it and even writing reviews on it ! But again, If the goal was to go buy this soap, I am not sure how much it has succeeded.

Simply because we have been conditioned in a manner to classify certain mannerisms as ‘feminine’ and the opposite as ‘masculine’. SRK has gone and merged the line – which is often ridiculed– in our society or anywhere else. I doubt that most women would want to get a skin like SRK’s and most of the men would balk at emulating him in his Cleopatra avatar.
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My own personal opinion

Would a similar ad with Yana Gupta inside a bathtub instead of SRK have influenced me to put my money in this product ? Yes, obviously, yes. But then, I am a product of my conditioning too.

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