Young Boss, Unwilling Celebrity Pt. 33-34

Carly nodded. "It stands to reason that while a man surrounded by fully clothed females in just his underwear is clearly vulnerable, losing even that would be the peak of humiliation, especially in front of his female subordinates."

By this time, Carly was making more and more eye contact with Tim as she talked, and his blush had noticeably deepened.

"I'm wondering, then," Marcy began, "whether it might be wrong to see humor in this situation. If the females in the office are humiliating their boss, shouldn't the audience resent that kind of sexist manipulation?"

Some calls of "no!" came from the crowd, and the barely hidden smiles of the women on stage showed that they disagreed with the premise of Marcy's question.

"I don't think so," Carly said, as she tucked a strand of loose hair back behind her ear, "for two main reasons. One, as we mentioned earlier, is the ad's reversal of the usual power imbalance between the sexes. Because a male boss is usually in a dominant position, we see his female employees winning this battle of the sexes as a case of the underdog beating the odds."

Marcy nodded, still smiling. "And what's the second reason?"

Carly said, "The commercial is very clever in the way that it uses the Naked Attraction body spray as a dramatic device. Even given the power imbalance, we would still usually watch a group of women ganging up to take a man's clothes away from him as unfair, and maybe even bullying."

"Speak for yourself!" a female voice rang out from the bleachers, to much laughter.

Carly smiled at the interruption, then continued, "The central conceit of the ad is that the body spray mesmerizes the women. When they smell it on their handsome boss," her eyes darted quickly to Tim and then back to Marcy, "they can't help themselves, and they behave in an aroused and even exploitative way that society would usually frown upon."

"In that sense," she concluded, "the Naked Attraction gives them an excuse, and absolves them of moral responsibility. No matter how attractive they find their boss, it would be extremely inappropriate to take advantage of him the way they do in this ad. But when he has the Naked Attraction on, he's fair game."

"As the campaign's theme says," Marcy said, grinning at Tim, "he chooses to wear Naked Attraction at his own risk." As Tim fidgeted uncomfortably, the audience applauded. "Thank you, Professor, for your insights into this very entertaining ad."

Marcy said, "Okay, we're going to take a break now. But we've got a few surprises coming up that I think our audience will really appreciate, so please don't turn that channel!"