“We Wear No Pants”: Selling the Crisis of Masculinity in the 2010 Super Bowl Commercials

Abstract

In this article we argue that the commercials aired during the 2010 Super Bowl, a preeminent national advertising showcase, provide a stinging contribution to the contemporary discourse of masculinity in the United States. Using a combination of discourse and semiotic analysis, we draw on and expand Michael A. Messner and Jeffrey Montez de Oca’s 2005 examination of the trope of the happy loser in beer commercials. Conducting a close reading of five illustrative Super Bowl commercials, three from 2010 and two from 2009, we find that the 2010 Super Bowl commercials turn their back on the happy loser. Rather than appearing humorous and endearing, these losers are portrayed as delusional dopes—lost and pathetic figures who are oblivious to the supposed decline in their social standing. We argue that these messages build on broader anxieties about the recent economic recession and the empowerment of social minorities in an attempt to mass-market the discourse of a crisis of masculinity. Men’s bodies are the semiotic link in these commercials, and as viewers are bombarded with images of soft and aging male bodies, men are called upon to “wear the pants” and take their “last stand” through consumption.