Masculinity in Advertising – Ad Analysis Decoded

An ad titled “Milk for Real Men.” We see a man in a red tie lifting up the front of a car while drinking a bottle of milk. A child is crouching beside the car, picking up a soccer ball and looking admiringly up at the man. At the bottom right is a red and white bottle with “Maxi-Milk” written on it.

In the second image, geometric shapes highlight how shapes are used in the composition of the image: triangles highlight man’s tie, the crouching boy, and the negative space between the man’s legs and his flexed arm. A circle surrounds the tire of the car behind the boy’s head.

In the third image, arrows highlight how the eye is drawn along the car and following the boy’s eyeline to focus on the bottle in the man’s hand. The second arrow makes a diagonal line whose other end reaches toward the image of the bottle.