These two photos though similar in being 3/4 views differ a lot. The Schick photo has a lot less contrast than the Gillette one. The expressions of the men are quite different also, with the Gillette man staring right at the camera and the Schick man looking off into the distance. The Schick photo is overall brighter (there is light behind him as well) and uses broad light, highlighting the open side of the model’s face. This model is also the focus of the ad while the Gillette model is not the central focus. In that ad, there is less light and short light highlights his feature which adds to the his intense stare.  All of this helps to show that the two brands are selling very different ideas.

With the Free Your Skin ad, Schick is trying to communicate that with their brand of razors, you have the freedom to make your facial hair a masterpiece. Their visual representation with an actual animal is an exaggeration of the art you can create but the exaggeration works well for the audience. The Gillette ad is very different in what they’re trying to communicate. Showing a completely clean shave on a strong, athletic figure makes you think that their brand is tough enough to handle any shave but precise enough to keep one’s sensitive skin in tact. Because their audience is strong, manly men, they show that their razors protect sensitivity but not at the expense of being strong and manly. The tone of the two images is very different because their audiences are totally different men — Schick’s target being men who are concerned with the artistry of their facial hair and Gillette’s target being men who are concerned with the utility of removing their facial hair.

So we’ve got 2 leading brand Razor companies….. Well they’ve seem to promote themselves in different ways within these 2 images. Schick decided to give you a more then the average glamour shot, they’ve went above and beyond by giving us Torso and above. It isn’t just about the facial features , the clothing plays a big role in this image as well. We’ve got a properly dressed male , decent haircut with a squirrel attached to his face. Clean cut, classy professional look is what Schick is going for. Not really understanding the purpose of squirrel on the mans face but it fits on perfectly fine and you would assume that its actually a beard. Females also do prefer to use the brand Schick for a number of reasons. That being that they assume that Gillette is known for being only for males. On the other hand we’ve got a Gillette a brand popularly known by Athletes. We have a dominant facial expression , anger in the face of this individual but its sport affiliated so thats expected. The image shows you a well shaved male in the NFL with text faces very bold providing information about the brand what they provide and the name of their company.  These brands have a completely different audience that being that Schick is for the more classy type of individual while Gillette is more used by athletes.

Troy Goodall’s Schick and Tim Tadder’s Gillette campaigns are stereotype-based approaches targeted towards men to convince them to shave. Each photographer’s model is positioned in 3/4 profile shots, facing 45 degrees away from the camera. This is a more define feature revealing both the broadside of the model’s face.

Schick’s Free Your Skin campaign portrays a hippie with an animal clinging to the model’s face. The message conveys a humorous, subliminal approach to encourage men to clean up their appearance. Goodall’s model is an average older man who looks rather sophisticated and casual. His relaxed appearance also mimics the grey tones of his attire and the background. His body is positioned as a frontal shot looking off to the left, disengaged from the audience. The image reflects on how a viewer might respond to an individual’s choice of appearance. The choice of lighting also reveals he broadside of the model’s face and beard as the focal point.

Gillette’s Fusion ProGlide campaign portrays a hairless football athlete. The message conveys a direct approach as a result of how a man will look after a clean shave. Tadder’s model is a young man within the sports industry. His photograph is taken from the chest up, looking fully engaged and directly at the audience. His appearance heavily emphasizes on how well Gillette’s razor works. Tadder’s choice of broadside lighting defines and frames the model’s face as the focal point. The high contrast of the image also reflects on the importance of well grooming and the razor’s longevity.

The Schick ad has a half length three quarter view portrait. The Schick ad has broad lighting with little contrast. The ad has this man’s beard that has a animal in place of it and its trying to convey that men’s beards can get out of control and need to shaved. Schick is trying to get men to buy their razors to keep their beards under control. The tone of the photograph is more muted with the colors being really similar. They do this so that the animal in the beard is more camouflaged and makes the viewer really look to see that is not just a plain full beard but a animal instead.

The Gillette ad has a three quarter view portrait that is bust length.  Their ad is trying to convey that using Gillette will help protect those with sensitive skin and they use a NFL player to enforce the idea of protection because in football defense is essential. The overall tone of the ad is very dynamic and is using colors that are included in the razor to help make a cohesive image. The facial expression of the player also helps convey defense because he has a very intense facial expression.

The Schick ad’s tagline is free your skin. I feel as though they used an animal on a mans face to symbolize the ruggedness a man’s facial hair can get and used the word “free” to emphasize. It was also an amazing idea to go in a different approach and execution. Their razor is being portrayed to be the one to use when facial hair can be tough and wild.

In the second ad, the Gillete fusion execution, they go in a different approach. Showing a tough looking man, a football player looking right in to the camera which is suppose to give an impactful image and displaying the words sensitive skin gives off a humorous feel. The fusion razor is suppose to relate to the football player with great defensive properties built into the razor.

Schick and Gillette are both leading competitors in the shaving industry and both have churned out exceptional campaigns in the past, such as Schick’s award-winning “Free Your Skin” campaign. However, there are multiple differences between both of these ads.

For instance, the Schick ad uses a more direct and less contrasty butterfly lightning in their ads to give it a more sophisticated and aesthetically pleasing look. However, Schick manages to communicate their brand through the fact that the “beard” of the model in the shot is actually a squirrel masquerading as a beard. This shows that they are aware of the hipster trend of beards and are parodying it, in a sense.

The other difference between the two is the fact that the Gillette ad uses a more broad lightning for the model in the ad. From my observation, this is likely due to the fact Gillette had intended to accentuate the details of a clean-shaven face – which is starkly in contrast to the Schick ad.