Schick and Gillette both take a different approaches to accomplish the look and feel of their campaigns. Schick uses a more classic and conceptual approach to indicate the their brand embraces the trend of huge bushy lumberjack bears. The Schicks ad draws attention to the well kept shaped bear, the ad accomplished this by using a soft over all tone and lighting. The position of the model is vertical exposing half of his body giving the whole campaign a more approachable and airy FEEL. On the opposite side we have the Gillette Ad which has a more straight forward approach. This Ad has high contrast and type all over, it also includes a product shot and a busy background. Unlike the schick Ad this ad targets a more athletic audience. Both ad work accordingly to their base consumers and also work affectedly for their branding.
You observe the photographic style accurately but your interpretation of the goal of the ads is a bit narrow. These are both mainstream brands that sell huge numbers of razors. The Gilette ad isn’t just aimed at an athletic audience. How many adult men have time to be athletic? I would say it is aimed at a traditional notion of masculinity that appeals to many men. The model is supposed to be a football player, a sport while extremely popular as a spectator sport that is coming under scrutiny for how damaging it is to the players., and he glares out at us. The Schick ad is really interesting. it is so over the top, I can’t help but wonder if they aren’t making fun of this elaborate beard fashion and appealing to a ‘regular” guy who would never even think of growing such a thing on his face.