By Kristina Monllos • February 10, 2025 •
Ivy Liu
There’s a certain early aughts sensibility — think bro-y humor, racier advertising or general objectification of everyone — that seems to be making a comeback.
Just look at last night’s Big Game. Bud Light’s spot, “Big Men on the Cul-de-sac,” starring comedian Shane Gillis and Post Malone, could be viewed as a return to form for the brand, leaning on cheeky humor targeting men. Carl’s Jr., meanwhile, made headline’s last week for its Super Bowl marketing featuring influencer Alix Earle in a more overtly sexualized ad, seemingly resuming a marketing strategy the brand left behind in 2017.
It’s not just the Super Bowl, either. Men’s personal care brand Dr. Squatch, for example, has been using a similar tone of humor and sex appeal to stand out with ads starring actress Sydney Sweeney, aiming to appeal to fans by speaking to their fans the way that men speak to each other. (Sweeney also popped up in Hellmann’s When Harry Met Sally Super Bowl ad when Sweeney delivered the iconic, “I’ll have what she’s having” line at Katz’s after Sally, played by Meg Ryan, recreated the infamous scene.)
Culturally, post-Me Too and post-election in 2017, the pendulum swung away from that kind of advertising with brands toning down their approach. Some even used their advertising to take a stand or make a political statement backing inclusivity or immigration, policies that the administration at the time (and now) were moving against. This swing, though, is not a political issue, seven marketers and agency execs say, but a cultural shift. They believe there’s a recalibration that will see some brands letting loose, going for the humor and sex appeal that had fallen out of favor.
“I think a lot of brands up until perhaps recently took somewhat of a preachy tone with the audience,” said John Ludeke, vp of marketing at men’s personal care brand Dr. Squatch, adding that Dr. Squatch has simply tried to understand its audience and communicate with them as they communicate with each other. “Trying to tell people what to do and preaching to them is likely not the best approach. So we focus a lot on humor and irreverence as a way to get people to pay attention and educate them in a fun, lighthearted way that’s similar to how guys talk to each other on a regular basis.”
The cultural shift that’s taking shape does have marketers rethinking not only what their brands are saying, who they are saying it to and where they should be spending their money. President Donald Trump’s election win and “a good chunk of male-centric culture being behind him has probably given brands the green light to go back to some of those racy/early ‘00s advertising styles,” wrote Mani Schlisser, director of strategy at Oberland, in an email. Those election results have had marketers thinking about how the power of the manosphere.
But it’s less of a political issue and moreso a cultural shift for others.
“Some of it is political. We feel now that we have ‘permission’ to give the customer this kind of content again,” said Douglas Brundage, founder and CEO of brand studio Kingsland. “But I also think it’s a cultural shift back towards ‘party while the world burns,’ which we also saw in some of the unhinged advertising of the ‘80s when nuclear armageddon was constantly being threatened.”
Brundage continued: “We’re just ‘over it,’ it being everything, as a society right now. We want to laugh… Advertisers are following the red thread here and although I’m sure some will execute in very poor taste, others will find it a fruitful territory to play in.”
That’s not to say that brands didn’t have permission to make these kinds of ads before the election — as Crispin chief creative officer Steve Denekas wrote in an email, “brands have always had permission to do what they want… and they always will” — but brands were following culture.
“We’ve seen this particularly on social [media], from influencers to platforms like OnlyFans, embracing and owning sexuality,” wrote Denekas. “Yes, we are seeing the tides shift, like the Carl’s Jr. spot. And remember Jeremy Allen White in his Calvin’s on a rooftop in NYC? Culture is in charge not #47, and today, culture seems to be begging for less rigidity no matter what side of the aisle you sit on.”
That doesn’t mean we’re going to see a complete 180-degree turn from advertising with loads leaning into the kind of humor and blatant sex appeal that had been on the back burner, we’ll see a balance of the scales. There will likely be more marketers who find irreverent, humorous ways using sex appeal to appeal to consumers and others who maintain a more buttoned up strategy.
At the same time, how brands go about the use of humor and sex appeal is inherently different from the early aughts. Marketers say it’s more inclusive in casting — noting Bud Light’s spot as an example of such — and will likely continue to be.
“The media landscape has also evolved dramatically over the last 25 years,” wrote Evan Giordano, strategist, Mother New York, in an email. “Whereas some of this might’ve felt like the dominant culture in the past, it’s now sharing the stage with other voices and sensibilities.”
“Brands basically mirror what they think the public wants,” said Dotun Bello, senior creative at Translation. “Maybe this is a chance for brands to become their true selves and the public can decide what they’ll buy.”
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