To Be And Not To Be- this commercial from Dr. Pepper treats masculinity with, both, irony and affirmation.
The Van Dam-guy begins by addressing the "ladies" (clinging to their man's arm in the midst of this intense jungle shoot-out?). He asks them if they're enjoying the film. Answering for them, he says that "you" are not enjoying the movie because the movie is intended for men. The jungle, snakes, lasers, armed dune-buggies, cliff jumping, explosions, and dirtbikes are witness to this man's words.
His navigation through the various hazards is effortless. He is able to relax in the passenger seat and enjoy a can of soda. His address to the ladies, and the leisurely quenching of his thirst tell us that he himself is bored of the fantasized threats to his life. And not simply bored, but mocking. What is he mocking? Male fantasies.
The lasers, explosions, etc. are, in his own words, what "guys want." But he let's us know that he is no typical man. His cool tells us that he's the dismissive master of these brute fantasies. He concocts and delivers them to the thirsty guys ("like this..." he tosses the empty, crushed can over his shoulder which snaps a stick with a rope tied to it, setting off a booby-trap, defeating the guys on the dirtbikes.). This man is no man, but an angel from the advertising industry, displaying the true intentions of the gods- to give us, guys, what we desire. He mocks these cheap thrills while providing them. He jokes about the guy's conception of masculinity while subscribing to it, himself. He teases the guys by referring only to the "ladies," the ultimate "manly" desire.
But the speech to these "ladies" is a hoax. It's the same as when a man asks the girlfriend of his buddy, who is standing next to her, a question whose content is actually intended for the buddy in a fake gesture of interaction with the girlfriend. Or maybe more accurately, when the owner of a dog asks their dog if the friend who has been dog-sitting has taken them on nice walks and has been feeding them properly, all while the dog-sitting friend is standing right there- the statements are clearly meant for the dog-sitting friend and not the dog. The soldier-man is making his message more acute in delivering it to the (insecure, heterosexual) guys through the real object of their desire, the "lady" (which, by the way, they are purposely deprived of in the images of the commercial- if there were some babes in bikinis, the empty gesture of interaction with the "ladies" would become an open (no longer hidden) mockery of women).
The ending phrase "IT'S NOT FOR WOMEN," again is not directed at women. It's as if a confused man walked up to a shelf in a grocery store and asked "Who is this for?" You're supposed to gain the real answer from the sarcastic "It's not for women." It's for you, man.
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