Angels fall from sky for a whiff of Axe spray

Lynx (aka Axe in the U.S.) is making some big assumptions in this new U.K. spot for Excite body spray from BBH London. First, that it's the product's scent that makes angels drop from the sky. They could be falling through the holes that aerosols burn in the ozone layer. Second, exclusively casting supermodels as the angels is a pretty bold leap. It's commonly understood that angels are androgynous, so right away they're straying from convention. Which is fine, but what if you spray this Excite crap all over yourself and these little guys show up? Have fun being all hunky on your Vespa with that going on.

Filed under Axe, BBH, Europe, Kiefaber, Personal care
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Axe calls out Old Spice for its horse fixation

Isaiah Mustafa has already defected to Microsoft, and now Old Spice's humiliation is complete: It's getting made fun of on Canadian billboards. How the mighty have fallen. Via Time Newsfeed.

Filed under Axe, Canada, Nudd, Old Spice, Personal care
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Axe advising guys to 'scrub away the skank'

What's this, an Axe advertisement that's been deemed offensive to women? Shocking! The latest complaint comes from Ms. magazine, which takes exception to Axe's advice that guys can "scrub away the skank" with Axe's Snake Peel pumpkin-orange body wash after a random overnight encounter. The ad in question sends readers to TheFixers.com, a faux advice show for men that also did not impress the Ms. writer. "Thanks, Axe," she writes. "You sure know how to make a girl feel special." See the full ad after the jump. Via Adland.

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Filed under Axe, Controversy, Nudd, Personal care
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Razorfish takes another shot at TV with Axe

Axe is launching a new product line, Axe Music, with a series of mystery concerts. One interesting element of the campaign is the agency Unilever chose to make the TV spot: Razorfish. It's a sign of the topsy-turvy world of advertising that shops known for their Web-design acumen are moving into TV. (Obviously the same is true for brand agencies moving more deeply into digital.) R/GA has dipped its toes into these waters for Ameriprise, and so has Razorfish with a campaign last year for All. The Axe spot, which breaks Monday, is fairly standard fare of concert footage and bumping-and-grinding fans. It's unlikely to be in the mix at Cannes. It will be interesting to see whether platform experts like Razorfish and R/GA can add a compelling body of work in narrative messaging.

Filed under Axe, Morrissey, Razorfish
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Axe helps you find women hiding in your pad

This spot by French agency Buzzman for Axe Rise Up body wash is restrained and visually clever, particularly when measured by the advertiser's usual frat-brat, bikini-soaked standards. A guy goes through his morning routine, failing to notice "10 hot girls" hidden around his messy bachelor pad. Rents are high in Paris; I guess they've gotta live someplace. Oddly, the approach both objectifies and empowers the women at the same time: They're just part of the décor, but it's their choice, and guys can't ogle them. I'll be checking my place extra carefully tonight, just in case. I'm pretty sure I heard the drapes sigh, though with my luck it'll be the building super getting pervy again.

Filed under Axe, Buzzman, Europe, Gianatasio
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Axe boat loaded with ladies calls your name

BBH London put together this ad for the Axe Boat, which is apparently a contest with a cruise full of hot chicks at stake. At least, I think that's what it is. This Axe Boat site is in Spanish, so for all I know, this whole thing could be one of Axe Cop's sting operations. Not that I'm disparaging the possibility of waking up in a pile of bikini-clad women or anything, but the tone of this ad makes Axe sound more like a shady escort service than this generation's Hai Karate. Either way, they'd better clean up that boat before someone wins.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Filed under Axe, BBH, Europe, Kiefaber, Personal care
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Axe helps sofabed centaurs get women, too

Whatever qualms you have about Axe, you have to admire the product's consistency. Even an Argentine sofabed centaur can manage a smug, patriarchal attitude after using the stuff, as shown in this ad from Ponce Buenos Aires. I don't want to know how long those girls were folded up in his cushions, or what he thinks he's physically capable of doing with them. Or what Axe does to leather. It's weird enough that he lets his friends sit on him for hours without knowing he's part fold-out bed, too.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Filed under Axe, Kiefaber, Personal care, Ponce
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College kids to strip and run for Axe charity

Axe is involved in a brand-appropriate charity: getting people to donate clothes, which of course means taking them off first. Check out this trailer for the Axe Undie Run Challenge. Students at 10 colleges are squaring off this spring to see who can donate the most clothes. Participants will include loads of thin, gyrating chicks in their underwear along with many fat and nerdy dudes, also in their underwear. Via YesButNoButYes.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Axe, Colleges, Nudd, Personal care, Underwear
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Save water by showering together, says Axe

Today is Earth Day, and Axe Canada and ad agency Zig are sexing up the proceedings (it's about time!) by recommending that you share your shower with significant others (and insignificant others!) to conserve water. I've been suggesting this at the office via e-mails and break-room flyers, but no one ever replies. "Take action, take your clothes off," the ad instructs. I probably shouldn't have complied with that request in my cubicle, but it was a slow morning and my Dockers make my knees itch. Look, I'm all for "showerpooling," but I can't even get into the shower these days with all the plastic water bottles piled up to my ceiling. I've got some issues to work through. First of all, I've got to find my pants.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Filed under Axe, Canada, Earth Day, Environment, Gianatasio, Zig
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Specsavers spoofs famous BBH ad for Lynx

Specsavers, the U.K. eyewear retailer known for its amusing adverts, created this enjoyable spoof (posted below) of the notorious "Billions" ad for Lynx body spray. See the original BBH spot here. In the remake, the guy still has the great arm-swirling spray moves—but he's a bit flabbier than the Lynx hunk, and his glasses stop the hordes of ravenous women dead in their tracks. That's the "Should've Gone to Specsavers Effect." Rattling Stick director Daniel Kleinman says: "It's interesting to try and satire an already humorous commercial. I wanted to make sure everyone knew which spot we were parodying with a few key shots and then take the mick. Of course, it would never work if the original was not a well known and excellent piece of work."

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Axe, Europe, Eyewear, Nudd, Parody, Specsavers
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Axe wearers go on auto-pilot with the ladies

Robots: They never rest in their fiendish quest for global domination. Sure, they seem helpful in this Axe/Lynx Twist spot by Ponce in Argentina (and The Perlorian Brothers) as they change loverboy's appearance during a date to keep blondie intrigued. (That's a nod to Twist's changing scents as the day wears on.) Well, those bots aren't doing Romeo any favors. The object of his desire looks awfully high-maintenance, probably wants a weekend place in the country with a yacht in the living room. And what are the robots doing to the guy's private parts? Tightening his nuts? Even if it's an enhancement, it's bound to hurt like hell in the morning. That's their idea of a joke, along with foisting cyborg rapper Drake on us. OK, Drake's either cyborg or Canadian. Same difference. Pure evil!

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Filed under Axe, Gianatasio, Personal care, Ponce, South America
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Order your off-color Axe or Snuggie ad now

(Note: Bottom video is NSFW.) Here are a couple of goofy infomercial spoofs that we'll kill with one post. Above is a spot starring Jaime Pressly for the Axe Detailer, which is a real product—an intimate scrubbing sponge that will clean any double entendre you put in front of it, no matter how long it's overstayed its welcome. Consumer Reports should compare it to the lower-budget Scrotum Scrub. And for those of you who bought Snuggies (and who will buy literally anything you see on television), check out the NSFW spot below for the Snuggie D-lux (not a real product), which includes an extra sleeve for lame dick jokes. Tempting, but no. Although that Reverse Snuggie looks pretty slick.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Filed under Axe, Infomercials, Kiefaber, Parody, Snuggie
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Axe encouraging sex in the snow this winter

BBH London counsels guys to "be prepared this festive season" and to carry their Lynx (Axe) Bullet portable body spray with them, because you never know where spontaneous sex might occur. The three ads in the series seem a bit menacing, though, with the dark alleys and lonely frozen roads evoking non-consensual encounters. Maybe the ladies should carry a different kind of spray. (As Adland points out, Old Spice Red Zone did a similar though more angelic ad several years ago.) Of course, even if both participants are willing, they'll catch colds at the very least. My advice: If you must behave this way, keep the mittens on. Via Ads of the World. UPDATE: In comments, Steve notes that BBH has manufactured a personal alarm for women through its Zag product-development unit. The ila Dusk, "emits a piercing, high-decibel female scream designed to shock and disorientate an attacker." The perfect defense against Axe-toting lunkheads. Nice synergy, BBH!

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Filed under Axe, BBH, Europe, Gianatasio, Personal care
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Axe has street musicians singing its praises

Axe sought out 20 street musicians and bands by way of MySpace and Craigslist and offered them $1,000 each to put out "Axe Instinct" signs and deodorant samples and sing "Look Good in Leather" a couple of times a day. The New York Times has the scoop on a Penn Station musician named Luke Ryan, above, who's part of the program. It's kind of a bittersweet tale, as Ryan, who seems like a good guy, used to swear he'd never sell out like this. But from Axe's point of view, if you've got your ad in Penn Station from September through December for only a thousand bucks—and it sings!—I say you've made an excellent media buy (not to mention that sweet Times article you got out of it). I've never associated deodorant with street musicians before, but I'm definitely an advocate. More important, I'm an advocate of any Axe marketing that doesn't depict women as pairs of breasts hypnotically jiggling in slow motion, cannibalistic chocoholics or out-of-control succubae capable of riding that mustache right off your face.

—Posted by Rebecca Cullers

Previously on AdFreak:
Axe knows leather's steamy in summer
Is the Axe Effect site a pointless 'wankfest'?
Axe imitators don't always smell quite right

Filed under Axe, Cullers, Personal care
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Axe knows leather's steamy in summer

Some of the details provided in the promotional materials from production house Blacklist about the making of the Axe Instinct writhing-leather-figures spot shown below are hotter than the actual commercial. Example: "We began this project with a photo shoot with real actors and the leather laid out on a flat bed. We took moving references with naked models to show how the body moves and the leather reacts." A client budget well spent. Here's more: "We were very lucky to have a great photo model strip off and go through the timings and poses." Yes, lucky indeed, Blacklist. Finally: "Animation and simulation followed...to make everything come together." Sigh—I really should've gone into commercial production. Right now, I think I'll take a cold shower; leather makes everything so hot and sweaty this time of year.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Filed under Axe, Blacklist, Gianatasio
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Is the Axe Effect site a pointless 'wankfest'?

And now it's Axe's turn. It, too, is dipping into the Modernista! school of Web marketing with an "Axe Effect" site. Technically, it's not an un-site, but it follows the same theme set by Modernista! and subsequently imitated by Skittles: Let others define your brand. The Axe Effect links out to Wikipedia, YouTube, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Drugstore.com and few Axe microsites in an attempt at a new take on the brand microsite. (Axe eschews the wild world of Twitter, which caused Skittles some mild consternation after pranksters thrilled in posting about how they were placing the candies in various orifices.) Will Axe's site work? Count Wieden + Kennedy global director of digital strategies Renny Gleesen in the not-very-impressed camp. "The only folks I don't see deriving ANY benefit out of this 2.0 wankfest are normal people," he writes in a blog post with the refreshingly direct title "Brands go web 2.0. Give me a F---ing break." What's your opinion of the latest attempt to weave the social Web into the brand site?

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Filed under Agency web sites, Axe, Microsites, Morrissey, Personal care
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Axe wrangles up 100 girls to judge your hair

Hey fellas, ever wanted a room full of women focused on critiquing your personal appearance? Yeah, me either. That's why I decided to upload a picture of Minneapolis marketing icon Tim Brunelle to the new Axe 100 Girls site, which supposedly shows if your hair is "girl-approved." The faux Web cam is part of the Axe Hair Crisis Relief campaign, which recently hurled a pig and a bucket of water at an unfortunate young man. Tim may have been spared a pig attack, but his hair still only mustered a 40% approval rating. (You can watch the verdict get handed down.) To Tim's credit, I'm guessing he would have been pushing 95% if the women were allowed to vote on his ascot.

—Posted by David Griner

Filed under Axe, Griner, Hair care
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Being dressed by animals is always sketchy

This Axe spot from Argentina represents a rare moment of clarity from the deodorant brand, as it deconstructs the Disney trope of being dressed by animals. That men wouldn't dig this is a given, but I'm not sure women would like it much, either. Animals poop more or less constantly, and there are other sanitary issues with them carrying your clothes in their mouths. But since the guy in this ad wants chicks in bunny and fox masks soaping him up, his tastes are unconventional to begin with. Via Brentter and others.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Filed under Axe, Kiefaber, Personal care
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