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 |
|
Published on November 30, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (11)
|
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: |
|
Published on November 3, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (4)
|
Deceptive dental ads get a kick in the teeth
No, it's not just you. Those terrible teeth-whitening ads really are on every Web site in the galaxy, and they really are as scammy as they seem. Thankfully, a few brave souls—namely, the Better Business Bureau and the Utah Division of Consumer Protection—are dropping the hammer on some of the worst offenders. Wired's Epicenter blog reported Tuesday that Cyprus-based Farend Services is being scrutinized for its ads running under the name Dazzle Smile, which is now the target of a Utah "administrative citation" for allegedly steering customers into a thicket of fake articles and unexpected costs. The BBB, citing Dazzle Smile and several other companies, says on its blog that it has "received a recent onslaught of complaints from consumers who thought they were signing up for a free trial of teeth-whitening products but were repeatedly billed for products and services they didn't want." Meanwhile, some teeth-whitening companies feel they've been wrongly targeted in the backlash, and search engine giants like Yahoo! and Microsoft must decide whether to keep running the ads despite consumer complaints. At a time when revenue is so hard to come by, I wouldn't be surprised if the ad networks simply decide to grin and bear it. —Posted by David Griner |
|
Published on October 21, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (5)
|
Old Spice appeals to a range of douchebags
In this funny new spot from Wieden + Kennedy, Old Spice finally explains why it makes so many differently scented products: to satisfy the wide variety of smug, preppy douchebags within its target market! The guy reclining in his leather armchair has some nerve putting his own masculinity in the context of skiers and beach bums with hot girlfriends. Still, one can't help but admire the attitude, and jokes based around the absurdity of overzealous manhood will always be funny. I hope they make more of these ads, and this song plays in the background of all of them. —Posted by David Kiefaber See also: |
|
Published on September 1, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (2)
|
Avoid nasty residue build-up with Old Spice
In mulling this "Residue is evil" print campaign from Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy, a few things crossed my mind. First, the problem surely doesn't rise to the level of "evil." Hitler was evil. The embarrassment caused by deodorant residue can be avoided by lowering one's arms. Also, was there a point where someone said, "Hey, this playground ad's not nearly heinous enough. Let's add a gratuitous view of some girl's butt!"? And is it wise to berate one's potential customers as "idiots," "weirdos" and "chumps"? Hey, Old Spice, that stinks! I should find a groovy co-ed sauna to sweat off the anxiety I get from looking at nasty ads like these, but I'd better stop at the drugstore first and pick up some Nair for Men. —Posted by David Gianatasio See also: |
|
Published on August 11, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (8)
|
Axe imitators don't always smell quite right
Axe ads are often called misogynistic, but most of them (the BBH ones, anyway) are outlandish to the point of self-parody. (The infamous "Guy Wash" spot from BBH New York is like something out of Austin Powers.) But in the flood of imitation-Axe ads coming from the rest of the category, the results can be a little off. That's the case with Energy BBDO's work for Dial's Magnetic men's body wash. Print ads like the one above, and this "slumpbuster" one, err on the side of meathead-ish. The videos on the Web site (two of them are posted below) are better, with more of a sense of humor, though the NYC group-sniffing event is weird, and gets more so when the MC tells the women they've been "gang-sniffed" by the guys in the bathrobes. Turns out it's not so easy to do this stuff well after all. UPDATE: Here's one of the TV spots, which has a lot of singing and for some reason seems to target married couples. |
|
Published on August 10, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (3)
|
Old Spice Swagger ads are scientifically iffy
The guys at Old Spice make good deodorant, but they're piss-poor scientists. Their test subject in the "Arm vs. Arm" spot above had obvious advantages beyond whatever he used to make his armpits smell nice. And the guy whose arm withers in the spot below clearly had some sort of pre-existing condition. There are two more spots here (all are from Wieden + Kennedy), and they seem rigged as well. (Surely that martial artist's third arm wasn't a complete surprise.) Still, a little embellishment is worth it if you're trying to get people to make their own Old Spice Swagger ads for a chance at $10,000. However, I'm not sure if that prize money is enough to buy "helicopters made entirely of diamonds and nuclear-powered toothbrushes," though. So, don't go to Old Spice for accounting, either. |
|
Published on August 3, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
The perfect gift for people who stink all over
Add Doc Bottom's Aspray to the list of products we hope are elaborate pranks, because we refuse to believe the market was crying out for a questionably named aerosol deodorant. A guy named Doc Bottom should be making toilet-seat covers or gay porn, not an all-over body spray. Still, kudos to that "contractor" for admitting on television that his butt stinks, though why anyone would be crouching down to smell it is beyond us. The product's Web site seems legit, though, so head over to customer service and ask why a grown man would call himself Doc Bottom. |
|
Published on July 27, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Tampax perfect for guys who have girl parts
Is Tampax marketing to guys now? If not, there isn't much point to this bizarre 12-minute ad from Leo Burnett in which a boy wakes up with "girl parts ... down there." Don't get us wrong, periods are nothing to be ashamed of, and guys should be understanding about that time of the month. But those are messages that can be conveyed in under a minute, aren't they? This video has its moments, and it's nice to see P&G trying interesting stuff, but it feels more like the pitch for a bad sitcom than an ad designed to sell stuff. That said, we'd still like to see the reverse, where a girl wakes up with guy parts and quickly learns to fear tetherball. |
|
Published on June 19, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (7)
|
The wait is over: Wipe your butt with a stick
I don't care what YouTube says, this infomercial for the "Comfort Wipe" can't be real. My mind won't allow it to be. For God's sake, it starts off by asking how much we're all sick of folding toilet paper, as if we would all nod our heads and agree that, yes, the whole process is a savage antiquity. We're then expected to accept that wiping with a fancy stick is a bold step forward in our personal sanitary habits. No. This is not right. A fat guy cannot cite "advantages" to being fat and in the same breath acknowledge that he needs help sanitizing his crevasse, at which point the voiceover says the product helps people retain their dignity. I keep looking for The Onion's logo in the corner, and it's not there. And I weep. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
|
Published on June 12, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (8)
|
Japan hits the gutter with bikini-bowling ad
This completely insane Japanese ad, promoting some kind of hair-removal product, raises an interesting point: How the hell did America miss the boat on bikini body bowling? That pretty much sums up everything we currently like about television, except for a vacuous celebrity host, who would be easy enough to add in place of that armpit-hair closeup. I'd be more than happy never seeing that again. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
|
Published on May 18, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
The greatest, most heroic shampoo ad ever
This commercial from Lowe Bangkok for Clear shampoo gets to the very heart of the age-old human-vs.-dandruff struggle: It's an epic, poetic, otherworldly battle between ice-arrow-wielding brunette warrior-hairs and freaky white exploding dandruff fairies. This is the kind of stuff that makes Gillette's space-age razor ads look folksy. If it's intentionally campy, it's great. If it's meant to be serious, it's even better. And just try to make sense of the voiceover: "From black into darkness, shadows see follicles bent and broke and slivers of sparks as dark and dandruff collide. Rage, rage against her breath of fear! Now frozen, silence marks the danse macabre. And into the dark, the icy blackness follows." |
|
Published on April 28, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (11)
|
Dove finding real beauty on Upper East Side
While you might not immediately make the connection between Gossip Girl's uproariously shallow beauties and Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, Dove will illuminate everything this coming Monday, April 27, with the launch a series of documercials about four real girls whose lives and posh outfits mirror those of GG's privileged characters. Check the trailer above—it's just like the Real Housewives, but aimed at teens. The clips will air exclusively during Gossip Girl and online, where you can also catch the girls' blogs. In typical Dove brand fashion, all four girls appear scrubbed clean of makeup, but for some unspecified reason, the particular product they're pushing is Go Fresh Body Wash in Burst, which I can only assume helps you burst onto the scene smelling like nectarines. According to the press release, I'm right. It helps girls "start their days with a burst of energy and inspiration." The connection to the product on the Web site is tenuous at best, and seems to boil down to a peachy color scheme. I'm not entirely sure why they picked a single product at all. But who cares? Free gossipy content masquerading as a Dove commercial, I dig. Via Y Pulse. |
|
Published on April 23, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (3)
|
If you need the Body Snake, you need help
The phrase "Body Snake" brings to mind all sorts of perverse imagery, but never fear—it's just a goofy sponge for people who are too fat and stupid to clean themselves. According to this infomercial, it eliminates stumbling and fumbling (and outright falling down) in the shower and is proudly made in America—as if any other people on earth would need a product like this. Seriously, if areas beyond your reach include your "bottom" and "between your legs," you need NutriSystem before any newfangled sponges. |
|
Published on April 21, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (9)
|
Creativity a staple of China's butt-cream ads
Continuing our (well, OK, my) butt theme, here's a hemorrhoid-cream magazine ad from China that's actually somewhat subtle with its message. Binding the ad into the middle of the book allows the small staple to symbolize the discomfort of hemorrhoids. I suppose it's still a little unpleasant to come across a giant butt while you're reading. But at least it's not an ad for staple removers. Via Ads of the World. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
|
Published on April 17, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (1)
|
Danish bathroom ads dispense with nuance
(Larger image here, if you're so inclined.) It only took 10 years, but Goatse has broken into mainstream advertising courtesy of these public toilet-paper dispensers from Denmark, sponsored by Silk Soft and credited to an ad agency called By Far. (The goal, apparently, was to get across the idea that Silk Soft is 100 percent recycled.) There have certainly been ad parodies referencing ol' hello.jpg before, but this is the most direct homage to date. It also doesn't make any sense, from what I've gathered about the mechanics of toilet paper over the years. But logic has never stopped the fall of man before, and it's not likely to start now. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
|
Published on April 16, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (9)
|
Schick Quattro helps women trim the bush
Commercials often use obtuse metaphors and bizarre analogies in the hopes of selling an otherwise boring product. So, you have to appreciate an ad like this Schick Quattro for Women spot, which doesn't really beat around the bush. Yeah, I said it. UPDATE: The spot below is even more straightforward. —Posted by David Griner |
|
Published on April 3, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (20)
|
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 |
|
Published on April 2, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (9)
|
Errol Morris plugging his-and-hers Depends
Errol Morris fires up his famed Interrotron interviewing machine (which he used for the Apple "Switchers" campaign and some pro-Obama election ads, among other efforts) for these JWT ads promoting the new gender-specific Depend adult undergarments. The technique is usually effective, but here the questions posed, designed to highlight the differences between men and women (e.g., "Who are better drivers?"), are so shopworn that the spots end up feeling tiresome. The marketing campaign is supposedly the largest in the history of the Kimberly-Clark brand, and Morris's involvement speaks to the emphasis on presenting Depend users as plainspoken, everyday folks. Unfortunately, there's no Ellen Feiss character to liven things up. |
|
Published on April 1, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (3)
|
That old flame will be cursing Pond's cream
The smarmy good looks, leering glances and intensely smoldering accent of the lead actor in this Pond's spot by Bassat Ogilvy are almost hypnotic. He could be last guy they cut before picking a better actor to play the next James Bond. In the ad, he and an old flame (Octopussy?) show up to look at the same penthouse. When he tells her, "It's the perfect flat for one. Or maybe even two," I thought his over-emoting might knock her flat on her back—a perilous position with that creep in striking range. Thankfully, she remains upright, and her new beau arrives, leaving "The Guy Who Loved Me" to pull a final sad face that makes it look like he's been sucking on a lemon. It's a cute spot tagged "Fix you past," though "Fix your cast" could also apply. |
|
Published on April 1, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (1)
|
Hair-removal brand enjoys George W.'s exit
Not many companies can legitimately use the headline "Goodbye Bush" this week and have it refer to both the outgoing American president and their own product. Hair-removal brands are among the lucky few who can. Veet, maker of hair-removing waxes and creams, finds itself on the right side of history with this simple ad from Euro RSCG Australia, running today in Australia's Sydney Daily Telegraph. See the actual placement here, which benefits from a big photo of Obama up top. (As a side note, Australia is actually getting pretty good at ads that refer obliquely to women's anatomy, having also enjoyed—or not—Kotex's notorious beaver tampon ad.) When it comes to Bush removal, we're now just waiting to hear from the landscaping companies. UPDATE: A commenter points out that Playboy TV has a whole big "No More Bush" thing going on this month. |
|
Published on January 21, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (3)
|
What? Still washing your crotch with soap?
—Posted by David Griner |
|
Published on October 20, 2008 | Permalink
| Comments (12)
|
Emeril, Crest serve up a half-baked contest
—Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
|
Published on September 17, 2008 | Permalink
| Comments (2)
|
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 |
|
Published on September 10, 2008 | Permalink
| Comments (1)
|
Impress your stepdaughter with great hair
|
|
Published on September 8, 2008 | Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
