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The Axe brand in the new media
This document consists of pieces of text about the Axe brand from web sites and blogs as
a result of viral marketing.
Unilever site:
Commitment to quality – we’re no. 1 & we’re just
getting started
Getting the girl has never been easier, thanks to the AXE effect. As devoted users know,
women can’t resist ANYONE wearing those great fragrances! AXE’s commitment to
helping guys has led it to become the No. 1 one male deodorant brand in North America.
It is the fastest growing retail brand ever - reaching $100 million in sales in under three
years. Our commercials and advertisements have been recognized as some of the
industry’s best--winning dozens of marketing awards including the Guerilla Marketer of
the Year Award (2002, Brandweek) and Most Innovative Marketing Program Award
(2002, Business 2.0).
History – Europe’s little secret spells success for American men!!!
Ever since AXE deodorant bodyspray launched in the US in 2002, the rules of the dating
game have changed. A long standing secret in Europe (and you thought it was the
accents) where it got its start in the 1980s, AXE now includes deodorant bodysprays,
anti-perspirant sticks and new shower gel.
Axe Body Spray
From ProductWiki, free unbiased product reports for the consumer.
Axe is a deodorant body spray from Unilever that is famous for its attention grabbing
advertisements that have introduced the two phrases "The Axe Effect" and "Bam Chica
Wah Wah". The body spray released in North America in 2002, but has been available
around the world since 1974 when it was introduced in South Africa under the Ego
brand. With its aggressive advertising campaign Unilever has made Axe the best selling
body spray in the world.
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2005-11-16 http://gamepolitics.livejournal.com/132897.html
Axe Marketing Tour Sparks Game Protest at
University
Watch it fellas; you could lose your Mojo...
As reported in the Daily Emerald, female students at the
University of Oregon staged a protest at an on-campus
marketing event held to promote the mens' fragrance Axe.
Chanting protesters surrounded a tent set up on campus by the Axe P.R. team. The
demonstration was in response to Mojo Master, a "fantasy game of seduction" in which
players try to score with 100 different women in 7 different cities. The game is offered as
a free download on the Axe website.
"We feel that it portrays sexism in that all women are highly sexualized and objectified,"
said sophomore Heather North. "We feel that their presence should not be here on
campus."
"We are here to promote healthy and respectful relationships, and really not support the
rape culture and misogyny inherent in this video game, said male doctoral student Amit
Shahane.
"I asked (the Axe employees) if they had a game in which I could pick up on men and
they said they hadn't developed that yet," said senior Diana Erskine.
Nearly two-dozen protesters carried signs reading "F*ck the white, patriarchal,
heterosexist, capitalist PARADIGM," "My body is NOT a game!" and "'Mojo Master' is
lame"
As far as Axe goes, GP harkens back to the words of Computer Gaming World editor
Robert Coffey, who served up the ultimate description of the stuff in a recent column
about this silly game:
"...a substance that will make you smell like a strip club bathroom attendant's worn and
spattered Hush Puppies."
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http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/774324/Brand-Republics-top-stories-2007/
7 Beauty backlashes
When it comes to ad claims, the cosmetics industry has had a fair few brushes with the
ASA. This year it was L'Oreal's turn for a dressing down after one eagle-eyed viewer
complained that Penelope Cruz was wearing false eyelashes in L'Oreal's Telescopic
Mascara TV spot.
While Dove manufacturer Unilever got on the right side of public opinion in May by
banning size zero models from its advertising. However, it stumbled when the latest
Dove viral campaign provoked calls of hypocrisy from those who said the message
conflicted with Unilever's Lynx/Axe marketing.
"Onslaught", the follow-up to the lauded "evolution", juxtaposed a little girl with
hundreds of cosmetic advertising images, with the message "Talk to your daughter before
the beauty industry does". One video response used Lynx/Axe advertising images of
scantily-clad women instead with the message "Talk to your daughter before Unilever
does".
----------------------------------------------------------------http://wheresthesausage.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/10/my-favourite-br.html
The Axe/Lynx story comes from Latin America. The team saw that consumption per
capita in one market (Argentina) was much higher than another (Brazil). When they dug
into this, the reason seemed to be young guys spraying their whole body, not just under
their arms. This led to a campaign called "Spray More, Get More" which encouraged allover usage with the promise of, er, more sex.
The brilliant ad has a bloke spraying Lynx/Axe on the coat stand, and his girlfriend pole
dancing round it as a result. He then sprays it down his chest towards his, er, private
parts. And the girl follows.
This built the business quite significantly, making the core business stronger. Much better
quality growth than that from adding new products.
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http://www.coolmarketingthoughts.com/2006/09/23/axe-wings-of-an-angel/
Axe: Wings Of An Angel
By Miel Van Opstal
This is a very very cool design for an AXE promotion. It tops many ad campaigns with
its strong visual. A picture that’s good enough for winning prizes in professional shows.
Art, photography and advertising melt together. The story behind this visual is this one:
“the ultimate sacrifice for an angel is to give up his/her wings and become a mortal
human being. Wearing AXE, you’ll be so ‘darn hot’ that beautiful angels like the one
pictured below will sacrifice their wings to be with you.”. [Southern Accent] dammit
wheres my boots? [end Southern Accent]. Impressive picture, really.
Title: Fallen Angel
Title: Fallen Angel
Agency: Lowe Bull, South Africa
Creative Director: Gareth Lessing
Art Directors: Tatjana Buisson, Gareth Lessing
Copywriter: PJ Eales
Photographer: Jason R
Retoucher: Gareth Lessing
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http://tangerinetoad.blogspot.com/2007/11/dove-gets-axe-effect.html
plus YouTube film “Talk to your daughter before Unilever does”
23 Sep, 2006 at 11:11 pm Marketing, Advertising, Campaigns
It was sort of inevitable.
At some point, people were going to figure out that Dove was made by Unilver. And that
despite the high-minded messaging of the Cannes-award winning Dove viral videos,
Unilever, the parent company, still made a whole mess of products that perpetuated the
"beauty myth" the Dove advertising bemoans.
Now Axe is certainly one of those products, though it's clear (to me anyway) that the
message is pretty tongue-in-cheek. I'm far more bothered that Unilever makes a skinlightening cream for women in India. (Or so sayeth my fellow blogger, High Jive, who is
very up on these sorts of things.)
So Exhibit A is the YouTube video above, a mash-up of Axe ads and the latest Dove
video, "Onslaught." It was put together by a planner at the Martin Agency and it's already
logged over 40,000 hits.
Exhibit B is this article in Ad Age, about the backlash, which, it seems, has even included
editorials in newspapers like the Boston Globe.
My take: It's too easy for us to forget that the megabrands we deal with come with a
history. And with a parent company. Dove is Unilever. It's not some homemade soap
that's only sold in Whole Foods. There's a lot of history, a lot of older ads featuring the
very same unrealistically airbrushed models they're now whining about, and (of course) a
parent company that's one of the prime villains behind "The Beauty Myth."
And while I very much appreciate the sentiment behind the Dove campaign, it was
foolish of them to think they could launch that positioning without acknowledging their
parentage and their past.
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http://1over100.com/tag/the-axe-effect/
Hillary Gets The AXE In Chicago and New York
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
I was just about to go to bed when I got an email from a woman at Edelman, the PR firm
that represents Unilever, maker of AXE body spray. She had read my post on the Frank
Fairey DIY Obama poster (Barack Obama Has A Posse), and sent me a preview of 2 ads
that will run in the major newspapers of Chicago and New York tomorrow, taking full
advantage of the Super Tuesday media frenzy.
The ads aren’t
great. They’re
not overly clever
or well art
directed. But
they’ll get some
attention, and
that’s really what
AXE and
Unilever want. I
know that
politicians are
public domain
when it comes to
satire and
comedy, but this
is beyond
controversial, using a politician-in-the-running to push a product. There will be many
letters and emails for and against this (but mostly against), and of course confused voters
who will believe Hillary Clinton is actually endorsing AXE (or Obama / McCain). I’ll be
watching to see if any of the candidates mock Hillary for it. I’ll be even more interested
to see if Hillary attacks Unilever for these ads. I’m not sure what good it will do for AXE,
other than get people talking about the brand. But will the right people be talking, and
will they buy the product? That remains to be seen.
What impresses me is that Edelman is digging a bit deeper to get this out there, and create
an underlying buzz through the little bloggers, like me. Or maybe it just stroked my
blogger’s ego to receive acknowledgment of readership. I feel so used, yet so happy! Let
the controversy begin.
SIDEBAR: I talk a bit about Unilever’s split personality branding of both Dove and AXE
in this Social Media Today podcast.
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http://marketingpractice.blogspot.com/2007/07/axe-axe-effect.html
Axe : The Axe Effect
I was delaying writing about this brand for the reason that I doubted whether I will be able to do
justice to my favorite brand. An Icon for sure Axe is a success story that is so difficult to emulate.
One can only marvel and enjoy.
Axe has got every thing perfect for its success, It got its
segments correct, the targeting was exemplary and
Positioning : something to drool for. And more over Luck
was on its side.
Axe was born in France in the Year 1983. 24 years later, this
brand is Unilever's Best selling brand worldwide. It has an
iconic status in whichever market it has entered. It is also one
of the rare brands which can boast of replicating its entire marketing mix across geographical
boundaries. The campaigns that you see in India is what the entire world is watching. For those
who propound Glocalisation , AXE is an exception.
Axe deo was launched in India during 1999. The brand launch was very quiet and theoretically
the brand was having the strategy of Slow Skimming i.e High Price Low Promotion. Axe at that
time was the leading men's deo brand in Europe and was popular in India in the Grey market (
available in duty paid shops) .HLL may have launched this brand inspired by the volume of Axe
sold in the Grey market. At that time, the deo market was a nascent one with an estimated market
size of Rs 72 crore. HLL had the brands Denim and Rexona and was ruling the market. Axe was
priced at a premium above the Denim brand which was positioned as a male deo brand.
Axe initially was launched in the fragrance Java, Alaska and Atlantic. HLL did not bother to fine
tune its Promotional mix to Indian market but just imported the promotions .... meaning, the
company just ran the ads which was popular in the Europe and other markets. At that time , the
product was also imported from Europe. And IT CLICKED.... rest as they say is History...
Axe in 2002 was having a market share of over 35% and soon HLL phased out Denim brand to
concentrate on this Star.
Axe is the naughtiest brand in the Indian market. The brand is
targeted at male aged 16-25 . Internationally this brand
targets male aged 15-25. I personally feel that it targets all
'Young at heart" naughty guys. The brand has its brand
values of Cool, Fashionable and Stylish. And world over, the
brand sticks to its core values. The biggest strength of this
brand is the underlying message or the DNA which is that the
brand users are High on Confidence and always for the Axe
users, Girls Makes The First Move. I think the biggest
competitive advantage of this brand is its complete monopoly over this brand proposition. All its
campaigns revolve round this central theme of Seduction where Girl makes the first move.
I think it has lot of subliminal implications. The brand assumes that Men wants( Likes) to be
Seduced . That feeling ( of being seduced) gives a big boost of self confidence to a man.
Although many brands take this proposition, Axe just made it perfect.
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I have seen lot of ads where girls are seen drooling over Hunks in Motorcycle or in Readymades,
or even in Innerwears, but in most of the Axe ads, there are no Hunks, only very ordinary or even
skinny kind of people getting assaulted by beautiful girls. That makes the brand more
approachable. Had Axe used a Hunk, the promotions couldn't have been so effective. The brand
managers were so wise that when they used a celebrity like Ben Affleck, They ensured that the
brand is made approachable
See the TVC here : My Favorite Axe ad
Having said that, The males seen in Axe commercials are not Losers: the ads are careful to show
them as confident ( in one way or other) or a better term will be self assured. That is ultimate
execution.
The power of this Big Idea has ensured that Indian consumers lap up the foreign commercials
without any hitch. I don't remember any India centric ad for Axe especially in Television. And
Indian consumers are not complaining either.
Along with these , the brand also ensured that customers are constantly engaged with new
fragrances and campaigns. In 2005, Axe had a high profile launch of its new fragrance CLICK
and before that there was Axe Land campaign and followed by Axe-Academy then Axe Voodoo
and the latest one Phenomenon. I have tried most of the fragrances and not all of them are good,
but I try it because I like the brand. That is the power of brand.
Axe is one of the rare brands that has embraced new media to the maximum extent. The brand
has started its Internet based marketing initiative in India with Axe Land which involved a virtual
trip to the Axe world. Globally also this brand has lot of online initiatives which are almost
always naughty.In UK the Axe is marketed as LYNX.Checkout the cool web initiatives of this
brand :
and also a blog called Evan and Gar
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http://hubpages.com/hub/a-little-bom-chicka-wah-wah-never-hurt-anybody
There's a kinda whiny op-ed about Dove bars versus Axe body spray in this morning's
Globe. Poet Michelle Gillett writes:
"Viewers are struggling to make sense of how Dove can promise to educate girls on a
wider definition of beauty while other Unilever ads exhort boys to make 'nice girls
naughty' and assure them, 'the more you spray, the more you get' in the Axe deodorant
body spray ads. The female models in those ads do not come in a variety of shapes and
sizes like the ones in the Real Beauty ads. Axe is promoted by the Bom Chicka Wah
Wahs, a fictional all-female singing group dressed in lingerie, fish net stockings, and
stilettos, whose lyrics suggest, 'If you have that aroma on, you can have our whole
band.'"
I remember when the "Axe Effect" spots started coming out, and they played them before
the previews at the movies. I had gone to a matinee in Davis Square--The Departed--and
it was me, and, like, five lesbian couples in the movie theater, and they ran that brilliant
ad with the armies of bikini-clad babes on a frantic race to the beach. When the three
armies (blond, brunette, and redhead, I think) converge, at the end, we see they will battle
over a lone geek, spraying himself with Axe. "Spray More. Get More. The Axe Effect."
I laughed and laughed. But all I heard behind me were tongue clucks and eye-rolls (and,
yes, I could actually hear the eyes rolling, that's how dried-up this crowd was), along
with comments like, "yeah, right," and "you wish."
But that's part of the fun of these ads. They're so over-the-top. All of the " Axe Effect"
and "Bom Chicka Wah Wah" ads are based on the same premise. Geeky guy, gorgeous
girl(s). But it's gloriously tongue-in-cheek. It's supposed to play on the pin-up fantasies of
teen-age boys. (I will say that with the full-length music video the Bom Chicka Wah Wah
girls have definitely jumped the shark--kind of like the Geiko cavemen getting their own
sitcom.)
Axe's best ads are outrageous good fun. Like this one. Some are clever plays on gender
and sex, like this one. Some are even poignant. When Axe launched a "longer-lasting"
formula, they came out with this ad. They also have a line of underwear, by the way.
Here's a brilliant ad for their "built-to-stretch" boxer-briefs.