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Mark Williams
17 April 2007
English 131 A1
The Real “Axe Effect”
What is the one thing that every teenage boy, and man alike, always have on his mind?
There is no reason to state the obvious. Axe Body Spray, the leader in seducing young minds
away from reality and into the unfathomable depths of fantasy. This body spray advertisement
from Stuff Magazine focuses on the adage “sex sells”, to create a false image of sexual appeal
that the “Axe Effect” will bring the consumer.
This ad is without a doubt the most subtle of the whole line of Axe Body Spray
advertisements. Most display the “Axe Effect” in full form, with Axe-wearing males being
pursued by their attractive and ambitious female counterparts. This particular magazine
advertisement depicts a somewhat less direct message, but strong nevertheless. Based upon the
number on the door, “5C”, one would guess that the ad takes place in an apartment complex.
This creates an identity with which a majority of Americans can connect. As Ramamurthy
points out, “the process of association is one that actively involves the viewer in the production
of the meaning” (607). The reader in this case will associate the apartment building to that of
middle to lower class, or perhaps to a single man’s lifestyle. Even though they may not possess
Sean Connery’s celebrity status, Bill Gates’ wealth, or George W. Bush’s power, they are still
able to fulfill their fantasies by simply spraying their body with the “Axe Effect”. In a case study
by Anandi Ramamurthy, she analyzes an Elizabeth Taylor ‘Passion’ perfume ad. In her analysis,
she declared “Liz Taylor has obviously opened the bottle and unleashed ‘passion’, as though it is
a quantifiable thing which can be bottled and unleashed in this way” (604). The Axe body spray
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parallels her analysis, in that the body spray contains some magical potion which can be sprayed
onto the reader’s body to attract the opposite sex.
Regardless of its suggested power over women, anyone who has ever passed by someone
wearing this body spray would be overwhelmed with the person’s musk, almost unable to
breathe and function normally. Despite this supreme stench, people continue to purchase this
product because of the ideology their advertisements instill. By placing the “Take a Number”
spool on the door, the advertisement plays into the fantasy realm. It does not exactly depict
“sexual appeal”, but it does hint at this with a connotative meaning. Ramamurthy noted on this
topic, where photographic ads “have played an important role in the production of signs, that
have invested products with what Marxists have described as false meanings” (603). Number
spools are typically used for long lines at customer-service desks, whereas in the Axe ad the
spool represents how the body spray will make the user so sexually attractive that women will be
literally lining up at their door. The door itself in this situation is propped open, in an attempt to
create an invitation: “Come on in, I’m ready and waiting”. This is something that one would
never see in real life, yet the mortise of these two symbols exposes a fantasy for most men, and
of course everyone wants their fantasies fulfilled.
The full page body spray advertisement has only one actual reference to the product. The
door and number spool absorb the entire page, with the exception of a small, black spray bottle
in the lower right-hand corner, accompanied with the words: “The new longer lasting Axe
Effect”. As Ramamurthy points out, “all photographs are framed in production” (607), and the
photomontage in this ad is crucial in the selling of the product. The reader’s eyes are
immediately focused on the fantasy world and the sex appeal the Axe spray will bring to their
life. After they have developed a desire for this product, and pictured themselves with women
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lined up outside their door, they then glance at the rest of the ad to reveal what product is being
sold. By now, as Ramamurthy discusses, the alluring image conceals many other messages
about the context of production (606).
The Axe Body Spray advertisement does little to sell its product directly. Instead, the
company sells an ideology, one of sexual adventure and conquest. Thus, the power of suggestion
is the true seller in this advertisement. While deceitful, the marketing ploy is clever, and the ad
perfectly portrays the essence of the “Axe Effect”.
Works Cited
Axe Body Spray. Advertisement. Maxim Nov. 2006: 56.
<http://students.washington.edu/mwillz88/axe_ad.jpg>
Ramamurthy, Anandi. “Constructions of Illusion.” Reading Context. Ed. Gail Stygall. Boston:
Thompson Wadsworth, 2005. 601-634.
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Mark,
This analysis very effectively unpacks the Axe ad’s more subtle use of sexual connotation. It is
also quite sophisticated in its use of Ramamurthy to support its interpretation of the ad as well as
the sub-claims for the implications of the techniques the ad employs.
I have two suggestions for revising or extending this ad analysis, and it may suffice to pursue just
one. The analysis could benefit from extension on the aspect of falsity that the claim mentions.
The body paragraphs allude briefly to what is paved over, but the analysis as a whole would be
fuller with a more developed account of the ad’s paved-over reality, if only because the claim
gestures toward it. The other suggestion is to bring in some sense of how the audience is
involved in or affected by the ad’s sexual connotation. The end of the second paragraph alludes
to “advertising work,” but it might be worth it to make that concept more significant to this
analysis if it’s interested in the creation of false images and the implications of that.