Dove tests a beauty placebo. So what?

I'm with Jezebel on this one. Dove's new ad idea is pretty bad:



Not only that, but it's patronizing. With Oprah-esque music and hushed tones of concern, it has a "Psychologist and Body Image Expert" tell a bunch of women that they will be testing a patch that improves their own perceptions of their beauty. They are asked to document their feelings and experiences.

Big surprise! They report feeling better about themselves. Then they are told they've been had, in childish fairy-tale fashion, that the real beauty was within them the whole time!

And this proves what? That people are easy to manipulate? That Dove really wants all women to feel beautiful? You can achieve a placebo effect with all kinds of things. But the real challenge isn't to trick women into having a more positive body image; it's to do something about the negative image they had in the first place.

Interestingly, Unilever (maker of Dove) has been selling men an empty placebo to make them feel attractive for years. It's called Axe, and let's see how it celebrates female body image:



Perhaps it's time for Dove marketing to dismount its high horse. "Evolution" was a great campaign. This one, however, is unconvincing and kind of insulting.

Now here's a sport I can get behind!

...because I'm sure as hell not getting in front of these people:



Okay, so the "OMG, a girl is beating the boys!" cliché is kind of weak, but this is still an awesome idea for a backyard league. This skill would also come in handy at certain meetings.

Via Toronto Egotist

Lynx offers to help you "cure" gay women

This silly little promotion is on the Lynx Hong Kong Facebook page. But it has a shady context.

Cecil Chao is the Hong Kong billionaire who has offered a $65 million "marriage bounty" to any man who marries his daughter, Gigi Chao.

Gigi, 33, has a longterm relationship with another woman, who she wed via civil partnership in France earlier this year.

So to recap, Lynx/Axe would like you lads to know that drenching yourself in that stank is a surefire way to "convert" lesbians.

Total dick move.

Tip via Neil Hopkins, who shared the story from AdAge

Axe says men are their hair, women are their cleavage

This Axe ad is extra weird: a disembodied male haircut falls in lust with some disembodied breasts:



But is its message true?

A 2012 study by Think Eye Tracking showed men and women these two photos:

Here's a "heat map"which shows how women stared at the image:

Here's the same, for men:

Red is "hot," meaning that those parts were stared at most intensely. Green is just a glance. (And I have no idea why they couldn't use a shot of a man looking at the camera.)

Here is the conclusion:

Women pay more attention to his left hand; he is wearing a wedding ring. Men are less interested in the marital status of the young lady and pay more attention to her face, breasts and stomach. 

Whereas the women looked at her bikini the men are frankly just not interested in what she is wearing! This level of detail would be impossible to gain from traditional market research techniques of asking people what they remember looking. 

As I said, people don’t always tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Few men would have volunteered that they looked at the man’s assets partly because it’s a social taboo but also because glances can happen so quickly that they simply did not register in the conscious mind. 

In the same way that participants who take part in research often don’t have clear insight into why they make decisions.

Interestingly, another study using sexually explicit images, found:

...men are more likely than women to first look at a woman's face before other parts of the body, and women focused longer on photographs of men performing sexual acts with women than did the males. 

Gender stereotyping: it's complicated.

Tip via AdFreak

Lynx/Axe runs out of dumb ideas, starts recycling #FdAdFridays

The Drum just posted a "new" campaign by Lynx body wash, a parody infomercial featuring a female tennis star telling men how to keep their balls clean.

If it seems familiar, it is:

That one is from two years ago. I guess they've finally run out of puns.

Playboy's late-life identity crisis

Poor old Playboy doesn't know what to be in the 21st Century.

Founded as somewhat of a countercultural icon for affluent and educated men almost 60 years ago, it played an important (if one-sided) part in the Sexual Revolution and spoke out against McCarthyism. In the '60s, it matured into a brand for the wannabe martini set. But by the '70s, hardcore pornography took away its more horny audiences as it maintained its relevance through top-notch interviews and celebrity pictorials. In the '80s, it was all about video.

Now, here we are in the digital age. Pictures of naked women are abundant and free. So is interesting and subversive content. So what's left for Playboy?

I think their biggest problem is that sex, culture and politics are no longer a man's exclusive domain. Playboy will never be able to shake its basically sexist brand character, and who wants to be associated with that?

The douchebag market, that's who. Young men who read Maxim and wear Axe.

To compete with Maxim, Playboy launched The Smoking Jacket, an online ladmag that covers culture, entertainment and boobies with a less overtly-pornographic, teasing style. Fellow adblogger Steve Hall, from Adrants, is one of the contributors. (He pens a "sexy ads of the week" column.)

And Axe?

Check out this Playboy shower gel ad by DDB Paris:



Yeah, it's a shitty ad. It's also extremely creepy. Can you imagine how a young woman would feel if a strange man, alone with her in the elevator, hit the emergency button? She'd be expecting the worst.

I don't really know if Playboy has a future as a serious brand. It could be that, in a few years, it will only survive as a logo worn ironically (or desperately) by attention-seeking young women.

What do you think?

The complete Axe guide to horrible female stereotypes

Earlier this week, I shared the lameness that was Axe's "trick the smart girl into boning you" ad.

What bad body wash and low self esteem will get you.

Today, Adrants shared the rest of the series of Axe ads based on female stereotypes:









Notice something strange about the series as a whole? While the "Brainy Girl" ad was about the douchey Axeman manipulating his date into thinking he cared about her cultural interests, it seems the theme of the ads was supposed to be about long-suffering boyfriends who will do anything for sex.

To recap:

Sporty Girls are turned on by violently competitive jerks.
Flirty Girls dig threesomes with meek men.
High Maintenance Girls want a total doormat.
Party Girls want guys who do lots of really hard stimulant drugs.

And apparently, Brainy Girls like great big frauds.

What's strange is that the "Brainy Girl" is the only one who isn't a completely inconsiderate bitch. Why does she deserve an Axe douche for a boyfriend?

'Tis one of the great mysteries of advertising.

Axe believes that even "brainy" women are this dumb

Look! She has glasses! She must be one a them intullekshul chicks!

Axe plays to the cheap seats with this story about a dumbass who tricks a thespian into being impressed by his commitment to the theatre. Presumably, she will jump his bones immediately upon exiting the venue so that he doesn't get the chance to blow it by actually attempting to talk about what happened on stage.



Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that this joke about tricking women into bed is an old and established trope. And Axe is not exactly a progressive brand. But this stupid ad insults every woman — and most of the men— I know.

At least put some effort into your sexism, Axe.

Via Adrants

F'd Ad Fridays: Axe goes equal opportunity horndog

It's a refreshing change, actually. To promote its new line of fragrance that comes in both male and female versions, Axe has dropped the scantily-clad angels and bikini models to focus a little more on chemistry. Completely fucked-up chemistry, but at least it's less one-sided.

In both the print and TV executions, couples become instantly infatuated with each other's odour, ignoring all danger and common sense. And as these sex zombies move towards the oblivion of locking genitals (the spell only seems to work on straight people) they basically cause armageddon (and clown holocaust).



All that over a body spray.

Via Ads of The World

Move over Axe, women prefer the smell of liquor

Poland's Zubrowka Vodka would like you to know that the scent women really go crazy for is liquor:



In this pretty hamfisted Axe parody, they somehow smell the vodka over the dude's bad body spray chemical warfare. Which is amazing, because I thought the whole point of drinking vodka was that it was the "no-tell liquor".

Must be the grass.

Moral of the story: liquor is quicker?

Via Illegal Advertising

Now there's an Axe ad that gets straight to the point

If you can't laugh at yourself, you lose at life. I'm glad to see some of the Axe marketers doing something stupid and lighthearted.

Via the Portuguese Axe Facebook page. Thanks to Armando for sharing.

"Degrading" Lynx ads banned in UK

According to Adfreak, a series of online ads for Lynx (Axe) deodorant have been banned by the UK's ad authority for implying that "using the advertised product would lead to more uninhibited sexual behaviour" and concluded, "we therefore considered that the poster would be seen to make a link between purchasing the product and sex with women and in so doing would be seen to objectify women."

While I find the ads juvenile and tasteless, I'm not sure I buy the ASA definition of how women are objectified in the ads. For example, in the ad above there is no doubt in my mind that the model, Lucy Pinder, is being sexually objectified. But I don't think it's Lynx's laughable claim that it will get you laid by ladmag models that does it. It's the way the model presents her T&A to the camera with a porno stare, with the joke about premature ejaculation. (Which I find pretty funny, given the youthful target market.)

I'm sure anti-rape groups will also be outraged at the implication that it's okay for a man to "lose control" when he sees a woman sexualized like this. But in context of the other ads in the campaign, the pun is made more clear:

I just find the ads irresponsible and degrading to their young male masturbathlete target market as they are to the model (who is at least getting paid). But I still think banning them is the wrong idea. Better to just expose this crap for what it is — lazy, sexist advertising.

It's the end of the world as I know it, and I smell bad

Copyranter and AOTW shared this bit of apocalyptic partying, via Argentina.



At least it didn't have any goddamn angels in it.

F'd Ad Fridays: Axe says "Boo(bs)" with Halloween zombie vid

She's coming from inside the house!

So, Axe gives us some Halloween horror laced with T&A and a bit of zombie humour. They've done worse.



Via Adrants

F'd Ad Fridays: Rugby explained with slo-mo closeups of jiggling, oiled female flesh

It also has them grappling each other—and themselves.

Axe/Lynx: Putting the "ass" in "classy advertising" since 1983.

Via Illegal Advertising

Axe turns a single sexual pun into more than a minute of online ad

Because Canadian history and identity are so entwined with the humble little Castor canadensis, we're pretty used to these kinds of jokes. So, while this ad is somewhat funny at first, it could easily have been written by any hoser in Grade 9.



And here's my mental narrative:

Ha! "Beaver"! Oh, that history lesson is so awkwardly sexual when read over the sexy video. Oh, that was a good one! ... Okay, end now. ... Is that still going?

I guess that's why it has had <5K views in three months.

Smells like irony to me

AdFreak reports that a new browser app from Axe lets you spray away sites that "stink".

So great. Now the whole internet reeks of sexually desperate teenage boy.  Ewwww...

What happens when you mix Axe advertising, Big Brother, and a bunch of Dutch Angels?

Heaven on Earth, Apparently. It's a new online promotion by Axe in Netherlands and Belgium, which claims to show its "angels" living in a house, interacting in real-time on multiple webcams.

When I first checked in, one angel is doing a photoshoot while Lady Gaga plays:

Later, I saw two responding to fan texts:

The thing is giving me all kinds of prompts to sign up and log in, and interact, but despite the fact that they're angels it's not all that thrilling to be a voyeur in heaven.

Especially after the somewhat-NSFW promo video:



Link via Illegal Advertising.

UPDATE: My favourite Dutchman, Marc from Osocio, sent me this Google translation of  an Adformatie online article to explain how it works. I'll just clean it up a bit:

Axe Heaven on Earth is the first concrete result of a multi-year strategy that Unilever and Mindshare Media Republic has developed. Unilever Axe is a leader in digital communication.
 
According to senior brand manager Arjan Baars, the strategy "provides content that people can share and which enables them to interact." An important part of the strategy is also a cross-platform approach — our own brand sites are the starting points and we drop content on more platforms. "
 
Axe Heaven on Earth is a live 24 / 7 online format. In creatively elaborates upon the concept of the TV commercial (as "Angels Will Fall "from BBH London) for the new Excite scent. The commercial shows that even angels have fallen for the new fragrance.  For the next chapter, three of them have moved into "Heaven on Earth," a luxury villa where they lack nothing — except for the ideal man. 

Boys who feel they might be that "man" can sign up at the Axe website .

Seven webcams track the angels throughout the house, except in the bathroom. Initially, the vistor can only see two of these. But the more time they spend on the site, the more cameras they can "unlock". Whoever succeeds in mastering the "robo-cam" can unlock the secret feeds that  "come to places a man can only dream of dream. "


It is also possible to shorten unlocking times by sharing content on Facebook or Hyves. "That way we create social media value for Axe," says executive creative producer Arnold Rossum of Media Republic.

The activation campaign is an important role for social media. The angels are getting to know their fans through Twitter and Netlog.  It is also possible to make Skype calls to them and even send snailmail. (The most original mailed pieces are hung on the wall of fame in the house.)
 
Every day, one lucky guy is invited to visit Heaven on Earth. During the visit he participated in a "spicy" truth-or-dare game, which other viewers can watch live and influence.


Axe Heaven on Earth is an initiative of the Benelux Brand Activation Group (BAG), a collaboration with the Belgian agency Media Republic Ubiquity.

Not creepy at all, is it?