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Stephanie Preval

English 101-019

Analysis Essay

How successful are the Axe Commercials?

There are many ways one can advertise a product to entice a potential customer’s attention.

Such ways are written ads such as bulletin boards, word of mouth which is people telling one another

about a product, and lastly is commercials. Many factors play in determining a commercial’s success. It is

thriving by its ability to attract the public’s eye. For commercials there should be a story with beginning,

middle and end. It needs to take into consideration its signature message. With those criteria in mind,

how successful are the Axe commercials?

Unilever owns Axe along with other popular personal health care brands such as Dove, Vaseline,

and Sunsilk etc… Axe is a brand concentrating on selling grooming products-shower gels, body spray,

and deodorants-to the male population. In the UK, Australia, and Ireland, it is known as Lynx. It was first

introduced in France in 1983. For those who have never seen an Axe commercial, here is a brief

description of some of them.

In order to attract the viewer’s attention, the advertisement has to identify its audience. In The

Axe Effect commercial, billions of women compete with one another to get the man’s attention by

running through woods and swimming the ocean; all while wearing a bikini. Indeed this “show women

as animals” as Manara stated. But as it is seen, it is not their fault but that of the Axe spray. It makes

them rash. However, Tyrone’s opinion of said commercial was different. He was enticed by the many

breasts bouncing up and down in the bikini tops. He also said “I would not want to be that last man on

Earth being bombarded by a billion women. It will not be fun being jumped upon with all that weight”.
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The audience for this commercial is men, as for all Axe commercials. No woman would want to be

portrayed as animals. The director appeals to their sexuality, and their need to be appealing to women.

Although I am a woman, I side with the many men that find their ads to be amusing and sexual. I do not

feel bothered by them, it is merely entertainment. After all, in our new era, sex sells.

A wonderful commercial and one of my favorite of Axe commercials is the one for the

underwear. As expected it is sexual and hilarious. The mysterious music sets the mood to a “what will

happen” moment after they show the man, and then later on the woman entering. She then proceeds

to touch his well muscled body. The camera then changes to show their faces, in which the woman

raised her eyebrows. We then get another glance at the man’s underwear where the crotch area seems

to have grown to extreme proportions. Of course many reactions were “Oh my goodness” as we

believed the grown proportion was due to an erection. However we later found that we were too quick

to judge; his underwear did not stretch because of said erection but because the woman had pulled it.

This then leaves us flabbergasted for the fact that our minds had run to an inappropriate road regarding

this innocent ad. As I am sure you can deduct that this commercial was selling stretchable underwear

for men. After viewing that commercial, the thought “do not be too quick to judge” popped into my

head. I guess we can learn a thing or two from Axe commercials. In this commercial, we see how this

underwear will benefit the customer’s life.

The Axe commercial “Crashes” directed by Lynn Fox shows a handsome man riding his scooter

through the streets of Budapest causing women to crash into one another. The explosions of two

beautiful women create a third even more beautiful one. The concept fits well with the product Crash,

which is the mixture of two different scents into a third even better one. The women in this

advertisement were not dressed inappropriately as are in other Axe commercials. Maybe this had to do

with the fact that it was directed by a woman. Although she did an amazing job of marketing the Axe

and concept of the product, she contributes to the overall message that Axe convey to the public. The
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Axe commercials introduce women as the dominant sex while men are innocent bystanders who

happen to be using Axe. They appeal to the audience’s emotions of wanting to be sexually attractive to

women. My interviewee, Kaio said, “The message that I get from Axe is that if I use it, girls will rape me”.

Although he then later confesses that he does not use Axe, because many women do not like the smell.

But he loves the commercials.

It is a well known fact that Axe products do not sell because women do not like the smell. This

however does not stop the male audience from viewing them, or calling them “the best ads ever.”Many

may wonder about the commercials popularity when the market knows them to be a lie. Well the simple

answer is: Axe ads are attention grabbers, amusing and outrageous. One cannot helps but be enticed by

the overall portrayal. As a brand of Unilever, the commercials are “thought provoking yet entertaining”.

Axe is successful in attracting its audience with a small story, as well as being consistent with its

message.
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Work Cited

Marzuq, Manara. Personal. November 11, 2010

Miranda, Kaio. Personal. November 11, 2010

James, Tyrone. Phone. November 13, 2010

“Our advertising|Unilever Global” Unilever 2010

http://www.unilever.com/brands/ouradvertising/?WT.GNAV=Our_advertising

How to Make a Successful Television Commercial| eHow.com 2010

http://www.ehow.com/how_6389463_make-successful-television-commercial.html

Theresa, Howard. “A Nice-Smelling Man is Good to Find” USAToday July 17, 2005

http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/adtrack/2005-07-17-axe-track_x.htm