It really does make me wish for an axe.
I am really hating the Axe body spray commercials. I know they are being really sexist on purpose, and they think it's cute, and maybe it's "tongue-in-cheek," but no. I am this close to going out and trying to find a store that has samples of it, so I can find out how it smells and strenuously avoid anyone wearing it.
I'm not even going to mention the heteronormativity of these ads, even though a little wink in the non-hetero direction could have given them a touch of some actual self-aware cleverness. Considering the fact that the ads consist of scores of young women throwing themselves on a guy wearing the spray due to its scent being just that attractive, you'd think it would by pure chance attract a man or two as well. But then again, it may be a good thing they didn't go there, 'cause I'm sure if they had, they'd have done so in a denigrading fashion.
Anyway, according to reviews I've read online, the ads are trying to counter the attribution of "effeminacy" to males who engage in so-called metrosexual behavior (like buying cheap cologne, it seems). I guess dealing with that by saturating the ads in misogyny is the way to go--you can be metrosexual AND continue to hate women! Hurrah!
As such, the ads are basically a textbook in misogyny--again, I guess that's what they're going for, and we're supposed to find it amusing. The scary thing is that though the company insists its biggest customers are 18-24 year olds, the spray has a huge market among middle school boys, who in fact seem to take the ads at face value.
As mentioned previously, most of the ads consist of a guy spraying on the stuff, and a horde of attractive women immediately jumping all over him. "Women" is kind of a misnomer, though--the women's faces are usually not shown, and they are instantly reduced to a pile of female bodyparts--quite literally, as they fall all over the guy in a mess of torsos and limbs, with only the guy's face peering out. The "piling on" of the women also serves to show them as completely interchangeable; nothing more than female-shaped sex dolls.
The women are also of course deprived of any personality, or thought, or anything but their sexual function--which can easily be manipulated through the simple application of a spray.
The "Order of the Serpentine" commercial, dealing with Axe body wash, again reinforces the idea of women as disposable sexual objects--and ones that should be disposed of after the act, in fact. The commercial promises to rid men of "post-hook-up shame," ie, the traumatic event of realizing that the woman you had sex with while drunk was not as attractive as she ought to be for you to brag about it. The bodywash is then presented as a solution, with the implication that the man is now free to use various women as nothing more than warm penis pockets without even bothering to think of them as anything that can't simply be "washed off" afterwards.
Another commercial has a male voice asking if "we know where our daughters are," and again showing a young guy applying the spray to attract a bunch of Catholic school-girls. It fades out with the announcer breathlessly concluding, "our daughters, our sisters, are all at risk!" giving us the lovely old chestnut of women and their sexuality as male property. Again, yes, it's obviously riffing on the old "lock up your daughters and sisters" routine, but what it's specifically spoofing here is not so much the ridiculousness of the sentiment, but that that according to the commercial, they really are at risk, hah-hah. Additionally, considering the male confidential "our," the commercial seems to suggest that while keeping watch on your sisters/daughters, if you buy the spray, you might be having sex with women young enough to be your daughters. (There's another Axe commercial that touches on that, I think.) The commercial's not really aimed at anyone in that age demograophic--the main point is that the young guy is cheekily intruding onto other men's property by seducing their daughters--but since Axe is portrayed as all-powerful, that idea is still there.
Anyway, I know this isn't worth my time, but meh. I leave you with this.
I'm not even going to mention the heteronormativity of these ads, even though a little wink in the non-hetero direction could have given them a touch of some actual self-aware cleverness. Considering the fact that the ads consist of scores of young women throwing themselves on a guy wearing the spray due to its scent being just that attractive, you'd think it would by pure chance attract a man or two as well. But then again, it may be a good thing they didn't go there, 'cause I'm sure if they had, they'd have done so in a denigrading fashion.
Anyway, according to reviews I've read online, the ads are trying to counter the attribution of "effeminacy" to males who engage in so-called metrosexual behavior (like buying cheap cologne, it seems). I guess dealing with that by saturating the ads in misogyny is the way to go--you can be metrosexual AND continue to hate women! Hurrah!
As such, the ads are basically a textbook in misogyny--again, I guess that's what they're going for, and we're supposed to find it amusing. The scary thing is that though the company insists its biggest customers are 18-24 year olds, the spray has a huge market among middle school boys, who in fact seem to take the ads at face value.
As mentioned previously, most of the ads consist of a guy spraying on the stuff, and a horde of attractive women immediately jumping all over him. "Women" is kind of a misnomer, though--the women's faces are usually not shown, and they are instantly reduced to a pile of female bodyparts--quite literally, as they fall all over the guy in a mess of torsos and limbs, with only the guy's face peering out. The "piling on" of the women also serves to show them as completely interchangeable; nothing more than female-shaped sex dolls.
The women are also of course deprived of any personality, or thought, or anything but their sexual function--which can easily be manipulated through the simple application of a spray.
The "Order of the Serpentine" commercial, dealing with Axe body wash, again reinforces the idea of women as disposable sexual objects--and ones that should be disposed of after the act, in fact. The commercial promises to rid men of "post-hook-up shame," ie, the traumatic event of realizing that the woman you had sex with while drunk was not as attractive as she ought to be for you to brag about it. The bodywash is then presented as a solution, with the implication that the man is now free to use various women as nothing more than warm penis pockets without even bothering to think of them as anything that can't simply be "washed off" afterwards.
Another commercial has a male voice asking if "we know where our daughters are," and again showing a young guy applying the spray to attract a bunch of Catholic school-girls. It fades out with the announcer breathlessly concluding, "our daughters, our sisters, are all at risk!" giving us the lovely old chestnut of women and their sexuality as male property. Again, yes, it's obviously riffing on the old "lock up your daughters and sisters" routine, but what it's specifically spoofing here is not so much the ridiculousness of the sentiment, but that that according to the commercial, they really are at risk, hah-hah. Additionally, considering the male confidential "our," the commercial seems to suggest that while keeping watch on your sisters/daughters, if you buy the spray, you might be having sex with women young enough to be your daughters. (There's another Axe commercial that touches on that, I think.) The commercial's not really aimed at anyone in that age demograophic--the main point is that the young guy is cheekily intruding onto other men's property by seducing their daughters--but since Axe is portrayed as all-powerful, that idea is still there.
Anyway, I know this isn't worth my time, but meh. I leave you with this.