I am a believer again (due apologies to Smashmouth)

Thanks to the below article being published in a newspaper, I have received a ton of mails, half of them hate-mail. It has been fun to go through each one and reply to them. It has also been exciting discussing the finer aspects of the 'Axeland' campaign among others and the changing landscape of the advertising industry with some knowledgeable ones.

One of the mails included a link to another Axe campaign that has apparently been the talk of the town in North America. Curious, I checked out the links and I must say....my belief in redemption has been restored.

The campaign titled "Game Killers" gets five stars from me not only because of the perfectly distilled insights into the frustrations of the alpha male but also the daring stand against the industry itself. Marketing of deodorants has long involved trying to scare the consumer into buying an aerosol can for himself. Commercials have shown the one not wearing a deo being shunned by his group while the one using it goes home with the chick. Needless to say, the latest ‘Axeland’ commercial has gone one step further (Refer to article below for more information). The ‘Game Killers’ campaign not only doesn’t intimidate the consumer but for once, it actually is on the consumer’s side. It doesn’t talk of using the deo to be the ‘cool dude’ at all. And that is where it goes against the grain of standard deo advertising.

My favourites will have to be the ‘British Accent Guy’ and ‘The Mess’ commercials. Absolutely hilarious and beautiful consumer connect.

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