Business Week embarks on the latest effort to fathom youth media practices. I have to give businesses credit for at least trying to understand youth, whereas the Left and Right continues to demonize young people and their use of social media. Though the article has some interesting insights, it uncritically profiles Axe deodorant’s global branding efforts, which I think produces the most distasteful and misogynistic ads on the market. (See the image above, which I photographed in NYC. It features exhausted women with imprints in their backs from presumably wild instantaneous sex ignited by Axe. But consider how the women are a) faceless (and thereby dehumanized), and b) appear to be victims of a violent act. ) Unfortunately Axe is successful at convincing young men who feel powerless that their new oder will make women instantly want to have sex with them. Great fantasy, but in principle, what a lousy reality! But hey, Axe is not the first to equate sex and deodorant, I just hope humanity can come to terms with making love as an act f beauty and not brutality.
But alas, it is so easy to pick on such examples of pure superficiality. I think there may be more interesting things to glean from the article, such is that kids are really the ones in charge these days.
In fact, a key to the global digital youth market is that, at least so far, the kids are in charge. They’re used to being pitched products; many of them welcome it. But they’re turned off by clumsy attempts to win their approval and pry away their money. In many cases, rather than being entertained by others, they’d prefer to do it themselves: Witness all those wacky videos on YouTube. This has major implications for how products and marketing programs are conceived, planned, and executed. “It’s going to change business and culture,” says Vicki Lynn, president of Satellite Events Enterprises, a company that stages online events. “The old hierarchical system is falling away. It’s now about the power of the people.”
What is so wrong about appealing to what the consumer likes? I have used axe for years mostly due to the product itself. I like the smell of it and it works as a deodorant. I also appreciate the ad campaign. It is funny, clever and appeals to what most men want. I can’t imagine that the users of their products actually believe that it will get them women. People, you need to get over your phobia about sex. It is a natural thing that should not be suppressed. We need more companies like Axe to buck up against “Bible Belt America”.
It is not anti-sex to criticize misogyny. As a male who is depicted in a position of power in the ads, it might seem difficult to see why women would feel degraded, but perhaps if the shoe was on the other foot you would feel differently. Imagine a series of ads in which men became slaves of women whenever they put on perfume. Now imagine that this is the dominant message of the past 3,000 years, and that you never see men in positions of power. You make less money than women, and you only recently received the right to vote. You are rarely depicted in a positive light other than your body as being your primary asset and tool of social mobility. Your mind would be irrelevant. How would that make you feel?
Art an advertising are always open to interpretation. It is funny to see what people make of certain things. You can tell a lot about a person by how they intemperate something. For example, I don’t see anything Misogynistic about this at all. How do you see them as slaves? If anything it is women empowerment, showing women going after what they want. Being a slave would be forcing someone to do something they don’t want. From all their advertisements you never get the feeling that these women are forced to do anything. They are driven by their own will. Usually they are aggressively seeking the male figure. If the inverse of the male and female roll was made in an advertisement I wouldn’t take any offense at all. I am sure it has already been done. You are grasping for an offense where there is none but if that offends you then have fun with the rest of your negative life.
I happen to love life (and if you read other posts on my blog, you would know this). Being critical is not being negative, it’s being wise and discerning. For example, I happen to believe a toxic container that takes 10,000 years to decompose, which is full of toxic chemicals that smell good, is not good for men or the planet; I’m saying that out of compassion and sincerity. I agree that anyone can interpret anything according to their worldview. Mine happens to be based on ecological wholeness, justice, and healthy choices. I’d like to suggest that accepting things at face value is not the opposite of negativity (optimism), but a slippery slope towards blissful ignorance.