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”.