AXE Drops the Bravado, Embraces a More Inclusive Masculinity
This grooming products brand is changing its outdated ways
With the launch of its campaign Find Your Magic and the products that go with it, AXE and Unilever are re-examining how to market to the modern man.
“Masculinity today is going through seismic changes. More than ever, guys are rejecting rigid male stereotypes,” said Matthew McCarthy, Senior Director, AXE & Men’s Grooming for Unilever. For this campaign, Unilever may have borrowed some feathers from other brands in its portfolio. Specifically, pulling lessons learned from the successful Dove Real Beauty campaigns, which were also designed to shatter stereotypes.
While still about attraction, magnetism and sex and appeal, Find Your Magic is built on the idea that men can express themselves in the way they choose.
“We all have our own “thing” — something special that makes us attractive to the world — whether it’s your walk, your talk, your smile or your style — it’s your magic.”
Changes in consumer tastes are pushing companies to include consumers that were once ignored or untapped. With a growing appreciation of diversity and a better understanding of the financial returns this inclusion can bring to the bottom line, many brands are beginning to adopt new (and necessary) approaches to storytelling and marketing. This shift will redefine how these companies speak and engage with the world’s increasingly fragmented communities. The Find Your Magic campaign focuses on helping guys reach a little higher, allowing them to bring their own to the forefront .
Find your Magic marks a welcome departure from the steamier AXE advertisements in which women would run to men like feral animals on the hunt. This explores to explore a more classy approach to selling its new line of men’s grooming products. The comments on the Youtube channel indicate this ad is a reflection of a broader trend: ideas about the modern male are changing.
One Youtube user luxlagerfeld writes:
“For ONCE in my life I related to someone in a commercial aimed at men. I’m a gay man, a very fierce queen, and when I saw the dancers up in pumps, I was likes, YAAASS QUEEN! I already use AXE products (the body washes and deodorants are great), but it’s nice to feel included, and nice to see different types of men instead of the same, old, boring beefcakes.”
Copulaxoxi Ranbooi offers his thoughts:
“Wow. This is a big change. Definitely with the times! Nice work! Might sound a bit dramatic but as a 35-year-old male I feel I was brainwashed to be a stereotypical tough guy by society and that’s not me! I’m a heterosexual male but I also like and appreciate things like compassion and androgyny! Being “the man” and the one who fixes things, and pays for everything, and takes abuse is over! Accept all differences and individualism! Each and every human is unique and beautiful! Crush stereotypes!”
The new AXE Advanced Collection is a more premium range of grooming products — comprised of three lines: Adrenaline, Urban, and Signature — these products offer a variety of benefits including fragrance-release, anti-odor, and anti-marks technology. It’s said that the products helps guys express their individuality so they can look, feel and act their most attractive. But, of course, one is left wondering if this isn’t just another marketing charade.
The campaign encompasses some exciting partnerships and an interesting choice of its featured male role models. Building on a successful 2015, AXE and John Legend are continuing the AXE Collective to help elevate musicians and filmmakers and give them a way to showcase their own creative flair. Aspiring creators can get a chance to be mentored by Legend and to get featured at an event during SXSW or the Toronto International Film Festival.
Legend’s widely popular songs reveal an emotional authenticity. “Glory,” the soulful collaboration with recording artist Common serves as a commemoration of the civil rights movement while also making a statement about injustice and police brutality in modern America. The track “Who Do We Think We Are” begins with an exclamation of the words: “When was the last time you got to be one hundred percent real, y’all!?”
If being real is any indication of the boldness of this campaign, Legend makes a unique and compelling partner to represent these grooming products.
Speaking about the new campaign and its projects, Carlo Cavallone, Executive Creative Director, 72andSunny Amsterdam says:
“With Find Your Magic we’re out to liberate guys from pressure and bullshit, and empower them to be the most attractive men they can be: themselves.”
The campaign’s promise is all about guys starting to shed outdated views of masculinity to embrace what makes them unique, as the most attractive man you can be is usually yourself. But, from a healthy skeptical point of view, this campaign might reek of “self-expression sells, sure, let’s go with that” to some. At the end of the day they are just selling deodorant. And, with the scope and size of the campaign, this is truly a feat of the power of marketing, as it rolls out a behemoth of cross-channel advertising.
Shakespeare once wrote: “This above all: to thine own self be true.” Is this advertising campaign a modern day interpretation of this timeless classic or is it just a way to move product? Across retail, marketing and health, we see companies widening the scope of their products to empower all types of consumers and also writing these consumers into the brand narrative. The 2017 Forecast, looked at how campaigns like these highlight a shift in consumer attitudes toward greater inclusion of communities.
With this growing appreciation of diversity, many brands like AXE are beginning to adopt a new, wholly necessary, and more accessible approach to storytelling and marketing in order to speak to the world’s shifting and increasingly refined tastes.
Originally published at www.psfk.com on February 4, 2016.