Original Ad:
Axe is notorious for its sexist advertisements that depict sexualized women who desire men that use Axe products, often targeting young males. This specific campaign advertises Axe’s shower gels. As seen in multiple Axe campaigns before, we see an “attractive” woman, or the standard of “attractive” as set through media and Hollywood productions, being slim, tanned and mostly uncovered. Although sex is often implied in Axe advertisements, this campaign sells it more explicitly. The images of this campaign include a woman pouring whipped cream on her naked body, another female with handcuffs, and a woman holding a whip behind her back. The message in this ad “THE CLEANER YOU ARE, THE DIRTIER YOU GET”, directly speaks to males on what THEY can get from women. The female is portrayed as brainless, unable to make rational decisions and easily compelled to serve a man’s sexual desires.
What I also found ironic about this ad is the fact that Unilever, the parent company of Axe stills prides themselves in displaying their brand name in the top corner of this image. Unilever also happens to be the parent company of Dove, a brand that is supposed to be trying to do the exact opposite of Axe. Dove’s campaigns attempt to empower women through breaking current set standards of beauty and accepting all different body types, colors and appearances. Contrastingly, Axe approves only one type of woman, who exists for the purpose of satisfying a man. The purpose of my cultural jam will be to translate how Axe’s view on women sounds to all people in society rather than just the teenage males they target.
Altered Ad:
What is AXE really implying? What message are they delivering to young girls, women and even men? My altered message “ALL IT TAKES IS A SHOWER, WOMEN ARE THAT EASY” is meant to expose the ridiculous view on women that Axe is telling their target audience to have. To me, the ad tried to imply that women have no standards, that we are here to please men as long as they smell or perhaps even look a certain way, as if that is the most a woman is capable of. The second part of my message “Women are that easy” is meant to mock the idea that women lose any decisions making capabilities because of a man’s ‘apparent’ dominance.
Marketing firms and their ad campaigns often prey on the insecurities of people, they aim to manipulate the way the viewer acts or the beliefs that they have. To me the original message “the cleaner you are” has a double meaning, both in the showering sense, but perhaps even describing the innocence of many teenage boys and the insecurities that they have with women. It was important for me to change this message in a sarcastic form, to expose that so much more is required to engage in any sort of relationship. What is scariest to me is that this ad contributes to the ignorance currently preventing many people from understanding the concept of consent. This new ad is supposed to demonstrate that the target audience does not get control over a woman because of a product they believe gives them power or confidence.
My last change to the ad was to highlight the hypocrisy of Unilever. By magnifying their logo I am forcing the company to truly show what and who they represent. With an added motto, “Hypocritical Values Brings in the Money” the organizations true incentives become as clear as possible.