Oh I absolutely ABHORE Axe commercials. There is this one you can get on YouTube that shows an ARMY of thousands of hot, bikini-clad women racing towards this one man who is furiously spraying Axe onto himself. UGH!!! My boyfriend thinks it's the funniest thing however. SIGH.

Ugh. It rears its head again.

Fuck you, Unilever.

Ugh, I hate the commercials but I'll admit that when my boyfriend uses their body wash I can't help but jump on him.

Oh god! Are you kidding? One of my roommates uses it, I swear it stinks up the entire house. Like you can smell when he has just showered and gone out, cause he leaves a trail behind him. It's horrid. (and yeah, their marketing is pretty awful too)

Gross. The guy in front of me at the pharmacy last night wore a shirt that said, "If it has wheels or a skirt, you can't afford it." Underneath was a photo of a motorcycle and a woman's ass (wearing what could hardly be considered a skirt). I was repulsed.

wow, that came off sounding meaner than I intended, let's just say it's not to my taste. (it's alright though, I'm pretty sure said roommate doesn't read feministing)

Is it me, or are those "legs" strangely short?

Like, what's a guy thinking when he wears something like that?

Is he just trying to impress his dude friends? Not that, "Hey guys, check out the fake lady wrapped around my waist" is cool.

It CAN'T impress women. Right, right?

That looks suspiciously photoshopped.

Anyway, I don't think the problem is so much with the scent per se (I'm not particularly fond of most of them, but only one is absolutely horrid) as with the fact that teenagers (male and female) have this tendency to use perfume ect. by the gallon. Even my favorite cologne smells horrid if I use too much.

I thought the consensus on the mousepad was that it was photoshopped (or otherwise a fake). I hope this is the same. Where did the image come from?

The kind my boyfriend uses isn't that strong. It's this weird yellow kind. I still think it smells nice.

Before I saw the guy's legs under the towel, I thought, "Man, he's flexible!"

As for Axe, I call that stuff (and most colognes) the "college shower". You walk into a morning class and are just assaulted by the smell of so many different scents that cover up the fact that the people wearing them haven't showered. I'll take the soap and water scent over this any day.

Anyone who would buy crap like that needs a brain. If not only for the sexism, then for how much time you actually spend with a towel round your waist. And that the picture, fake or no, probably shows the only likely situation where you would see it and go "oooohhh, I see.... That sucks!" instead "Uhh...."

Bottom line is, the arsehole who though that up needs their neck wringing with it!

After taking a shower, Bob walks slowly into the locker room. Hoping his friends will see what he's wearing, he thinks to himself:

Look, guys, see the towel. Isn't it cool? How cool am I for wearing it? Doesn't this prove I'm really getting some from a real live woman? Huh? Doesn't it? It's not at all a sign of my middle school mentality or a pathetic attempt to seem like, you know, all manly and stuff. Honest. Look at the towel and notice me.

Axe is some of the nastiest stuff. It also seems to be the domain of younger teenage boys. Maybe the message needs to get out to some of the less clued in adult guys that if you wear this your advertising you have the mentality of a 15 year old?

Cologne and perfume has become more toxic over the years. It used to be made out of essential oils and alcohol. Now almost all of it is made out of chemicals and chemically based artificial scents. You might as well be wearing floor cleaner or room deodorizer since it is the same make up as cheap colognes.

What a crap Photoshop.

That aside, I hope no one latches on to this idea and markets it. Yuck.

I'm not so sure that's a photoshop. On a lot of the advertising analysis sites I went to, it's being attributed to the Lowe Mena ad agency, by "Creative Director/Art Director" Dominic Stallard.

I'm actually really glad that Axe body spray exists. It's an easy way for me to tell who I won't be dating. ^.^

It's still crap looking. :)

I think I'll Photoshop the legs to look like a man's. That'll reach a whole new demographic.

Has anybody ever seen the ad on Youtube for "Douche Cologne?"

A straight man wearing this towel is like a straight woman who puts a poster of Brad Pitt on her wall with a little speech bubble that says, "You look beautiful today, [name]." Sad.

Hah, I actually really want this towel now. It would throw a few conservative dorm mates for a loop... if I'm a bright young feminist with the right qualifications to wear the towel, can I get away with it? ;)

Cologne rhymes with ALONE.

-Anchorman

It may be disgusting to you, but you are not the demographic they are seeking. I've been a substitute teacher at junior high schools (6th through 8th grade) and the boys wear this stuff exclusively. THAT is the demographic that ads like this target and they are extremely successful.

BTW - Ask yourself this question and answer it honestly in your own mind: Would it bother you if the commercial was for a perfume called "RubyFruit" and that was a woman wearing that towel?

I just can't see that towel (or that skirt) landing this fellow any ladies. It might even hurt his cause a little.

I do happen to think the axe commercial in the grocery store is funny (when the lady grabs the guy from the other isle through the cans of food). Other than that - dumb.

Would it bother you if the commercial was for a perfume called "RubyFruit" and that was a woman wearing that towel?

Except that it's not and it wouldn't be. Women aren't marketed to that way. It's sexism. And the fact that they're marketing to a particularly sexist demographic, if I recall junior high correctly, doesn't make them any less creepy.

"Except that it's not and it wouldn't be. Women aren't marketed to that way. It's sexism."

I agree, absolutely it's sexism. More to the point, it's objectification - the act of regarding a person as an object. I am not defending it. But did you answer the question? The fact that women aren't marketed to in this way is a dodge.

If you answered in the negative, even to the smallest degree, then you too can regard a person as an object.

I believe men are unfortunately biologically predisposed to this mode of thought, but I don't believe that this way of thinking is specific to the male gender. That's all I'm saying.

Hate to say it, but when I was in college, almost every girl totally loved the guys whose attitudes towards women reflected the views of the Axe demographic. Asking a woman who she preferred in the Presidential primary was met with confused silence, only to watch her walk away with the meat-head whose only contribution to public discourse was "Hey, you're hot - ya drunk yet?" Philanderers, simpletons, over-compensating masculine bullshit artists - they got the girls, where the more introspective, intellectually-curious were left to read our Ginsburg and Plath to each other, as the words of Leonard Peltier added to the sound cacophony. HOWEVER...by the time the same women reached their late-20s, they were much more interested in men who had more to offer in conversation than "Those protesters are so annoying!" or "That new Nickelback/Daughtry/Puddle of Mudddd/Ashleeee Simpson/50 Cent CD is awesome!" So college-aged guys who actually care about women for reasons that eclipse superficialities and hook-ups - hang in there. The AXE-man will not be the Woman's Ideal after they realize that there are men who seek a society that glamorizes intelligence, wit, and candor in women. Barbara Boxer for President!

mendocino -- Yep, because there's no reason for guys to "actually care about women for reasons that eclipse superficialities" and "hang in there" is the fact that they bag the girl in the end.

Try again.

mendocino -- Yep, because the only reason for guys to "actually care about women for reasons that eclipse superficialities" and "hang in there" is the fact that they bag the girl in the end.

Try again.

"Hate to say it, but when I was in college, almost every girl totally loved the guys whose attitudes towards women reflected the views of the Axe demographic. Asking a woman who she preferred in the Presidential primary was met with confused silence, only to watch her walk away with the meat-head whose only contribution to public discourse was 'Hey, you're hot - ya drunk yet?'"

When I was in college I sure did *not* prefer meatheads! It seems as though you were ignoring the non-meatheaded women in college the same way the meatheaded women forgot you in college...