The Axe Effect

One of the areas in which stereotypical and often sexist representations of gender roles is most consistent and blatant in the media is in advertisements for male hygiene and grooming products. The Axe Body Spray campaign is the most obvious, over the top example of sexist gender roles and of the reinforcement of male hegemony and female subservience. The advertisements are based purely on the supposed "Axe Effect" that occurs after men use Axe products. This Axe Effect, as portrayed in the commercials, results in the mindless flocking of scantily clad supermodels, who represent society's hegemonic and virtually unachievable standard of beauty, to an often average looking man, simply because he just sprayed himself with Axe Body Spray.

I have found three commercials from the Axe Body Spray campaign. Here is the first:

This commercial uses clay animation, but has the same effect and the same approach as the majority of Axe commercials. The women in the ad are presented as sexual objects, who all look and act the same. They are all extremely thin, big-breasted, and scantily clad, and they "ooh" and "ah" over the one, suddenly attractive man in the commercial.

Here is the second commercial:

This commercial is the epitome of the sexism and hegemonic gender roles that are the basis of the Axe Body Spray campaign. It takes their usual approach and pushes it to the absolute max, increasing the women to men proportion to thousands to one. Putting aside the fact there are probably not that many women in the world who look like the ones in the commercial, those in the commercial would likely never give the man in the commercial a second look, but because he used Axe Body Spray, they stop what they're doing, which looking at what they're wearing was apparently getting dressed, and mindlessly flock to the body spray user, gritting their teeth like animals. And only the most "attractive" women in the world seem to respond to the product. All of this is topped off with the slogan, "Spray more, get more." Get more what, you might ask. The answer: more women, further enforcing the idea that men deserve more than one woman, and that women should be subservient to men.

Here is the third and final Axe commercial:

In this ad, which is promoted a new scent, "Touch," is yet another example of the objectification of women in Axe ads. Here, the women in the ad, who all once again fit society's unrealistic construct of beauty, are virtually being controlled by the man, and they are enjoying it. The Axe Body Spray gives the man the power to undress them and manipulate them, but rather than be offended, they are simply turned on.

These commercials, while extremely unrealistic, are effective because of the specific audience that they are targeting, and because of the fantasies that are likely fulfilling. While the Axe Effect is extremely unlikely, if the product can achieve just a tiny fraction of what it claims, it will be seen as effective among its users. The fact that women are being reduced to mindless, sexual, animalistic objects, incapable of resisting a man who uses Axe Body Spray, is apparently of no concern to those creating the commercials or, looking at the success of the product, to the consumers.