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Axe Logo

AXE, or LYNX (see below), is a brand owned by Anglo-Dutch company Unilever, which produces products such as Hellmann's mayonnaise, Popsicle ice cream, Dove (soap), Domestos bleach, Knorr (brand) dehydrated broth and Vaseline intimate lubricant.

The Axe brand promise is that it gives guys the edge in the mating game (the so-called Axe Effect or Lynx Effect).

Axe's lead product is the deodorant bodyspray, however there are other male grooming products included in the range such as anti-perspirant, aftershave and shower gel.

In most of the world this product is sold as Axe, however in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the United Kingdom it is sold as Lynx.

History

Axe was first launched in France in 1983 by Fabergé which was part of Unilever. It was created as a male version of one of Unilever's other brands, Impulse (body mist), which was a fragranced deodorant bodyspray for women that promised wearers male attention. Unilever were keen to capitalise on Axe's French success and rolled it out in the rest of Europe from 1985 onwards. Confusion exists as to why the brand was renamed Lynx in UK. Some say that the Axe Trademark had been bought up by another company who tried to sell it to Unilever at an inflated price, others blame Anglo-French rivalry within Unilever and a small number insist there were a spate of horrific axe-murders in UK at the time which gave negative connotations to the word Axe.

The European launch of the deodorant was followed by success in Latin America, Asia, Africa and more recently the USA and the Far East.

The company has also consolidated its deodorant portfolio by migrating other over-lapping male deodorants it owns in far flung parts of the Unilever empire into the Axe brand such as South Africa's Ego brand and Asian variants from the Denim range.

Although Axe launched as a deodorant bodyspray, it soon moved into the broader male grooming category by launching successful anti-perspirants, aftershaves and shower gels, as well as less successful shampoos (let down by bad advertising), razors (cut men's faces) and skin care products (not caring enough). All products promise in one form or another to give guys the edge in the mating game.

Speculation into Lynx becoming Axe

Speculation on Bassnotes suggested, in 2002, that Unilever would possibly change Lynx to Axe since Ego was renamed to Axe in South Africa as part of Unilever’s efforts to globalize and consolidate their various brands. However by keeping the brand name Lynx in UK, Unilever are able maintain a price premium in this market compared to the rest of the world, as UK shoppers will not purchase grey imports called Axe. Therefore for the medium term the brand is likely to remain as Lynx in UK are Ireland.

Competitors

Several competitors exist in the marketplace: TAG Body Spray [1], Old Spice Red Zone [2], RGX Bodyspray from Right Guard [3], adidas Bodyspray [4]and Power Stick Deodorant Body Spray from A.P. Deauville [5].

Variants of Axe Deodorant

From its launch, the yearly fragrance variant of Axe has played a key part in the success of the brand, by offering something new each year.

The type of fragrance variants have evolved over time. At the birth of the brand in 1983 until about 1989, the variant names were descriptions of the odor of the fragrance inside and included Musk, Spice, Amber, Marine and Oriental. These are all terms used by perfumers.

From 1990 until 1996 geographic names were used that evoked a mood and a sense of the odor such as Africa (warm, spicy fragrance), Alaska (cool, marine fragrance), Java and Inca. From 1996 to 2002 Axe took inspiration from Calvin Klein fragrances (both owned by Unilever at that time), using the same perfumer to develop the fragrances and mimicing the abstract, high-concept names from the world of fine fragrances to launch variants such as Dimension, Apollo, Voodoo, Gravity and Phoenix.

In 2003 Axe Europe launched a yearly fragrance variant Pulse that was inspired by the insight that women love a man who can dance. From this period onwards variants used insights from the mating game such as 2006's Clix (or Click overseas) which knew that guys like to keep score of their conquests and compete with their buddies, what better way to do this after spraying on Axe than by using a clicker. 2007's Vice knows that guys all want to turn nice girls naughty.

Template:Globalize/USA A number of fragrances are available in the United States and abroad. Some of the US market selections include the following:

File:Axe product image.jpg

Clix
Essence
Groove
Kilo
Orion
Phoenix
Touch
Tsunami
Unlimited
Vice (the best ever!!)
Voodoo (Discontinued)

Internationally, a larger number of additional fragrances have been sold, varying by market. While all of these can be found under the Axe brand, some are also sold under the Lynx brand.

File:AxeClick.jpg

Accelerate
Adrenaline
Africa (Kilo in USA)
Air (limited edition)
Alaska
Anti-Hangover (limited edition)
Apollo
Atlantis
Below-0 (limited edition)
Boost (limited edition)
Click (Clix in USA)
Conviction
Dimension
Enygmata
Essence
Fusion
Gravity
Groove
Ice (limited edition)
Ignite (limited edition)
Inca
Java
Jet
Kilo (know as Africa in rest of world)
Maniac
Marine
Mirage
Musk (Moschus in Germany)
Native
Nevada
Orion
Oriental
Phoenix
Pulse
Re.Load
Ready (limited edition)
Recover
Recovery (limited edition)
Relapse (limited edition)
Sexy (limited edition)
Silver Fusion (limited edition)
Tempest
Thai Massage
Touch
Tsunami
Unlimited
Vice
Voodoo
White Label (limited edition)
Willing (limited edition)
Zero (Millennium) (limited edition)

Limited edition scents currently available in the US market include : Ready, Willing, Relapse, Recovery and Below-0 (zero).

Release of Clix

In 2006, Axe launched their newest fragrance, Clix, again advertised as a way for men to attract women. The television ad for the product, also available on Axe's website at [6] shows Nick Lachey using a tally counter to count how many women (and one man) flirt with him. In the ad, he continuously flirts with attractive women as he goes about his everyday business. At the end of the advert Lachey shows off his clicker score of 103, to a young working man in an elevator. His pride and dignity is ruined as the geeky-looking young elevator attendant displays his enormous score, 2,372, on his own clicker, beating Lachey's score. At the end of the commercial, a flashback to the beginning of the day shows the elevator attendant using Clix before getting dressed. The commercial is set to the song "Gangster of Love" by Johnny "Guitar" Watson.

A similar ad, albeit for the Click fragrance, was also made starring Ben Affleck for the rest of the world. The ad uses similar scenes as the version with Nick Lachey and it is thought that Axe were unable to get the rights to use Ben Affleck in the USA, but could use him elsewhere and then had to re-film the commercial with a celebrity who was willing to appear in the USA.

The Lynx "Billions" Advert portrays billions of bikini clad women running through forests and swimming through oceans to reach a man. The advert was shown once on British national television, during a half- time break within the World Cup 2002 England vs. Sweden group match, and has reached near cult status. ^{[citation needed]} The ad features the song Dies Irae, by Karl Jenkins. It was retooled for Axe in the United States in 2006.

Axe/Lynx has also had a number of controversial, ^{[citation needed]} sexually explicit advertisements.

In early 2006, Axe began marketing a body wash via a fictitious cult that helps men cleanse their bodies and conscience from questionable casual sexual encounters. Axe Snake Peel is described as the "Sanctioned shower scrub of The Order of The Serpentine." [7]
In mid-2004, an advertisement featured two frogs engaging in sexual intercourse. The ad also featured a man and a woman about to engage in the same. This advertisement has since been revoked. ^{[citation needed]}
Advertisement titled "Listening 101", featured a woman talking to a man, while he is being distracted. The distractions are a car, then a football game, followed by two lesbians making out, with blurs.
The current advertising tagline for Lynx in the UK is "Bom Chicka Wah Wah"
A new advertisement tagline in the US is "Bow Chicka Wah Wah"
The newest Axe/Lynx TV campaign with the "Bom Chicka Wah Wah" tagline features the song "Straight Lines" by US artist Dawn Landes
The current advertising tagline for Axe in South Africa is "Get a girlfriend."

In Video Games

Axe released an online game for PC called Mojo Master to promote their products. The game has the player trying to seduce digital women using Axe products to help them out. An online component was also added to the game to enable further features to be unlocked and allow players to compete against each other.

Axe has advertised itself in several other video games, including:

In Television

Cooperating with MTV, an hour-long special known as The Gamekillers was produced in 2006. The show profiled various stereotypical characters who "ruin your chances at getting any" with their annoying habits that tend to break up dates. Around the same time Axe ran several similar "Gamekiller" ads featuring the same actors.

An advertisement is also found at the end of episode #56 of Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Its first global branded entertainment show, City Hunters, premiered throughout Latin America on October 2006 on the FOX network. The series, which blends traditional animation techniques with the latest generation of CGI, consists of ten 11 minute episodes. It was co-produced by Unilever for the AXE brand. It is a male-targeted series that integrates the AXE brand into the storyline. The animated series follows the antics of an aging Casanova, Dr. Lynch, and the young man he's training in the art of seducing women. The series was created by Catmandu Branded Entertainment, a branded entertainment firm in Buenos Aires, Argentina & USA. The characters were developed by Italian illustrator Milo Manara.

In 2007, Axe began sponsoring an all-female group called the Bom Chicka Wah Wahs and released a music video of their song Bom Chicka Wah Wah: It's the Libido's Mantra. Like at the dentist and the supermarket. Axe is sponsoring a world tour of the group which is heavily modeled after the Pussycat Dolls. The video can be viewed on the Axe website.^[1] As seen below, packaging and graphics for the both the Lynx and Axe brands was completely redesigned in early part of 2007. Many Red Vs Blue and Halo fans are upset over the use of this phrase since it is a popular quote of one of the characters in Red Vs Blue. However the phrase was used and created before Red Vs Blue and is in no way their sole creative property.

In the Uk comedy series I'm Alan Partridge, we learn that the hero, Alan, favours Lynx Africa.

Lynx Click (New Style)

Lynx Click (New Style)
Lynx Unlimited (New Style)

Lynx Unlimited (New Style)
Lynx Vice (New Style)

Lynx Vice (New Style)
Lynx Touch (New Style)

Lynx Touch (New Style)
Lynx Africa (New Style)

Lynx Africa (New Style)
Lynx Pulse (New Style)

Lynx Pulse (New Style)

External links

Official country web sites

Other Axe/Lynx marketing sites

References

^ Now with added Bom Chicka Wah Wah from the Axe website. Accessed July 12 2007

Miskell (2001), Knowledge and Innovation in Unilever 1965-1990, Unilever History Project, London

[1] Now with added Bom Chicka Wah Wah from the Axe website. Accessed July 12 2007

[1]

@@ Line 145: / Line 145: @@
 Its first global branded entertainment show, [[City Hunters]], premiered throughout Latin America on October 2006 on the FOX network. The series, which blends traditional animation techniques with the latest generation of CGI, consists of ten 11 minute episodes. It was co-produced by Unilever for the AXE brand. It is a male-targeted series that integrates the AXE brand into the storyline. The animated series follows the antics of an aging Casanova, Dr. Lynch, and the young man he's training in the art of seducing women. The series was created by [[Catmandu Branded Entertainment]], a branded entertainment firm in Buenos Aires, Argentina & USA. The characters were developed by Italian illustrator Milo Manara.
-In 2007, Axe began sponsoring an all-female group called the ''Bom Chicka Wah Wahs'' and released a music video of their song ''Bom Chicka Wah Wah: It's the Libido's Mantra''. Like at the dentist and the supermarket. Axe is sponsoring a world tour of the group which is heavily modeled after the [[Pussycat Dolls]]. The video can be viewed on the Axe website.<ref>[http://www.axebcww.com/main.php?loc=us Now with added Bom Chicka Wah Wah] from the Axe website. Accessed July 12 2007</ref> As seen below, packaging and graphics for the both the Lynx and Axe brands was completely redesigned in early part of 2007. Many Halo and "Red vs Blue" fans are upset about this because that is one of the character's catch phrases.
+In 2007, Axe began sponsoring an all-female group called the ''Bom Chicka Wah Wahs'' and released a music video of their song ''Bom Chicka Wah Wah: It's the Libido's Mantra''. Like at the dentist and the supermarket. Axe is sponsoring a world tour of the group which is heavily modeled after the [[Pussycat Dolls]]. The video can be viewed on the Axe website.<ref>[http://www.axebcww.com/main.php?loc=us Now with added Bom Chicka Wah Wah] from the Axe website. Accessed July 12 2007</ref> As seen below, packaging and graphics for the both the Lynx and Axe brands was completely redesigned in early part of 2007. Many Red Vs Blue and Halo fans are upset over the use of this phrase since it is a popular quote of one of the characters in Red Vs Blue. However the phrase was used and created before Red Vs Blue and is in no way their sole creative property.
 In the Uk comedy series [[I'm Alan Partridge]], we learn that the hero, Alan, favours Lynx Africa.