Axe/Lynx Adverts - Sexiest and Most Sexist Commercials Ever?
Are Axe/Lynx Adverts the sexiest and Most Sexist television commercials ever?
(In different parts of the world the brand is called either Lynx or Axe which makes writing a post such as this a bit awkward)
Chatting with some friends about their favorite ads, it seems the guys all agree that there is humor there, and a lot of appreciation for, uh, the female form. The ladies though are anything but amused. In particular there is the implication that just a whiff of the stuff will send women to lose all self control. We wish!
What do you think? Here is a small selection of “evidence” for the prosecution …
13 comments
Actually, every time I see the Axe/Lynx effect ad, I’m reminded of the Monty Python skit where one of the guys is being chased by a crowd of topless women wearing bicycle helmets (if i recall). And he’s actually running away from them. This is the anti-monty python effect.
Generally, I can only only laugh because the Axe ads are so blatantly sexist (and sometimes so gosh darn stupid). They are, however, rarely sexy - just sexist.
If someone wants to do a great spoof, they’ll do an “old axe” commercial with senior citizens. (Oh yeah, they already did, and it’s real.)
If anything they’re an excellent commentary on the state of most men’s existence. Guys want the option of hot babes all over them. Now, for all those babes who are tired of it, I applaud their speaking out, but I would suggest they focus attention on making their own male-attracting version of Axe…. oh wait, they don’t need it.
Axe is just leveling the playing field here. Those women speaking out against these ads are the sexists!!!
I think only (too) serious/ugly woman/girls are offended by these ads.
It’s one of the rare few campaigns that doesn’t portray men as idiotic, dithering, nuisances who can’t cope with modern life. I think this should be seen as s small contribution to redressing the balance.
* There are more women at universities
* We had a serious woman presidential nominee
* Women can vote
* Reverse sexism is commonplace (Sex and the City, Morning talk)
* Boys are singled out in the schools to be medicated for being rambunctious boys — largely by female professionals/educators
Well I’m not a woman and I’m not “offended” by these ads - but they are still sexist. Doesn’t mean they’re not funny. They’re funny as hell.
Yes, I’m sick of the 25+ yrs of portraying men as idiots in TV commercials, but surely they can do better than these moronic Axe ads? (Fact: a lot of people in advertising are women. But a lot of the most powerful positions are only held by men.)
Scott +1.
Evidently it’s sexist to portray women as beautiful and powerful, but it’s not sexist to portray men as universally incompetent.
agree with 3 and 4.
most ads you see on television depict men as border line retarded. we can’t pay our taxes right or we try to paint the house with a paintball gun. these ads redistribute the ‘idioticness’ of males and females back to an even value.
and it’s true, most women that would find this offensive are most likely unattractive and take thing way to seriously.
@Scott
Very true, though it does portay shallowness, however I feel most men and women are shallow, especially if they claim not to be.
But it’s funny how this is sexist yet the most common skewering of the sexes in advertisement is far-and-away towards men.
What? You people have never had good looking women come on strong??? It’s tough being a good looking guy I tell you….!!!
totally agree with scott, there are much more ads sexist towards men than the other way around. Less of your selective sexism and get over yourselves
I can’t believe the number of posts that describe Axe as being empowering to men, and not portraying them as dithering idiots. Helloooooo, is anybody home? If he weren’t a dithering idiot, he would get the girl because he’s smart, or talented, or sensitive, but instead he has nothing redeemable to offer her, so he has to use a body spray to exert mind control over her, and make her subservient to his whim, sounds pretty un-empowered to me. As for the ones that say only ugly women would be offended by these commercials, you have to be kidding! That kind of thinking goes back to a constant bombardment that women get from advertising every day, that we aren’t supposed to be smart or powerful, we’re supposed to be submissive and pretty, appreciate the lemony smell of furniture polish, and have no thoughts of our own at all, and the Axe commercials portray that as well as most other advertising aimed at us. In the most recent one I’ve seen, advertising a body scrubber, the women aren’t even portrayed as women, they are portrayed as mindless *robots*, machines with nothing better to do than make sure his “undercarriage” is clean, and as for empowering the man in the commercial, he can’t even bathe himself without aid, and doesn’t even stand on his own two feet for the bathing, he has to be passively carried along a conveyor in a machine to get clean, mommy gives the dirty boy a bath, sheesh! Yeah, these commercials are really empowering….
There there luv. Calm down. Bit hormonal are we? Time of the month? here, have some chocolate.
Leave a Comment