Axe and the Bom Chic A Wah Wah
Brand: Axe (Unilever)
Execution: TV (second execution here)
Target: Teenage boys
Rating: **
Reviewer: David Vinjamuri
Description:
A new campaign for Axe body spray which replaces the “Axe Effect.” The spots in this campaign again show women taken out of their normal routine by the effects of Axe body spray. In one execution, a woman is preparing for a date with her man but when she arrives at the restaurant she is distracted by a waiter carrying bread. She bursts out with the phrase “Bom Chic A Wah Wah” while undulating. Then she catches herself and looks embarrassed. A second execution has a woman teaching English to a group of foreign students when a teenager enters and she repeats the Bom Chic A Wah Wah and shimmy which the foreign students repeat.
What Works:
Unilever has gone to some lengths to ensure that this new campaign for Axe – the proverbial golden goose – is memorable. They have certainly put together spots that are unique on television and should be highly memorable.
As with most Unilever advertising, this campaign does focus on the unique selling proposition of Axe and the advertising strategy has good continuity with the old campaign. This adds credibility to the effort.
What Doesn’t:
This campaign features the most cringe-worthy advertising produced thus far this year and puts this advertising blog in the odd position of feeling considerable sympathy for the actress/models who have to utter the “Bom Chic A Wah Wah” in front of millions of their fellow Americans.
It is always possible for the story to work against the brand in spots like this and it happens here. Frequently, the problem is that the story is memorable, but the brand is not. That is not the case here. Unfortunately, while both the brand and the store are memorable, the connection is neither pleasant nor motivating. In five syllables, Axe crosses the boundary from uncontrollable attraction to creepy stalking behavior.
Of course, we are not the target for this advertising, but we very much doubt that 13-year old boys will find this campaign compelling, either.
Branding Bottom Line:
Axe goes from hero to zero. Lose this campaign before we lose our minds.
June 17th, 2007 at 8:38 am
I just read a great article about this campaign, and I will have to respectfully disagree with you. I think the campaign is brilliant. Your commentary about this brand is one of the largest, most typical problems brand managers run into: it's more about your own personal taste, rather than a subjective view of branding/advertising and entertainment value used to sell the specific product. Ie; what's right for the brand vs. what you, yourself, like.
You are right that you are not in the target, and so obviously don't understand the humor.
But you are wrong on how it has been received. The target have found it thoroughly compelling.
So far, the campaign seems to have been hugely successful, with over 2 million hits on youtube, and hundreds of user-generated versions of the spot being imitated.
So why would the brand listen to you on what they should be running, rather than to the millions of people actually in their target?
June 19th, 2007 at 9:10 am
Hi Jay,
You should post the link to the article you reference.
From a brand strategy perspective, I agree that the subjective value of the "bom chic a wah wah" and whether it is funny to adults (and I'm assuming you are also an adult) is not the relevant question. Whether this campaign actually sells Axe is the question.
The YouTube evidence is helpful (by the way, I am assuming you added all of the YouTube versions of the commercial from around the world together to get to your number, correct? The highest single view count is a few hundred thousand) but not conclusive.
Of course if you have some relationship to the brand or its PR agency which you did not disclose you could let us know how Axe sales are trending.
David
March 29th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
i am a girl and i love your axe-spray i bought it at walgreen for 2.00$
i like it so much you should make a girls line of axe.
i loooooooooovvvveeeeeeeee it !!!!
April 5th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I love axe so much. I never knew there was an Axe Africa. I have Axe Kilo, Touch, two cans of Pheonex, Vice shower gel, Vice Bodyspray, Orion, Pulse shower gel, Boost Shower gel, Snake Peel Shower gel, Re-Load Shower gel, Tsunami Bodyspray, and Clix bodyspray. Girls at my school chase me down and start hugging me! I'm serious. Anyway, I really LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Axe!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 8th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Hi David, would love to see you review Axe's latest offering/campaign, Axe Dark Temptation, which at least to me, has some rather odd and unsettling racial and sexual overtones. Take a look: http://urbzen.com/2008/10/23/once-you-go-axe-you-…
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