Axe makes guys smell a little too sweet in slapstick comic spots

A year after their “Robbery” and “Funeral” spots earned widespread acclaim, LOLA MullenLowe and directing duo Lionel Goldstein are back with another Axe campaign—extended the dark humor but in more of a slapstick manner. This time, the spots promote Axe’s new range of sweet-smelling fragrances, so the concept is built around sweetness. In three spots, guys are left smelling so sweet that their girlfriends’ babies, dogs and teddy bears—normally the sweetest things in the women’s lives—get violently jealous and exact revenge. In the “Baby” spot above, a toddler starts beating up on the boyfriend at a children’s play area while Mom is off in the bathroom. There’s no effort to hide that the child is a doll during the action scenes, which somehow makes it even funnier. Two more spots feature angry teddy bears and a pissed-off dog. In the latter spot, it’s clear in many scenes that the dog is a person in a dog suit—upping the absurdism further. The spots are launching in markets worldwide, including Mexico, Argentina, the U.K. and Australia. There will also be OOH takeovers, immersive audio content, interactive activations and a social push. "Great comedy, with a touch of surrealism, makes the impossible possible—violent babies, killer teddy bears and a boxing dog,” said Tomas Ostiglia, executive creative director at LOLA MullenLowe. “Bold campaigns like these don’t just happen. They come to life when a team has a sense of humor.” “Extending our portfolio into new and exciting innovations is important for us to stay fresh and relevant, and our new range of sweet-smelling fragrance gave us the license to push the brand idea of ‘The Power of Fragrance’ into an even more absurd and unexpected territory,” said Caroline Gregory, global brand director for Axe. More Creativity coverage from Ad Age: Sign up for our daily Creativity newsletter to see the best stories of the day.

Axe makes guys smell a little too sweet in slapstick comic spots

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