Buy It, Get Laid: The New Face of Sex in Advertising

 

Men and woman react to sexually provocative advertising in as much the same way they respond to sexual suggestions in real life.

In general, women tend to be more easily persuaded by ads that are more romantic than sexual, ones that emphasize commitment, devotion, and partnership.

Men respond to sexual innuendo and chics in bikinis, especially when the ads or commercials were leavened with a heaping dose of adolescent humor.

When we see attractive, scantily dressed young people advertising an energy drink or a brand of underwear or a new line of cosmetics, the mirror neurons in our brain allow us to imagine ourselves as being equally attractive and sexually desirable.

Dr. Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico, found, people are more likely to expend money and effort on products and activities if they’re first primed with photos of the opposite sex or stories about dating.

Axe brand was launched in 2002 by Unilever. Before then, Unilever probed the depths of our inner psyches – our hopes, dreams and daydreams.

First, the Unilever team conducted an extensive, in –depth online survey of 12 thousand guys aged 15 to 50 around the world. The survey contained a series of highly personal questions eg. “what is your strategy when you want to pick up a girl?”, “When do you feel really insecure?”, “when were you rejected by a girl?,  “What is your ideal sexual fantasy?”. Unilever wanted to identify male human truths.

The team then analyzed the research country by country. “The things that make men tick, that are the same no matter where you go, no matter where you were born or who you are.”

Based on the responses, the Axe team realized that the ultimate male fantasy Is not just to be found irresistible by a sexy women. It’s to be found irresistible by several sexy women. This was the ground breaking revelation that was soon to become the crux of Axe’s campaign.

Next, they accompanied roughly a hundred males aged 15 to 50 to the pubs till late (soberly, while secretly taking notes) watched them in action. Their goal was to see how these men would pick women out of the crowd and ultimately approach them. Eventually, through segmentation, they isolated 6 psychological profiles of the male animal – and the potential Axe user:

• The Predator : conceals his insecurity under a facade of swaggering bluster. He drives a brand-name car, adorns himself with high-end fashion brands, and is consistently on the prowl. He tends to target women who are out alone, preferably drunk ones he can easily take advantage of.

• Natural Talent: This is the intelligent, athletic, achieving, magnetic, naturally confident male; the kind of guy other guys want to be around and women find inherently appealing.

• The marriage-material guy: Gentle, respectful and self-confident. The kind of guy you want to bring home to mom (Despite what single ladies might tell you, according to Unilever’s research, they make up a pretty large segment in the young male population)

• Always the Friend: He’s the “sorry, but…. I like you more like a brother” kind of guy.

• The insecure novice: These poor young fellows haven’t the slightest idea what they are doing around women. They come across as creepy.

• The enthusiastic novice: They have no idea either, but they come across as eager rather than creepy. They might not score, but no one will tell them they aren't doing their best.

Now with all this data, the 1^st step was to figure out which of these 6 types of men was their best target. Ultimately, they decided the most obvious choice would be the insecure novice, followed by the enthusiastic novice, followed by the natural talent. Why? Well, the 1^st 2 segments, with their lack of self-esteem and experience, could be easily persuaded that Axe would be the key to enhanced success with women – they would be the key to enhanced success with women – they would spray it on to ramp up their self-confidence. The natural talent guys didn’t need a shot of self-confidence, but they could probably be convinced to use axe as a finishing touch before going out. 

So with their insecure novice as their primary target, Axe came up with a series of 30-second TV commercials that preyed on what its research had revealed to be the ultimate male fantasy. The message in the ads was : Use Axe and get laid.

The campaign was an instant hit, and Axe quickly became the number one male brand in the total anti-perspirant/deodorant category, earning Unilever $71 million in sales in 2006 and $186 million in 2007. Sales of the brand’s other products also shot up, because body sprays are often used as a “training fragrance”.

However, its success began to backfire. The problem is that it had worked too well in persuading novices to buy that it started being associated with pathetic losers by most high school and college aged males.

Despite its few stumbles, the wild success of Axe’s ad campaign show what can happen when a brand and its clever marketers probe and plug into our most private and deeply seeded sexual fantasies and desires