This week’s Ad of the Week was produced by BBH for Axe (known as Lynx in the UK, Ireland and Australasia). BBH’s ads for Axe have a lot to live up to – last year BBH won the Grand Prix in Creative Effectiveness for its Axe Angels campaign (the epic story of a young man whose deodorant enables him to win the hearts of angels), and at first glance this ad stands every chance of being a contender for the same award.
Young men are routinely patronised by the advertising industry and most ads fail to communicate with young men as they really are. Instead, advertisers tend to market to the laddish personas some young men project. However, in reality just about every single young man is helplessly infatuated with someone they don’t have the courage to make eye contact with, let alone approach. ‘Susan Glenn’ taps into this beautifully, and somehow manages to transform a young man’s choice of deodorant into a decision that could have lifelong consequences.
