Ok, the answer to this is wrong, of course. But the real question is, does referencing incest in advertising come across as funny and clever, or just plain gross?
In Axe's most recent advertisement, a guy is attracted to his sister as a creepy side effect to huffing Axe. For those of you unfamiliar with Axe, it became famous on the premise that spraying four dollar man musk on yourself could attract hot women by the thousands.
Normally I find these ads pretty funny because they usually involve somewhat awkward situations. Also, I can appreciate how incredibly successful these ads have been in convincing 14 year old boys to purchase Axe. This campaign essentially made Axe a household name with teens.
But, this recent ad misses the mark for me. I think parodying the anti drug campaign will certainly be effective in appealing to teens, but I would have picked another undesirable hook up, like an unattractive granny librarian, over his sister. I feel the idea of incest reaches a whole other level of uncomfortable that kills some of the humor.
In life and in advertising, incest just seems wrong to me... then again I am not Axe's target audience.
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I also think that the Axe commercials have been a hilarious success in attracting the attention of young boys with the premise that spraying yourself with cheap cologne will attract beautiful women. Although several of their ads have been ripped from the airwaves, it hasn't been anything but a success. The more controverial they are, the more attention they get, even though they are not even on tv anymore. With the help of YouTube and ifilm, among others, the Axe commercials can be viewed over and over again targeting an audience that keeps the young boys coming back for more. One of the most recent ones that I've found on YouTube is of an average guy using Axe body wash and teaching an aerobics class, with some pretty explicit sexual inuendo. How many young boys aren't going to want to use a product like that?
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now. Keep it up!
And according to this article, I totally agree with your opinion, but only this time! :)
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