We don't usually...okay, we never go for the junior-high, Maxim-y, girl-on-girl-biking-mud-wrestling approach to advertising that AXE body spray takes; we much prefer Unilever's other, more uplifting approach to personal care products (which makes them big fat hypocrites, but that's another story). However, we caught one AXE ad on TV the other day (our carpel-tunnelled thumbs failed the Tivo remote) and it was actually really good: boyfriend walks into the bedroom from the shower; girlfriend on the bed takes notice; they start to wrestle, tickle, cuddle, throw each other around, cuddle some more in their incredibly modest underwear. It was actually really sweet and, yes, sexy (not a term we bandy about lightly).

Then the next day our intern Joanna said she'd been perusing the NYTimes and came upon an interactive online ad for AXE Skin Contact:

In trying to show that AXE makes women want to touch men, the ad allows the user to interact with two scantily dressed people: if you click and drag you can put them into interesting positions. On my first click the girl ended up with her head in the guys crotch--and I wasn't even trying to get them into position (at least not yet). Then  this woman pops out from the corner of the ad and makes commentary based on how much 'skin contact' there is--apparently giving a blowjob is only 14 percent and that is no good. 

It sounded like that could be two steps back for AXE, so we went searching for it online. Alas, we couldn't find it (was Joanna mistaken about the Times placement or had somebody over there realized commercials about BJ's weren't in keeping with the paper of record's reputation?). However, in our travels, we did find their short mockumentary on how good girls go bad once they get a whiff of AXE. And, surprisingly enough, that is some funny shit.

Now, we like to play that Gloria Steinem game--take any scenario and switch the gender roles to sniff out the sexism--and this ad would definitely not be cool if guys were sexually attacking women. (We'll say it again: NOT cool.) But no matter how staunch a feminist you are (sensitive ponytail guy or gal), we dare you not to laugh. We consider ourselves pretty hardcore, and this cracked us up. Seriously, the PR guy is genius.