ewwwwwwwwwww.

Thanks for reminding me why I avoid the commercial deodorant industry!

I've never even liked the smell of Axe. It smells like middle school. Ew. I've never had the pleasure of evaluating Tag, but it makes me want to roll my eyes and walk away.

Actually, the only real flaw in my otherwise perfect and feminist boyfriend is that he wears Axe. Yuck. It's not even the commercials, the smell gets to me.

The good thing is that Axe has a very distinctive smell, so if I can smell that more than 3 feet away from a guy, I can tell that I don't want to be around him for other reasons. It's convenient!

Tag smells just as bad as Axe, and their commercials are just as offensive/stupid.

At least someone else agrees with me on this. Whenever I call these commercials on being offensive, people just go "awww".

One of these days I'm going to spray Axe in their eyes.

Crappy, yes, but not as bad as the latest Axe(?)commercials with the "Now with added 'bow chinkca wow wow" ads with women mouthing into porno music every time a guy with the Axe scent walks by. I thought those were stupid.

The only acceptable deodorant flavor is "unscented." The only acceptable body spray is the one that comes out of the wall above your bathtub.

You know what, thinking this over again, I think wearing Axe is one of those things that guys do to signal something to other men, and has nothing to do with attracting women. It's like growing a goatee with no mustache: guys who wear them will say it's to get girls, but pretty much any woman who has dated a dude with chin hair tolerates the look rather than actively liking it. But what these behaviors do clearly say to other men is "I am definitely not gay."

tps12: I think you are onto something there! The 1/2 goatee thing has always perplexed me. And I agree, "unscented" is always the best choice, on men and on women.

the frustration is that it is so hard to FIND unscented - there are companies that don't even seem to make it at all.

Lisa27:
Mitchum makes unscented deodorant, and it's fairly common where I live.

These ads are over the top, but I think they actually make an interesting point about the ridiculous nature of advertising in America. The idea that you'll get women if you use X product is omnipresent in advertising for every product. These ads just take it to a logical conclusion: if you buy TAG/AXE, you'll be torn to shreds by ravenous females. (Or something along those lines. The line between sex and violence is very blurry in these ads.) I think if these ads were satirical (ala Adbusters) they would be very effective in their satire.

Technically it's only a goatee when there is no mustache; with a mustache it's a Van Dyke.

Some ads that aren't as offensive but are just as stupid are Men's razor commercials, specifically Gilette. They have what I imagine a 5-year old's dream of manhood to be- the razor is fast (mach3) and has airplanes in it then there's a pretty girl at the end. Who writes this shit? It's so dumb. Yeah, fast razor! I am awesome!

There's also the "men love the latest technology" razor commercial.

I remember seeing this one on the tube and changing the channel. And I'll second (third?) the unscented-only sentiment (scentiment?). My favorite is the hippy rock salt deoderant.

My former roommate wore Axe, and I can tell you, not once did I jump off a trampoline and ravage him.

I think it's incredibly hot when men don't wear deodorant at all. You know the, "I bathe and wear clean clothes but today I went outside and got a little sweaty" smell? Give me that over the, "I'm wearing fifty-six different chemicals" smell, please.

I think it's been
established that smell plays an important part in female sexual attraction, but, ironically, the pheromones responsible are found in sweat.

Augh. Not only is the product itself absolutely disgusting, the commercials are too. What am I supposed to find attractive about a man who a) thinks I'm there just for his sexual pleasure and b) wears a horrible cologne that no one really likes?

Rumpuskat - I'm with you. I had this boyfriend in high school and he smelled like sweat and leather (he wore a leather jacket), and every time I leaned against him I wanted to melt.

Deoderant/cologne/perfume all smells like rubbing alcohol to me, anyway.