Axeism
Final Project Group Report
On this final project, we, Marwan, Wazif,
Albert and Amir have decided to re-design an advertisement of a deodorant brand
called Axe in the context of Malaysia. Since we are doing on the brand called
Axe, we decided to name our group Axeism. This ad was published as a video on Youtube
by the AxeMalaysia page on the 25th October of 2012 and called Axe Effect - See
Where It Takes You -. In this video, it is seen that the women who act as
the nurses, doctors and patients are attracted to the smell coming from a man
in his ward. The video shows these women sniffing and going on top of the man
to show how strong the Axe Effect really is thus how it can help men attract
beautiful women.
The advertisement focuses more on the
younger generations whom are active on the Internet and are open to the sexual
connotation portrayed in the video. Thus why the video was published on Youtube
instead of being aired on television. Some taboos like; indecent behaviour,
soft porn, nudity, criticizing and making contents which are offensive to a
specific religion and Malaysian culture, have not been broken in public TV and
even cable channels (Kee C.P, Year). Axe
are known for their sexual/seductive adverts and famous for "giving guys
the edge in the mating game". Axe promises guys with confidence and
seduction through their fragrances and Axe’s general target audiences are
men in between 15-25 years old (Advertising in Education, 2013). The strategy is such that it gives men the
motivation boost, high in confidence and women will make the first move (Sharma
C, Kozhikode I, 2011).
There are a few reasons why we feel the
current video advertisement of Axe needs a change. Firstly, the video is only
published on Youtube, although Youtube has an average of 800 million visitors
per month on their website (Youtube,
2013). The advertisement requires more attraction to get more views as it
is based on searches and pop up links on the side. Hence, if people do not
search for it and the concept of the video or the starting of the video lacks
attraction. The ad will not successfully be delivered to the people (Conner, 2012). And secondly, the
connotation that the video shows does not match the culture of the Malaysian society.
Addition to that, in Malaysia, a sex education book is banned. The book has
elements that undermine societal morals and public interests. The book
also has cartoon visuals, which narrate the reproductive process (Readablethings. 2012). That shows
how a video as such would not be suitable for Malaysia audience and needs to be
re-designed.
Instead
of a video format done by the AxeMalaysia page on Youtube, we have decided to
use print media to communicate our design concept. Among the ways of using print media is by
putting the designs on billboards, magazine spreads and newspapers. We are
making a series for this advertisement using three designs with the same
concept on three different print mediums. We feel that through print media, the
advertisement can generate optimum impact to the audience and not to mention, focus
more on the specific target audience. Billboards create a big
impact to viewers, not just by the first glance. Billboards are placed
at strategic locations with heavy traffic causing drivers and passerby's
of the road/highway to notice it (Sathishisaac,
2011). Print Media such as Magazines on the other hand have a specific
target audience it reaches out to (Contentmanagementsoftwares,
Year). As for Axe, it can appear in men's fashion, health and sports
magazines to cater the needs and style of its readers. To relate the design to
Malaysian culture, we chose to use food in our design. Food and humans are
similar in the way that both have odor and appearance. Humans are attracted to
others with good odor and repulse those with bad odor (Youbeauty, 2013). Apart
from that, we also found a quote that shows how much people love the food in
Malaysia, which says;
“Eating (and loving) Malaysian food should be a prerequisite
for anyone proclaiming to be a gastronome. The holy amalgamations of Malaysian
flavors are strengthened, not only by fierce spices, but by a group of people
that are intensely passionate about their cuisine." (Weins, 2011)
The following
are our re-designed advertisement for Axe:
The comparing concept came from the Tom's deodorant print ad. In
addition to our research, which shows Malaysian people are obsessed with
comestibles (Weins M. 2011), we
decided to compare two fruits as a metaphor of smell, one with a bad smell and
the other with a good smell.
We found that the only Malaysian fruit which have
unpleasant smell but taste good is Durian (durianinfo,
2011).
Our research about a nice smell fruit led us to Strawberry.
Strawberry is a symbol of beauty, life, sexuality and it also has a nice smell (camerahighland, year). Durian has a
bad smell and does not look good. It symbolizes untidiness and the bad odor
despite its good taste (durianinfo,
2011)
The typo in this advertisement is saying that a man may look untidy and
dirty, but if he uses Axe, he will smell like a Strawberry and seem more
attractive.
Food:
For the unpleasant food, our research led us to Belacan,
a food with a strong fishy smell but is commonly used to add more flavor in
Malaysian food (Great Penang, 2012). We
used Ais Batu Campur as a comparison due its pleasant smell and taste. So
people can relate to how good it taste (srinongka,
year).
Drinks: Milk was used due its effect on people with lactose
intolerance and it shows how it can cause discomfort to a person. (Webmd, 2011) A drink that smells is Teh
Tarik, which has a good smell and good taste. It is also very famous among
Malaysians and Tourists for its unique brewing style and sweet taste. (Rodgers G, Year).
References:
Mark Weins.
2011. migrationology. [ONLINE] Available at: http://migrationology.com/2011/04/10-best-malaysian-foods/. [Accessed 28 June 13].
Youbeauty.
2013. Youbeauty. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.youbeauty.com/relationships/attraction-scent#.. [Accessed 28 June 13].
Satishisaac. (2011). Advantages of
Billboard Advertising in Promotional Campaigns. [Online]. 10th January
2011. Available at: http://echodgraphics.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/advantages-of-billboard-advertising-in-promotional-campaigns/
[Accessed: 9th June
2013]
contentmanagementsoftwares.
(Year). Benefits of Advertising Through Print Media. [Online] date.
Available at:http://www.contentmanagementsoftwares.net/Benefits_of_advertising_through_print_media.htm
Conner C.
(2012). Advantages and Disadvantages of Venturing to Youtube Marketing.
[Online]. 7th November 2012. Available at: http://www.dailydealmedia.com/789advantages-and-disadvantages-of-venturing-to-youtube-marketing/ [Accessed: 9th June 2013].
Readablethings.
2012. Malaysia Bans Sex Education book. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://thisismyworld.net/myblogs/blogs/readablethings.php/malaysia-bans-sex-education-book [Accessed 17 June 2013].
Sharma C, Kozhikode
I, 2011, What Makes Axe Campaign A Success? Consumer Behavior Perspective,
[Online] Available at:
http://www.managementcanvas.iimindore.in/icanvas/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=134:chetna-sharma&catid=34:marketing-and-branding&Itemid=56 [Accessed: 28th May 2013]
Advertising In
Education, 2013, Axe Anarchy Case Study, [Online] Available at:
http://advertisingineducation.org/bulletin/?p=283 [Accessed: 29th May 2013]
Youtube
Admin. Demographics - Youtube [ONLINE].
Available at: http://www.youtube.com/yt/advertise/demographics.html. [last accessed: 6th June 2013]
Kee,
C.P, 2011. 42 Film Censorship In Malaysia: Sanction of Religious, Cultural and
Moral Values. 42 FILM CENSORSHIP IN MALAYSIA: [Online]. Available: http://academia.edu/239278/FILM_CENSORSHIP_IN_MALAYSIA_SANCTIONS_OF_RELIGIOUS_CULTURAL_AND_MORAL_VALUES [Accessed 27 June 2013].
Teh
Tarik - Introduction, Tradition, and Recipe for Malaysian Teh Tarik. 2013. Teh
Tarik - Introduction, Tradition, and Recipe for Malaysian Teh Tarik. [ONLINE]
Available at: http://goseasia.about.com/od/malaysianculturepeople/a/teh_tarik.htm. [Accessed 30 June 2013].
Air
Batu Campur Sri Nongka. 2013. AIR BATU CAMPUR SRI NONGKA. [ONLINE] Available
at: http://srinongka.blogspot.com. [Accessed 30 June 2013].
WebMD.
2013. Lactose Intolerance Symptoms, Causes, Treatments, Tests. [ONLINE]
Available at: http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/tc/lactose-intolerance-topic-overview. [Accessed 30 June 2013].
Durian
Info. 2013. Durian Info. [ONLINE] Available at: http://durianinfo.blogspot.com. [Accessed 30 June 2013].
Cameron
Highlands. 2013. Cameron Highlands. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.cameronhighland.net. [Accessed 30 June 2013]
Design picture credits
ChatteringKitchen. 2012.
Understand Malaysian Cuisine. [ONLINE] Available at: http://chatteringkitchen.com/2012/04/02/understanding-malaysian-cuisine-5-things-to-order-at-a-mamak-stall/
[Accessed at 29th June 2013]
WDICT. 2013. Grain Milk.
[ONLINE] Available at: http://wdict.net/word/grain+milk/ [Accessed at 29th June 2013]
Chris Wong. 2011. Chris’s
Blog, Celcom releasing IPhone 4 package tomorrow. [ONLINE] Available at: http://chriswong.tv/2011/05/page/3/ [Accessed at 29th June 2013]
Just Creative ads. 2011.
Preperation H magazine spread. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.justcreativeads.com/print-poster/preparation-cheels/attachment/preperation-h_-magazine-spread/[Accessed at 29th June 2013]
Sumptuous. 2011. Nyonya
Restaurant @ PJ SS2. [ONLINE] Available at: http://sumptuousblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/nyonya-restaurant-ss2/ [Accessed at 29th June 2013]
Alam Pauh. 2011. ABC The way
I like it. [ONLINE] Available at: http://alampauh.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html [Accessed at 29th June 2013]
.
2013. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTA_FtItOikkFcSjtirenOWDiOEr3pioEwkxwThrW-AiC8R8ob5. [Accessed 30 June
2013].
.
2013. . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.radiok.org/files/6213/6447/1627/strawberry-reference.jpg. [Accessed 30 June
2013].
.
2013. . [ONLINE] Available at: https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSZq5LRfUOqOF6l8taSfGDRe42uAwagWKa8etYHx6P6tGVbY_iB. [Accessed 30 June
2013].
dafont.com.
2013. dafont.com. [ONLINE] Available at: http://dafont.com. [Accessed 30 June
2013].
Mockup Everything | Realistic Mockups For
Designers. 2013. Mockup Everything | Realistic Mockups For Designers. [ONLINE]
Available at: http://mockupeverything.com.
[Accessed 30 June 2013].
