Unilever’s Axe brand has been moving away from the sex-fueled image that first gave it notoriety and eventually turned into self-parody as the brand aims to attract a slightly older demographic than the hormonal adolescents those ads courted, and BBH New York’s latest effort for the brand’s White Label line, “Hotel” (featured above) continues that trend. The ad will make its broadcast debut on January 1st, during the College Football Playoffs.
“Hotel” follows a well-dressed man and those impressed by him, with voiceover providing their internal monologues as they guess just what it is the man does. These range from a woman who assumes he’s a movie to star, to a young boy who believes he’s super-spy, to an elderly gentleman who thinks he’s a comedian. Things go over-the-top when a dog offer the interpretation that “No, he won Best in Show.” At the end of the ad, the man’s true profession is revealed.
The strategy, clearly, is to promote Axe not simply for sex appeal but instead as a sign of distinction and a confidence-booster, as exemplified by the tagline, “How you feel says it all.”
“If you’ve ever been in a restaurant in L.A. and someone with confidence walks in the door, the whole restaurant turns and looks at that guy,” Ari Weiss, executive creative director of BBH, New York, told AdAge. “There’s always this assumption that he must be famous.”