Last month Generate, a division of digital content studio Defy Media, teamed up with Mindshare Entertainment to launch a new campaign for Axe called “Shower Thoughts” which, it turned out, took its concept directly from the subreddit of the same name. The first spot was based on a single comment.
Now, following the company’s apology, there’s another addition to the campaign. Now the ad credits the Redditor who came up with its idea.
This time around the shower thought, which is attributed to Jack Schofield at the opening of the spot, concerns “dressing to impress.” When everyone does that, the ad posits, no one is impressed at all. The ad manages to wrangle that idea into a suggestion to wear electric blue suit to stand out. (But then, again, if everyone does that…you know what never mind.)
The spot, which unlike the original ad in the series doesn’t benefit from at least having the charm of Muggsy Bogues, falls pretty flat both in concept and execution.
You’d think, with a massive subreddit of ideas to choose from, they could find something better than this one. The execution drags on and doesn’t make much sense: the new guy is confused with a guy who has been there for ten years just because they’re wearing the same suit?
At any rate, if Generate and Axe want to keep this campaign fresh they’re going to have to dig a bit deeper into that subreddit. Maybe the guy whose idea informed the first ad can bring something better to the table.
But it could be worse: At least the brand isn’t stealing from r/TheRedPill or r/The_Donald.