AXE | PREMATURE PERSPIRATION | 2011
The courage to talk about "premature sweating" as a man's problem / AXE "PREMATURE PERSPIRATION"
When I saw this Argentine ad from 2011, I couldn't help but laugh. I mean, "premature perspiration" — even the name is already a metaphor for that other thing.
The problem
AXE dominated the body spray market, but was struggling in antiperspirants, the products that actually stop sweat. To launch their new product, Axe Full Control, they needed to tackle the sweat problem head-on.
The insight
CEO Hernan Ponce said they "swapped a story about male performance for one about armpits." Instead of focusing on heat, they zeroed in on the sweat that bursts out from nervousness or embarrassment, and renamed it as a symptom every man secretly dreads. It's a structure where everyone recognizes "that other thing" without it ever being said out loud.
The idea
They made four commercials: Premature Perspiration, Distance, Bowling, and Mother. Getting your thigh touched, licking a lollipop — small triggers that send a man into a waterfall of sweat, played purely for comedy. The ads drove people to a dedicated website, and on Facebook there was a feature letting you paste a friend's face into the latest commercial and send it to them.
What happened
The campaign won a Gold Lion in Film at Cannes 2011, as well as a Grand Effie in Argentina. AXE's antiperspirant sales, already the top in the market, grew by 11.7% in six months.
Afterthought
Turning something awkward to talk about into comedy — and still driving sales. AXE has built its whole identity around this approach, but this one pushes it further than most. Honestly, I'd love to get to work on something like this myself.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2011
