Sunday, March 4, 2012

Media Moment, "AXE Noah's Ark Commercial."


Being a Christian is something I truly take to heart so when I came across this Axe commercial, mirrored from the Bible story of Noah’s Ark, I was beyond LIVID!


Trying to type a full explanation of the immoral content of this ad, not only for Christians but also for females, would cause my keyboard to catch on fire so I will keep this in bulleted format.

  •  The ad it itself is a blaspheme of God, the Bible and it’s message. The story was not built to secure women for sexual purposes of one man- FAR from the Biblical truth.  
  • Nowhere does it state in the Bible that Noah was a white man.
  •  Noah didn’t use signs of Anarchy or the world ending to build the ark- it was constructed on a message of salvation. 
  •  Biblically, the ark itself was built to house animals; a male and female of every kind so that once the Flood was over, there would be offspring (it was to house people as well, those willing to go). The women in this ad are belittled to animals in the same fashion, two of a kind. The Noah-like actor is their Sheppard, directing them to sexual escapades, exercise, poll dancing, music and other “goodies” in his life saving ark.
  •  The Axe cologne is the only thing that draws these animalistic women to the ark- not by their own sense of safety from the fast approaching anarchy.
  • The women shown were mostly white, longhaired, slim, wearing skimpy, extra short, extra tight or flimsy clothing exposing body parts and the pairs were almost always twins.
  • Notice that the fruit “Noah” was cutting to eat was in the shape of a woman’s bottom, not only objectifying a woman’s body but also sexualizing it.
  •  At the point of the world’s end, “Noah”, spraying Axe to save the women of the land can be seen as the male savior for all women.
  • Lyrics in the song says, “Oh no oh yes no man can walk alone, this is chemical/ this is critical,” which I assume means a man can’t be alone so its very important that he gets women to “walk” with him. This is done by a chemical reaction, which is in this case, the Axe men’s body spray.
  •  Throughout the whole ad, “Noah” has a dog, an actual animal (man’s best friend) faithfully by his side showing that these women are merely play pieces in his game. It’s not realistic for a woman to be trustworthy or loyal so he uses many for one purpose- sex.
  • “Have a happy end of the world” is said at the end playing on the cultural ideas of the Mayans that the world will end in 2012. This basically says, since we’re all going to die this year, guys get some Axe 2012 and wait for the women and sexual escapades to begin- let life end with a bang. And women, because these guys smell undeniably good, get ready to be sex slaves because you wont be able to resist.

 I may have missed a couple of things but overall this Axe advertisement is disgusting. I understand its creative, definitely unforgettable and risqué and that the company, Unilever (the same company that makes Dove and their “Campaign for Real Beauty”- how ironic) wants to make money but I feel like standards have gone too low.


What I’d like to know is why do you think Axe is using Christian Biblical stories to promote their brand (there was also a “Fallen Angels” commercial as well)? Why not use a Jewish custom, a Hindu story from the Bhagavad Gita, or something from another religion? Why even use religion at all? Do you think the advertisement would’ve gotten much more flack had it been a play on another belief other than Christianity? 


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