Axe | Imamother

chavamom

Mon, Nov 21 2005, 4:35 pm

It's a line of deoderant/body spray/body wash. Do your boys use it? I thought it was just a 'thing' at my older boys' school, but my mother teaches high school in another town and she said it is all the rage there. So at first, I was glad that my boys were taking an interest in um, personal hygeine. I bought them the deo. at their request and then the body wash. Hey, one of my sons can take a 30 minute shower and come out still smelling like the basketball game he played before he went in! So a request for body wash sounded great.

Well, yesterday, I picked up one of the bottles of body wash and in addition to noticing that the illustration on the front is NOT a flame like I thought, but a female and male phoenix rising out of a flame and the male appears to be pulling the female close (it is very subtle, and *does* look like flames - and the pictures are different on different scents), the text on the back says something about how using the product will cause "unrelenting female attention and/or late nights" shock

. BLECH! Just what I need to be providing for my boys. So now I'm wondering, should I just take the labels off? Boycott on principle? Hope they haven't noticed? Sigh. And they were smelling so much cleaner!

IndyMom

Mon, Nov 21 2005, 5:11 pm

I bought some for my husband last time he needed deoderant. I thought the packaging looked cool an di am a sucker for marketing. I didn't even notice the connotations you mentioned! I'm sure my husband didnt notice. I wouldn't buy it again.

Tefila

Mon, Nov 21 2005, 6:15 pm

Quote:

(it is very subtle, and *does* look like flames - and the pictures are different on different scents), the text on the back says something about how using the product will cause "unrelenting female attention and/or late nights" . BLECH! Just what I need to be providing for my boys.

Huh I never saw it and here I've been buying it for them for awhile shock

cindy324

Mon, Nov 21 2005, 7:11 pm

Yep , it really says that on the bottle! For those of you that don't have a TV, you have not seent he commercials! It goes like this: A quite nerdy guy sprays himself with Axe, gets into an elevator full of beautiful women, the door closes. A few secs later the elevator door opens and Mr. Nerd looks all disheveled, like the women were trying to rip his clothes off. Why do you think it's all the rage with the boys??! Sorry, I don't believe in their innocence Wink

BlumaG

Mon, Nov 21 2005, 11:03 pm

my bro in law uses it but like a colgne to some degree, he knows cologne isnt so chassidish and his parents dont like him to use it so he practically bathes in axe. I noticed the sybols on the back right away, I dunno if I would let my boys use it, well I dont have any boys now but I am saying I the future, try TAG, its similar, see if it works

chavamom

Tue, Nov 22 2005, 11:38 pm

Uh - we don't have a tv and their friends don't have tv's. And my son is in a class of only 7 boys, so yes we are pretty clear on who has a tv and who doesn't (there are kids in the school that have tv's and it's not a place where it's considered 'assur', so it's not a secret). Not to mention that they don't have time to watch the tv.

We don't make a huge deal saying tv is "forbidden'. They have seen it on rare occassions and it was never secretive. But glad you have the inside scoop on my kids. Rolling Eyes

Backatcha

micki

Wed, Nov 23 2005, 9:06 am

Quote:

chavamom wrote:
Well, none of us have seen the TV ad here.

Right

I think she meant us posters. it sounds chavamom like you are saying none of us posters have seen the...

I don't think she meant you!

cindy324

Wed, Nov 23 2005, 10:00 am

Yes micki that's what I meant, it wasn't meant about your kids. But since you brought up the issue with the boys not watching TV, I just kind of think, they must've seen something either on TV or the magazines, otherwise why would it be so popular?! Actually my "sucker for marketing" husband bought it after he saw the ad, which I thought was hysterical. I always tease him before he leaves the house "Well did you put on the Axe, never know if you might end up in an elevator LOL

carrot

Wed, Nov 23 2005, 11:17 am

cindy324 wrote:

I think once something becomes "cool" it can take off independant of whether kids see ads for it or not. Maybe one or two kids saw the ads. Or maybe one or two kids knew one or two kids who saw the ads and caught it from them... I remember in hs we got into many "fads" without anybody having a television. Maybe there were a few illicit teen magazines, but even those were not common. Sometimes I think it is possible to catch these things from the air.

I don't think the boys are unaware of the message of Axe's ads, but that might not be the primary reason they're into it. It might just be this year's cool thing and that's it.

chavamom

Wed, Nov 23 2005, 1:44 pm

Hm - I do think it has more to do with the fact that it is 'in' at school. That was what led to the request to buy it.

Sorry about the defensive post above. It sounded like you were implying that my kids were sneaking around watching TV. They do occassionally see it (they saw one of the world series games was one of the last things they saw), but they don't sneak around to do it. Like I said, this is not Brooklyn, no one will get expelled from school if it is 'found out' and it's usually just a non-issue. While I hate the 'idiot box', I do have to say that I worry more about them seeing the advertisements than the shows they would be interested in! (baseball is about all they want to see)

chavamom

Wed, Nov 23 2005, 1:50 pm

Oh, and I took the labels off the bottles that were in the shower. So, I noticed this morning that there was another bottle and someone else had taken off the picture and text! I guess my boys did notice. Funny thing is, the picture from the one they removed is not offensive.