Axe - Getting dirty boys clean

Jonathan Bottomley, Gavin May and Mike Holmes

This campaign for the Axe (known as Lynx in the UK) shower range from 2003-05 aimed to change male attitudes to a fragrant shower product.
Agency: Bartle Bogle HegartyAuthors: Jonathan Bottomley, Gavin May and Mike Holmes

Axe – Getting dirty boys clean

INTRODUCTION

Growth is fundamental to the Unilever business.

The big question facing the company is: how to unlock it?

They have determined that the most efficient way to grow is to work their brands harder, through more focus, more extension and more geographical expansion. They needed to understand how to do this on a brand by brand basis.

So on one level, this is a story about how advertising drove the successful launch of a new shower gel range in...

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