Humour has long been an effective marketing tool in beauty, and deodorant brand Lynx had established itself as the top dog for funny and memorable advertising.
The Unilever-owned brand – known as Axe outside of the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and China – first launched in France in 1983 and soon gained a reputation in the 1990s and early noughties for risque and laddish marketing, primarily through its Lynx Effect campaigns.
The earliest of these was an advert released in 1996, promoting the now-discontinued Lynx Inca range and starring actress Jennifer Aniston, shortly after the now mega celebrity’s career was kicking off with US sitcom Friends.
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Although the advert and its goofy-looking main lead are so very 1990s, it hurts, the ridiculous premise and star-studded nature of the short campaign set the stage for Lynx to become a household name.
Its marketing has only evolved since then, and truly came alive during the early 2010s, where some of its most iconic advertising campaigns were delivered.
This includes Fallen Angels, created to promote Lynx’s Excite range, and made famous for its depictions of angels falling from the sky after a man applies the deodorant.
Lynx Chocolate Man, meanwhile, is a 42-second television spot that sees a man turn entirely into chocolate after applying the Chocolate deodorant, claiming to smell irresistible to various women he encounters.
“Lynx’s Chocolate Man advert is probably one of our most iconic pieces of communication from the past,” says Caroline Gregory, Global Brand Director, AXE/Lynx.
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