Axe the jet
Lynley Donnelly
Watching the new AxeJet ad nettles me. A bevy of airbrushed beauties, pandering to the pole dancing, pillow-fighting fantasies of men, is deeply annoying. But what overwhelms me as a woman watching ads like it is a sense of fatigue. Yet again, women are portrayed as tits and ass, catering to the whims of men.
In this case the corporate machine in question is Unilever. The very same company that brings us Omo, Rama and a number of other household products. Let us also not forget the accompanying multitude of mind-numbing ads featuring happy soccer moms popping their children’s filthy washing into the machine or cooking up feasts for their families.
The ad depicts a fantasy airline where the all-male passengers are waited on by luscious ‘mostesses” in short skirts and high heels. They will go the extra mile for their passengers, including having pillow fights for the guys to watch, and snuggling up to their passengers while they sleep. Needless to say some of the most hackneyed, clichéd examples of male fantasies are used to sell Axe deodorant.
Of course, the mostesses on Axe’s fantasy jet, as I am sure marketers will argue, are all ‘consenting adults”. They are sexually liberated women who enjoy being, and supposedly choose to be, the object of men’s desire. They shout at consumers, male and female alike, ‘Come on all you frumpy ladies out there, rid yourselves of your sexual repression — if you have it, flaunt it; if those slobbering men out there want it, milk them for all they are worth!”
The fact that so many girls, according to Axe’s brand manager, have attempted to sign on as mostesses suggests that we females are up for this kind of game. So this is really about liberating females from that chaste, suffocating ideal of purity that caused our sex so much trouble in the first place.
But does ‘raunch culture”, as some term it, serve women at all? All it’s done, it seems to me, is let men objectify women, while making women believe that this state of affairs is what they have chosen. Not to mention that it panders to the worst assumptions of men. Men, it says, are devoid of responsibility for the choices they make when their dicks are factored into the equation.
And what is depressing is that AxeJet went ahead and made the concept a reality. Its media sponsors got on board with great alacrity and it will, no doubt, generate great enthusiasm among its target market. I wish I believed better of the men out there, but if I judge them based on this campaign, I shouldn’t. They’ll lap the AxeJet up and buy as many Axe products as possible to get on board with the mostesses. But then I’m probably just a weight-lifting, man basher.
It’s all about ego
Kwanele Sosibo
In most Axe adverts, women are not objectified as much as they provide support to the caricature of the men portrayed. They are merely complicit extras there to provide the ambiance.
Axe adverts have nothing to do with women. Their preoccupation is with a representation of the male ego that has very little to do with reality. The ego (which happens to be Axe brand’s former name in this country), at least in the Freudian sense, represents the man at his most balanced, always testing reality and in control of his intellectual faculties. When one looks at the ego in this sense, one can see that these commercials have no bearing on reality and do not purport to do so.
I cannot imagine anyone viewing these ads, unless of course they fall outside of the brand’s intended target market, and reaching the conclusion that using Axe products is going to enhance their chances of scoring. Having protection at the ready might do that.
I’m inclined to agree with assistant brand manager Jordan Wallace when he says that his target market understands fantasy. But in selling this fantasy to their audience, Axe is guilty of making men seem ‘id-ridden”, as in driven solely by impulses and the desire for instant gratification. One in particular, which I’m told won a Loerie, is a tad xenophobic and plays on tired stereotypes about foreign black men and the fears of their South African counterparts
In this ad, a South African man, with the whole neighbourhood in tow, confronts a foreign Casanova-type who has hypnotised the man’s girlfriend with a magic potion he sprays on his chest. The foreign guy is cool and unfazed. The South African man backed by the whole neighbourhood and flanked by two particularly coonish minions, is in an insecure rage as the swaggering, big dick, muti-using foreign stud has lured his only girl into a dingy downtown harem. The ad, all pidgin English and blaxploitation era motifs, infers that foreign men are pimps and they will break your girl in, given half the chance. Although satirical in tone, I’m not quite sure how the ad went down with the various nationalities we have present in this country
Of course, women feature in the ad. There is a brief booty shot here and a bra shot there as his ‘lovers” parade in the background of the dimly lit lair. But what is at play here is the South African male’s inferiority complex with which he approaches his continental brothers, who have ‘taken his women and jobs”.
In an article on black women’s portrayal in hip-hop, Washington DC writer Jennifer McLune writes that ‘most patriarchal organisations have women in their ranks in search of power and meaning”, which brings me to the AxeJet and its mostesses.
AxeJet mostesses openly swing on phalluses (the Jet’s nose) in body language that seems to suggest a precarious balance of power that they are well aware of. In this patriarchal society, there are codes one adopts if one wants to survive. It is all over popular culture. Beyonce, Patra, Shakira, Li’l Kim and Foxy Brown, to name a few, flaunt what they figure makes them desirable to men and will do so until they cannot make a single dollar out of it. It is the informed choice they have made. No man is objectifying these mostesses. They are doing it to themselves, for that paycheck and that illusion of power, however fleeting.
AxeJet: the facts
Hold on to your pants boys — the AxeJet cometh.
You have no doubt seen the TV advertisement? A plane that flies exclusively male passengers, staffed by an ensemble of gorgeous, pillow-fighting, pole-dancing mini-skirts to cater to every passenger’s desires.
This little marketing gem has been plucked from every man’s most cherished mile-high fantasy and brought to life right here in South Africa.
Metro FM, 5fm and the Sunday Times have climbed on board the campaign in which guys can win tickets to the AxeJet — a real plane destined for the party island of Ibiza, in August. What’s more, it will be staffed by those hot fillies you’ve seen TV. There will also be ‘racy in-flight entertainment” options provided by the ‘mostesses”.
Local celebrity DJs Roger Goode, Bad Boy T and DJ Fresh will be accompanying the winners to Ibiza where they will be playing sets at various island venues. All guys need to do is, of course, buy an Axe product and then SMS the barcode to stand a chance of winning one of 16 coveted seats. The rest will be reserved for Axe, their media partners and a list of local celebrities, currently being compiled by Axe.
A further five tickets will be reserved for bidding for non-competition winners.
Axe assistant brand manager, Jordan Wallace, says that since word has spread, they have received hundreds of emails from air hostesses just dying to become mostesses on the AxeJet. What’s more, dozens of pilots have written in asking to fly the plane, says Wallace.
The campaign is similar to that of Axe campaigns in Australia and New Zealand (where the brand is know as Lynx). In Australia, an attempt was made to create a Lynx Jet through one of the national carriers, but it failed when the airline, Jetstar, pulled out.
Wallace says that the campaign, aimed at all South African guys between 16 and 24, is ‘light in tone and doesn’t cross the line” when it comes to how women and air hostesses are portrayed. He cites the response that the AxeJet has had from so many air hostesses, as an example of its universal appeal.
The flight to Ibiza is a once-off event, but, says Wallace, its success will be ‘evaluated” on its return from the island. Depending on how that goes, there may be opportunity for another fantasy flight to this exotic destination! Ooooo, hold me back! — Lynley Donnelly