Deodorant Advertising and 'The Rakhi Sawant Effect'

Was just flipping through channels sometime back and noticed a few advertisements predominantly in the Male Deodorant segment having already present high recall brand like Axe and the newly launched brands like WildStone, Fuel and Denver.

Couldn't help but notice that the whole category is just working on the 'Attract women' platform. No matter how stupid it may sound, in India, Deodorant as a category anyways doesn't sell as much depending on how it 'smells' but how it 'attracts'.Axe has done wonders internationally on the same positioning and the easiest way to replicate the same model is to 'lift' the positioning bit too. Nothing wrong with that. But i have a problem with the execution of the positioning. There is a difference between being naughty using verbal undertones and just being plain sleazy

Fuel : Ignite the Fire!!!

A Desert, Guy at a petrol pump, Sprays Fuel Deodorant, a HOT girl comes near, Smells the guy, and opens her shirt to flaunt her cleavage and bra, pulls the guy towards her!!!



Denver: Ride your luck!!

A Desert, Two guys walking (One Hunk, the other ' boy next door' types), A HOT girl driving a bike, The boy next door sprays, the girl moves towards the pillion position in the 'Sleaziest manner possible'!!!!


Wild Stone: Wild by Nature!!

Well. ALL have either seen or heard about the Ad. And may be THATs the idea as well. Just start a word of mouth and increase brand recall. Girl smells the deodorant off her brother in law, is attracted towards him, pretends to have sprained her leg and makes him pick her up and in the last shot its established that the guy is actually married to her sister!!! Now can you get ANY cheaper than this?? I guess not..



I think this sort of an advertising can be termed as 'The Rakhi Sawant Effect'. I thoroughly understand that this sort of sleazy advertising could actually be a strategy to generate some cheap publicity and word of mouth, in order to increase brand recall, much like Ms Sawant who would go to any limits just to be in the public eye. The 'Rakhi ka Swayamwar' however stupid it may sound, but the bottom line is people are watching it and the TRPs will prove this point pretty soon. Same is the case with these advertisements, the idea is just to generate Top of Mind recall and nothing else.

With Hundreds of brands available in the marketplace and add to that a low involvement purchase behavior, it becomes imperative for the brand to be able to stand out on the shelf and if the consumer can atleast RECOGNIZE the brand on the shelf. The probability of the purchase getting through increases manifold.

Logical : Yes. Strategy: May be. Execution : No.

I believe that the same recall could have been provided by the agency through slightly more 'Creative' and less 'sleazy' campaigns. But, as they say sometimes, the end justifies the means and ANY publicity is Good Publicity!!!