The shower is a great place to think deep thoughts—or thoughts that seem deep in the moment, anyway. And Axe is capitalizing on that theme in a new campaign that naturally called "Shower Thoughts."
In the first video, a dude ponders the real meaning of haters calling him short—because when you stop and think about it, it's really a compliment. To support his logic, he conjures a scene starring none other than basketball legend Muggsy Bogues, who at 5-foot-3 is the shortest player ever to make the NBA.
Bogues, challenged by some clueless street ballers, takes them to school—vindicating shower guy and every other short man ever (though perhaps not petite Randy Moss).
Axe cooked up numbers to back its shower premise, hiring research firm Kelton to conduct a survey that found 91 percent of American men ages 18-34 agreed that showers make them feel more relaxed, while 78 percent said they think most clearly in the shower.
Generate, a division of digital content studio Defy Media, created the ad with Mindshare Entertainment, the branded content arm of media buying agency Mindshare. Designed to promote the brand's "Axe Black" body wash, the series will include two more videos. One will feature singer and YouTube personality Chester See, musing on the virtues of the tuba. The other will include Pretty Little Liars actor Brendan Robinson, talking up the importance of style.
If the initial release is any indication, it's a serviceable approach, so long as it sticks with the tongue-in-cheek idea that a lot of shower brainstorms belong down the drain. (The Bogues argument, amusing as it is, probably wouldn't hold up in a court of law.)
And with Axe, it's always worth praising an approach that's not leering—in the interests of discouraging a backslide from its increasingly refreshing messaging.