Not surprisingly, Axe's first-ever Super Bowl commercial features a woman in a skimpy bikini jogging rather bouncily along a beach. Also not surprisingly, she's running toward a geeky dude who plays in a romantic league several divisions below hers.
The twist? The geeky dude is an astronaut.
That's so much cooler than a mere lifeguard, even when said lifeguard just saved your life by pummeling a shark into submission with his bare hands.
The 30-second spot, created by BBH London, is due to air in the third quarter of this Sunday's Super Bowl. It pitches Axe's new Apollo line of products—thus, the astronaut theme.
But Apollo is more than just a product line. The Unilever brand has launched the Axe Apollo Space Academy, offering 22 non-John-Glenn types a chance to go to space through a contest on the website.
The campaign launched several weeks back with the help of none other than legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin. A similar spot to "Lifeguard," called "Fireman," was also released earlier in January. In that one, a woman chose an astronaut over a firefighter even though she's just been spectacularly rescued from a burning building.
While the Super Bowl cut is a :30, BBH also created a 60-second version of "Lifeguard." See that spot below, along with the Buzz Aldrin video.
