Restoring LYNX to its former glory:

Humour has historically been one of LYNX’s strongest assets. However, over the last decade, that message has gradually become diluted and flat. A change was necessary to regain entertainment value and to be attractive, especially for our main target: Gen Z males.

It seemed that LYNX had lost sight of its main benefit and was struggling to find its direction in communication. We needed to move away from the somewhat sexist past of the brand and adapt it for modern times, but in a humorous way. 

A simple insight:

The entire campaign revolves around an insight: when you notice that someone smells good, even if just for a few seconds, it changes your impression for the better. Based on this, all we had to do was take this insight to the most extreme. So, situations such as a robberies and tragic situations like funerals came to mind. The humour of this campaign lies in the combination of a real insight in a completely out-of-place context.

Our strategy was to return to the core benefit, which is an attractive fragrance.

An execution that came close to the line of what's acceptable...without crossing it:

The brand needed a campaign in line with its personality: young, irreverent, with a rule-breaking spirit. It was necessary to communicate in a simple and unequivocal way how great LYNX fragrances smell.

We wanted to create something cheeky, funny and bold. Our aim was to change consumers' brand perception to a fresher idea of AXE fragrances. Talk about attraction, but from a new perspective more appealing to Gen Z, while still understandable to everyone.

We enlisted irreverent directing duo, Lionel Goldstein, to create ‘Funeral’ and ‘Robbery’. A series of stories on the ‘Power of a Fragrance’, featuring modern characters: not sexualised, avoiding stereotypes and instead portraying strong, determined women, but all in a real, comedic tone. 

Dividing opinion (and being cool with that):

Once ‘Funeral’ aired in the UK, Firefish conducted a post-test in 2024 with both men and women, yielding positive results. Instead of receiving a 99% positive opinion, which would indicate a lack of emotional impact, the response to the ad was split almost 50/50, with around half of the sample finding it genuinely funny, while the remainder did not.

This response was replicated among both the male and female samples, with similar levels of likes and dislikes across the two audiences. Those who found the advert funny often considered it very amusing, believing it would stand out and be memorable.

A multi-market campaign:

The campaign went live in cinemas and online across the UK and Turkey, as well as Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay. A global brand like LYNX/AXE needs to reach various markets, but often attempting to appeal to everyone often results in no one feeling truly identified.

To connect with young people in the UK, we delved deep into the culture by immersing ourselves in the heart of the country. We set the story in small villages (it was shot in Dungeness) casting locals and embracing their accents. The narrative had to reflect a style and humour that felt authentic. To replicate the campaign in different markets, we avoided dubbing or translation. Instead, we subtitled it as if it were an English series.

'Robbery' is the best performing brand video in the last 3 years.

See results for the whole campaign below: