Subliminal Advertising

And Its use in AXE

Commercials

Report submitted by:

Danish Allawala BS27 2113
Jibran Qureshi BS32 2727
Maria Sami BS32 2648
Mehak Sohail BS32 2658
Mehreen Saigal BS32 2699
An Introduction to Subliminal Advertising

Subliminal Advertising refers to advertising messages that are not designed to be

perceived through an individuals’ conscious threshold, and include messages
targeting the subconscious mind. The goal is to create familiarity of the brand, which
later translates into consumer preference.
Moreover, subliminal advertising is increasingly used for tabooed/controversial
messages in a society that usually carry appeal or interest, e.g. sexual stereotyping
(e. g eye candy clothing) or images signifying attraction of the opposite sex through
the use of that product. Furthermore, such messages can be communicated more
effectively in indirect to stop the brand from appearing “pushy” or “fake”.

Soon after being introduced in 1987, the concept became controversial as subliminal
advertising role in persuasion through its influence on choices was identified. Many
consumer rights activists, governments, and other groups saw this as an extreme
form of consumer manipulation, and as an activity that would allow multinational
firms with large amounts of resources to manipulate whole cultures into
consumption patterns designed to fuel organizational growth, instead of the growth
being based on economic well being and a genuine demand for products and
services.

However, subliminal advertising is hard to identify, and cement as an intentional

form of manipulation, and in countries where rules and regulations regarding such
forms of advertising do not exist or are not followed, targeting the subconscious
mind by build permanent materialistic values in people from childhood to fuel
organizational goals becomes a common activity.

Axe and Subliminal Advertising

The Axe commercial featured in our video is a classic example of subliminal
advertising, which tries to create the same “sexual attraction and mystery” aura
surrounding the Axe deodorant as is associated with expensive perfumes, but in a
more indirect way in an attempt to soften the brands attempt to appear to “pushy”;
an approach seen and criticized in many Axe commercials.

A piece-by-piece breakdown on the video highlights inviting images of the opposite

sex throughout the commercial. The goal behind the advertisement is to create a
niche in all consumers mind where attraction=axe smells and cologne, for both male
and female.
Then, females expect attractive males to wear deodorant to look and be “cool” and
men, going after the same values, buy Axe products in an attempt to fit in society
and appear attractive to females. The concept is not as simple as it appears to be
here, because the deodorant is targeted towards educated, literate people who are
not prone to such open manipulation, thus, Axe tries to create a brand aura through
idirect messages, that over a period of time through repletion, will probably achieve
desired results and Axe will be associated with increased romance and attraction.

However, Axe must be careful in keeping their approach soft and not too pushy, as
this is seen as a big turn-off for consumers, making the brand “cheap” and ordinary,
and they prefer to switch to more sophisticated substitute products, or brands.