Unilever: Our video titled ‘Lynx responds to Clean Your Balls controversy’ was in no way a response to the Ad Standards Lynx Clean Your Balls controversy
Lynx press conference
Lynx’s parent company Unilever has insisted that its mock press conference around its Clean Your Balls campaign was unrelated to the Ad Standards Board ban of the ad.
The new video was uploaded to the company’s YouTube channel a few days after the ad was banned by the ASB for its depiction of old people. It also attracted complaints of sexism and racism which were not upheld by the ASB.
The video was titled “Lynx responds to Clean Your Balls controversy”.
But a Unilever spokesman today told Mumbrella:
“The Lynx Clean Your Balls ‘press conference’ was a long planned element of our marketing campaign, and was not developed in response to the recent ruling of the Advertising Standards Board (ASB) in relation to the way the elderly were portrayed in a previous TVC. We take our obligations under the various marketing codes seriously, and our intention with the original TVC was always to amuse and not offend – a lot of time and care was taken in creating the TVC to ensure the themes were in line with prevailing community standards in Australia and all characters featured in the TVC were portrayed in a light-hearted and good-natured way.”
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Was a “long planned element “in anticipation of some controversy! Who cares the whole thing is hilarious toilet humour aimed directly at the target audience and it works. Nice one Unilever, god knows we need some levity right about now.
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If only it had contained the word vagina.. then can you imagine ..eeek
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here bloody here. I’m a woman and still thought the whole thing was hilarious, because it was such a blatant send up of itself. A fantastic opportunity for Sophie Monk too, her comedic timing is excellent.
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Loved it, glad to see there are still some companies that know how to have a laugh and, as Surin said, engage their target audience at the same time.
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How much comedic timing do you need when the words ‘can this clean my balls?’ are said every 5 seconds?
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Very predictable humour – nothing really clever about it.
If this was ‘planned’ you’d think they’d try and introduce some new jokes – they even re-used a character… (I thought they sorted out his ball sack in the last commercial?)
It may get young teens using their deodorant but I think its de-valued the brand in the eyes of quite a few, previously loyal, consumers.
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Well, it’s done precisely what it planned to do! Perfect, I guess.
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It was developed in 2010 for the Axe brand in the US.
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As a female, I didn’t and don’t find this ad offensive to anyone. It is clearly meant to be taken as a joke and targeted to appeal to people who buy Lynx – rather than the people who are complaining about it.
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My take on the ban and everything related to the context of communications in Australia: WTF…
To me, advertising is a form of ‘play’. It is made up. It is not real. Not even ‘reality TV’ is real.
I don’t see people complaining about movies necessarily… And believe me, I have seen some terrible ones (subjective of course).
People watch movies and accept the creativity being portrayed there.
Why can’t the same be applied in Advertising?
Movies have ratings and recommended viewer categories. Should Ads have the same before they are shown? Or segments mocked up in various media channels that restrict them?
There are no bad adverts. Only bad people.
Cheers,
Daniel-Jacob Santhou
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Cheap & Easy – jaded much…
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@ Daniel-Jacob Santhou
What? If plays are not real and reality television isn’t real what is? When we write something or create a film, play, story or whatever, we create a real platform for real people we do not know and never even see.
Real films can be watched by real people or ignored by them as the case may be, thanks to free will. Film screenings via television, that real illuminated box with a screen, which can be found in peoples living rooms and/or bed rooms and other living spaces, display warnings before they are run; even if a viewer catches a film part way through and finds it offensive, they can choose to turn it off, or turn away to another choice of viewing.
Commercials are in a different situation, in so much that we target the audience and we blindly disseminate the material. Commercials occur randomly to the viewer, who may be concentrating heavily on a film or other programme which they do not want to miss. This means that if one such commercial inadvertently offends, then the home viewer must mute, switch off or get up and leave the room every time the offensive commercial arrives (they tend to arrive frequently and repeatedly at times) and so they must actively dodge offensive sound and/or video in their own homes. Sadly there are bad plays, bad films, bad stories and bad adverts. That’s real, and for some people it’s a real pain in the arse.
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What was so clever about the ad?
And anyway, was that really Sophie Monk?
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Lotta people find racism funny too, racist stereotypes, racist names etc. We should bring it back, because all those boring, unfunny people made it uncool to be racist. Some ethnics just get all sensitive, when white folk are just having fun and selling stuff. Where’s the harm in that? Just ignore what you don’t like, because racism and sexism never hurt anyone, right?
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Not big or clever. Puerile thinking and plodding execution. Even worse, it wasn’t original, just plagiarized from a weak US effort.
This must have been an embarrassment for all who were told to produce it.
The industry doesn’t need such low brow effort. If it planned to represent the brand as a pre-pubescent joke, it did the job brilliantly.
Taxi for Lynx…
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Oh look! it’s some sophisticated Lynx (Axe) work…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX5PsV2uMVg&feature=youtu.be
*clap * *clap*
Now if only the local client had balls enough not to treat its audience like idiots…
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It made me laugh.
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Dull, predictable, teenage boy humour. It might have been funny about 20 years ago…. haven’t we moved forward since then?
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I’ll stick with my first thought- its funny stupid purile toilet humour. Don’t care if its recycled from the states. So many serious comments about creativity, sexism , plaigarism etc makes me wonder where the sense of fun in our industry has gone.
Don’t over think it, its not meant for most of you, it not meant for me but i still saw the humour in it.
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