Martha Stewart fronts new Rexona campaign, via Thinkerbell
In its first major project for Unilever, Thinkerbell has tapped the iconic Martha Stewart to promote Rexona’s new Whole Body Deodorant with a clever ‘how-to’.
Anchoring the product launch is the playful explainer video, where Stewart brings her decades of authority to a product that requires a bit of demonstration.
Thinkerbell’s head creative tinker, Cat Williams, told Mumbrella that the agency wanted to find a way to turn a typically taboo topic of body odour into something talkable and culturally relevant.
“Body odour isn’t typically a sexy subject,” she said. “And this product, it’s a category-first, so there was a real opportunity here for a big idea. We were looking at who that voice of authority could be to own that narrative. Combined with the nature of this being an earned, big PR moment, we needed someone who would naturally grab attention, and we landed on Martha Stewart.”
The campaign, which took a heavy earned approach alongside the traditional creative, kicked off with ‘leaked footage’ from the shoot showing Stewart with a mystery man — later revealed to be Tommy Armour from last year’s season of Love Island Australia.
This sparked speculation across news media and social, before a follow-up was posted on Stewart’s channels with the full campaign. From there, it has been extended across influencer activity, with ‘how-to’ creators reinterpreting the routine in their own styles.
“[Martha] loved the script, what I think she loved most and what she was really keen on playing into was the cheeky flirting, she had a lot of fun with that,” Williams said. “She looked great, she was feeling in on the joke, and it all worked out really well.”
Using such an iconic talent, and taking a risk with the teaser content strategy, Williams said there was a lot of trust from Unilever for Thinkerbell to deliver this campaign.
“Unilever were so involved, they were such a trusting client. It was amazing to naturally watch the reaction of the world, you don’t get to predict what people are going to say and you can plan as much as you like, but what was awesome was that people really did enjoy it,” she told Mumbrella.
Earlier in the month, Unilever also launched a traditional above-the-line campaign for the new deodorant product, via Mindshare and Hogarth, who sit alongside Thinkerbell in the agency village. The campaign takes a similar cheeky approach, particularly with several OOH executions that feature tongue-in-cheek copy.
“Once we got involved, we were thinking about how we can partner together to get the most out of this, bring that same kind of language, tonality, cheekiness across all the assets,” Williams said. “So there was definitely intention of it coming together and feeling like a bit of a story with the above-the-line work.”
Credits:
Creative and earned: Thinkerbell
Client: Unilever
Media: Mindshare
Production: Rabbit
Post Production: The Editors
Sound: Electric Sheep Music
Stills: Pool Collective
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Lauren McNamara was the associate editor at Mumbrella. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS. She left Mumbrella in August 2025.
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