Marketers Target Men's Hair as Promising Frontier†

Unilever Launches Axe Line of Products Following P&G's Debut of Gillette's; Campaigns Make Appeal to Male Vanity

Wall Street Journal, December 1, 2008 — Guys, you're having a bad hair day. Every day.

That's the message Unilever is sending with the launch of its first Axe line of hair products for men. The Axe line, best known for male body sprays that claim to help guys get the girl, now promises "girl-approved hair" with the use of shampoos, conditioner and styling products due to hit U.S. store shelves Monday

Children Of The Web

How the second-generation Internet is spawning a global youth culture--and what business can do to cash in

BusinessWeek, July 2, 2007 — It's a simple sales pitch, really: Hey, dude, spray Axe deodorant all over your body, and you will become irresistible to beautiful young women. But what Russell Taylor, the Axe vice-president, proposed doing with that straightforward idea was ambitious. He wanted to turn it into a truly global marketing message, one that would work in all 75 countries where Unilever (UN ) sells Axe.

Marketers create their own shows

USA Today, April 10, 2007 — Problem: TV watchers don't want their shows interrupted by ads. Solution: Make the show the ad. That's one approach being used by marketers as they try to keep consumers' attention. Gillette is producing an ABC prime-time reality series starring the group of NASCAR drivers — dubbed the "Young Guns" — who are featured in its TV ads and online.