Hard to watch this YouTube video with a straight face - yet another purposefully provocative AXE viral, this time with a faux PSA-style message that equates showering together as, well, good clean fun.

Actually, as these things go, this is pretty tame by AXE's standards. But the stats it throws out are dubious at best ("If everyone showerpooled for one year, we could save nearly 29 trillion gallons of water. Enough to make a new Great Lake").

I don't know who came up with that figure - there doesn't appear to be a citation - but clearly they've never "showerpooled" - for reasons summed up well by PR Newser.

In my book THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, I look at AXE's often brow-raising approach to marketing, which has been accused of being sexist - sometimes by those pointing out the irony that AXE is owned by Unilever, the same company whose Dove brand simultaneously promotes healthy body image among women and girls (you can listen to what former Unilever SVP of Global Media Laura Klauberg had to say about that for the book, here.)

So far, it's unclear if this particular initiative will run into those kinds of protestations. In fact, by today's network TV standards, it almost seems staid.

But what do you think? Is this indeed good, clean fun? Or is this a brand in desperate need of a cold shower?

Read more, here.

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