As the Selling Gets Hot,

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New-Age Dilemma: 
Too Sexy? Just Fun? 
The Chocolate Man

By NIRAJ SHETH in New Delhi and TARIQ ENGINEER in Mumbai
September 9, 2008; Page B11

Some hot new ads for men's deodorant are causing a high-level stink.

Last month, the Indian government suspended a television advertisement for Axe men's deodorant, made by Mumbai-based Hindustan Unilever Ltd. The ad shows a man transform into a walking chocolate figurine after spraying himself with Axe's Dark Temptation deodorant. As he walks through the city, women throw themselves at him, licking and biting off various parts of his body.

YouTube

A scene from an Indian TV commercial for men's deodorant.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting stopped the ad from broadcasting after receiving a complaint from a viewer who found offensive a shot of a woman biting the chocolate man's bottom.

The ministry has referred the ad to the Advertising Standards Council of India, the industry's self-regulation body, which has yet to issue its verdict. The ministry has the final say once the ad-industry council has issued its opinion. Officials at the ministry declined several requests for comment.

The scramble over the Axe ad shows how the traditionally conservative country is still trying to decide how much sexuality to allow in advertising. India's growing economy and rapid internationalization are adding to the issue, as they challenge India's homegrown mores in new ways. The deodorant ad is part of an international campaign by Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch company that holds a majority stake in Hindustan Unilever. The ad originally played in Argentina, followed by Europe, before coming to India.

In a statement, Hindustan Unilever said it will abide by the government's final decision but insisted that the ad wasn't intended to be inappropriate. "Our consumer research showed the advertisement was humorous and witty in expressing the new fragrance's promise of being as irresistible as chocolate," the statement said.

So far, the Axe ad has been the only body-spray ad to face scrutiny from the government, even though Unilever's competitors have run racy ads of their own. In one for Wild Stone body spray, a woman bumps into a male stranger, causing her to drop her belongings. As he stoops to help her, she catches a whiff of his deodorant and begins to fantasize about the two of them in bed, followed by shots of their hands clasped and her rearranging her ruffled clothes. Wild Stone is made by McNroe Chemical Private Ltd., based in Haridwar in the Indian state of Uttarakhand.

Because men's body sprays are aimed at young men, it isn't surprising that the ads are risque. The market for men's grooming products overall in India stood at $320.9 million last year, according to data from Euromonitor, and is expected to grow to $366.4 million this year. Unilever is the market leader in deodorants, with its Axe, Lynx and Ego brands commanding 61% of the market. Last year, sales of deodorants in India totaled $25 million.

Traditional taboos are easing in other areas as well. Billboards of scantily clad starlets line the streets in Mumbai and New Delhi, for example, while kissing is no longer uncommon in Bollywood movies.

Still, the country, especially outside cities, remains conservative. Last year, a court in Jaipur, in the state of Rajasthan, issued an arrest warrant for actor Richard Gere after he kissed Indian actress Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS awareness event in New Delhi, under charges of breaking public-obscenity laws. Mr. Gere quickly left the country, and the Indian Supreme Court later threw out the case.

The chocolate Axe ad isn't the first the government has pulled. Last year, it yanked commercials for two underwear brands. In one for Amul Macho underwear, a young woman comes to a river to wash her husband's clothes. She pulls a pair of men's boxer shorts from the laundry pile and begins to wash them by hand, giving sultry looks to the camera and throwing her head back in a suggestive manner. The ad ends with a breathy female voice saying: "Amul Macho. Crafted for fantasies."

Pushpinder Singh, head of Saints & Warriors, the creative agency that designed the Amul Macho ad, says it resounded with the targeted audience -- young Indian men -- even if the Indian government wasn't amused. "The thinking was very simple -- inner wear is a surrogate for male sexuality," he said. "If we can show a woman fantasizing about a man, what greater compliment to a man's sexuality?"

Despite the government's disapproval, ad-agency executives say sexually charged ads are working with the target audience. "I wouldn't say we're as ready as the West is, but we're changing rapidly and there is an increasing tolerance even among those who aren't targeted by the ads," said Sam Balsara, a former president of ASCI and chairman of Mumbai-based advertising agency Madison World. "I personally didn't find the Chocolate Man ad vulgar or offensive."

Alan Collaco, secretary of the ASCI, has started organizing road shows to help companies better understand the boundaries of indecency in advertising. For the past two months he has given companies presentations explaining the industry body's code. At each stop, he screens ads that have breached the ASCI code, along with others that didn't, to illustrate the differences. We want "to make companies more aware and to sensitize them to what the public thinks about various ads," he said.