Posted to YouTube two days ago, Unilever’s Axe brand Super Bowl ad appears to be the first 2014 Super Bowl Ad to hit the internet. While the spot posted on Axe’s YouTube channel is a 60-second spot, BBH London, the agency that produced the ad, posted an 1:50 extended version of the ad on its YouTube channel yesterday.
Axe’s Super Bowl ad is a departure from its usual sexist advertising, making hippies out of North Korean and Middle Eastern leaders.
Using a Kim Jong-Un lookalike along with a generic Middle Eastern leader, the spot features a series of war scenes with the North Korean leader rallying his troops and the Middle Eastern leader looking as if he’s about the push an ominous end-of-times button.
The impending story line takes a drastic curve as a soldier driving a tank through war-torn streets is greeted by his love interest, while another soldier runs to embrace a young woman tending the fields as army helicopters land around her. It turns out the North Korean Kim Jong Un lookalike was organizing a Valentine like display for his sweetheart, and the Middle Eastern leader was pushing a button to set off fireworks for his love.
The ad ends with the ever popular 1960s slogan, “Make love. Not War.”
The video includes the hashtag #KissForPeace, which Axe is using to encourage consumers to post photos of themselves kissing loved ones to Twitter and Facebook with the same hashtag. According to a New York Times report, Axe will choose a selection of the photos to post on the digital billboards in Times Square between January 27 and February 9. The article also claims Axe is donating $250,000 to the nonprofit organization Peace One Day which is promoted at the close of the ad.
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