Can an advertising campaign be TOO effective?

The ad campaign for AXE body spray was so successful that teenage nerds everywhere began dousing themselves in it — hurting the brand’s image and smelling up schools everywhere.

Via Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy:

However, the brandâs early success soon began to backfire. The problem was, the ads had worked too well in persuading the Insecure Novices and Enthusiastic Novices to buy the product. Geeks and dorks everywhere were now buying Axe by the caseload, and it was hurting the brandâs image. Eventually (in the United States, at least), to most high school and college-aged males, Axe had essentially become the brand for pathetic losers, and not surprisingly, sales took a huge hit.

Then Axe faced another big problem. Insecure high school students had been so convincingly persuaded that Axe would make them sexually appealing that they began completely dousing themselves in it. After all, if Axe = sex, then more Axe = more sex, right? According to CBC News, âSome boys have been dousing themselves in Axe, apparently believing commercials that show a young man applying the deodorant and being immediately hit on by beautiful women.â It got to the point where the students were reeking so heavily of it that it was becoming a distraction at school. So much so that in Minnesota, school district officials attempted to ban it, claiming that âthe man spray has been abused, and the aerosol stench is a hazard for students and faculty.â The principal of one Canadian school started actually confiscating bottles of Axe. âThey spray it all over their heads and their necks,â one teacher said. âThey donât realize how powerful the odor is.â.â.â.âThey have no idea how much it takes to be a walking stink bomb [which is] basically what they are.â