Friday, February 23, 2007

Red Zone spicing it up on campus


As the temperature rises so does interest in a recent ad in the Red & Black, University of Georgia’s campus newspaper. In the half-page ad, viewers are told to “Keep it clean”—a mocking reference to “Keep your mind out of the gutter.” The image is obviously designed to be sexual and, for young men, a link to Red Zone’s sexual campaigns of the past few years. Red Zone, a P&G brand, swiftly aped Axe’s positioning as a female attractant. Similar to Red Zone’s “When she sweats its sexy” spot, however, the current ad offers no benefit (does anyone really believe that Axe, Red Zone, and Tag are sexual attractants?). The approach is clearly aimed at attracting the attention of college males. One can only hope that these students are not as easily influenced (or susceptible) to such low-brow and empty appeals as this ad suggests.

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