Express yourself

The diverse expressions of masculinity sometimes need to be celebrated. It’s part of life to feel inadequate and emasculated every now and then, but an interesting ‘Find Your Magic’ campaign from Axe (Lynx) somehow makes you feel proud about it.

It’s sullen undertone addresses the overlooked statistics about suicide in men under the age of 45. The global campaign aimed to get people talking about suicide, using digital billboards to display trivial matters people are talking about more than suicide.

Axe turned trending topics from social media into headlines. For example, billboards read ‘#redcups are bigger than suicide,’ or, ‘the new Twitter button is bigger than suicide.’ New headlines were launched every two hours to symbolise the fact that within this time frame another guy in the UK will have killed himself.

Pretty deep stuff – but it’s been phenomenally successful.

The brand remains founded in the concept of attraction – but this campaign has moved on from ‘guy-gets-girl’ to attraction being a game of equals. It’s more about sexual attraction and the conquest which is a change reflective of a broader shift in culture now. The products themselves are there to help you work and express your individuality, and opens up a world of possibilities for what masculinity and relationships can be.

The campaign tackles the notion that the concept of masculinity has kept fairly stagnant in comparison with the progression of feminism and femininity over recent years. There have been inspiring developments in the mainstream acceptance of LGBT rights in our culture, and Find Your Magic works on this to open up conversations about the new dimensions of expression that are possible for guys now, expanding the ideas behind what it is to be a man.

The feminist movement has been vital for the development of our culture and society but now it’s about coming together across gender divides and looking at equality and expression as a two-sided coin – important for men as well as women.

Brands are so much more conversational these days and if they create interesting talking points, then they can resonate positively across culture. In celebrating different expressions of masculinity and encouraging acceptance, they have done just this.

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