AXE Body Spray gets a little gay … and we love it

AXE Body Spray is usually associated with middle school locker rooms, where adolescent boys bathe in deodorizer rather than rinsing the filth off of them in the shower. So naturally, it’s a smell that a lot of gay men have weird relationships with. Whether you were hiding out in the locker room, or glancing peeks at the other boys, middle school gym class was no place for a preteen gay.

But, in the new commercial for AXE, you can tell the brand is trying to break free of those stereotypes and encouraging all types of men to celebrate what makes them different. Forget the Adonis factor that most body spray commercials succumb to, this is one is for all you painfully average, but beautifully different men.

In the commercial you see an array of men, including a man voguing at the ball, and a teenager catching the eye of another young boy in a record store.

Campaign directors said the goal is to get rid of the “outdated views of masculinity.”

“Masculinity today is going through seismic changes,” senior director Matthew McCarthy told NewNowNext. “More than ever, guys are rejecting rigid male stereotypes. We’ve been part of guys’ lives for decades, and Axe champions real guys and the unique traits that make them attractive to the world around them.”

Bravo, AXE, bravo.