Axe Body Spray and Business Ventures at Mills

Rachel Cheng Staff Writer

Among the halls of many high schools, there are often several kids who are notorious for their scents. As they walk past, you can smell the lingering musky scent of their Axe body spray. Recently, the brand Axe has been building up their brand and gaining popularity among teenage boys, specifically their body sprays and deodorant. Axe has recently introduced a new line of 16-in-1 body spray, which also functions as a shampoo, conditioner, laundry detergent, toothpaste, and more.

In lieu of this new trend of powerfully fragrant colognes and body sprays, companies such as Old Spice are also developing new scents for consumers. Some new ones include Durian, Campfire, and Fishing. Other companies are taking a new approach to the trend, taking scents from fictional characters such as Trubbish from Pokémon or Chewbacca from Star Wars.

A recent study about the cologne opinions of others was published by an anonymous research company at Mills High School . Senior student Zamie Zong was selected to sample a multitude of different scents. The colognes included brands ranging from Axe to Dior, with a wide variety in price and brand name. However, despite the other more expensive scents, Zong decided that the Axe body spray was most distinguishable among the others. Zong was asked to blindly express her opinion on randomly selected scents, and displayed a strong distaste for classic YSL colognes. When asked about the reasoning behind her preference, Zong commented, “Wow it was stinky”. However, after sampling Axe’s 16-in-1, Zong claimed that this scent was the best out of all others. Due to the exponential growth of Axe body spray’s popularity, Mills High School has made the executive decision to begin the promotion of the product on campus. The school will be selling the body spray every day during school hours to ensure that every student can follow the new trend. Administration announced that students who earn outstanding grades will win a sample of Axe’s new line of 16-in-1. In addition, the teachers themselves will be promoting the product as well. Advertisements will be placed in each teacher’s classroom, along with photos of teachers posing with the famous spray.

Contrary to popular belief, many female-identifying students have different opinions on various male colognes. Mills High School student Zerika Zita (12) complains heavily, “I think it smells bad sometimes. I don’t like the options that they have. They’re supposed to be ‘manly’ but they smell like musk and wood.” Zita also elaborates that many male fragrances are labeled with very ridiculous names such as “Man Musk” and “Secret Weapon”, and that they only support traditional masculine values. Rather than creating scents that have “feminine” names, Zita acknowledges that many male cologne companies name their fragrances after masculine things. She suggests that, instead, men begin wearing feminine scents to break down these traditional values of having to always wear “masculine” odors.

With the new increase in Axe’s popularity, students can be sure to find more of their peers following in this trend. Axe has already revealed that this new product is already sure to be a hit amongst consumers, with all of the recognition and virality it is receiving online.

Considering this alongside the new promotion it will get at Mills, stu- dents at Mills High School should expect to see (and smell) how this trend spreads throughout the community from passing by students in the hallway to P.E lockerooms.