Ad Of The Week: Is "Find Your Magic" the new "Like A Girl"

Lynx encourage men to embrace their individuality in their new global campaign, as they aim to broaden their appeal to a more mature consumer.

In this bold repositioning strategy, Lynx has abandoned their iconic tagline, "The Lynx Effect", in an effort to attract the older male to their brand.

Most would agree that the notion of ‘The Lynx effect’ is a bit dated. While over the years we have enjoyed watching “the geek get the girl”, it has all become a little bit, for want of a better word, samey. "The Lynx effect" has now become more associated with one's fantasies, as opposed to one's aspirations. 

The modern metro-sexual male is no longer preoccupied with being the “lad’s lad” or “a babe magnet”, leaving the brand out of touch even with hormone driven teenage boys. The sexual binaries that were prevalent in the early 90’s are no more. The lines have become blurred. In today’s society Lynx's stereotypical appeals to notions of masculinity no longer resonate.

So how does Lynx shake off their old image and re-establish itself as a modern brand, designed for the modern man?

After ending a 20 yearlong partnership with ad agency BBH, this task has fallen to 72andsunny Amsterdam. The latter is now charged with masterminding the deodorant's new advertising and rebranding strategy. In line with their brand makeover, Unilever (the parent company) have launched a new range of grooming products for men. 

The packaging of the range, designed by PB Creative, reflects a better quality, more sophisticated product, well the advertising campaign echoes modern society's emphasis on individuality. Lynx want to encourage men to be comfortable in their own skin  - oh, with a little help from Lynx products..naturally.

So, why the sudden change? Well, nothing beats a good bit of old fashioned market research. 

The repositioning was borne out of their independent research that found that not only do women overwhelmingly find men more appealing when they are “being themselves” but also that only 15% of men in most countries would define themselves as attractive - ummm wasn’t that the same bit of insight that spawned Dove’s Real Women campaign?

Anyway, Lynx used these finding to build a new strategy hence the tagline “Find Your Magic.” The campaign shows that guys will get the girl by being themselves and while urgung the 85% of men who don’t believe they are attract to think differently about themselves. I guess Christian Aguilera had already patented “You are beautiful no matter what they say.”

As Stephanie Feeney, director of strategy at 72andSunny Amsterdam, puts it,  “Masculinity has changed”. It is now socially acceptable for guys to express themselves individually with their clothes, music, and hair (thanks Becks). And this campaign is representative of the modern man.  Now, while a comparison to Dove’s Like A Girl or Sports England’s “This Girl Can” on the empowerment front would be tenuous - the humour in the ad softens the impactfulness of the underlying message, and arguably making it too serious would take away one of brand's playfulness - it is still a ballzy call for men to be themselves while reassuring them that being themselves is still attractive. Or as Stephanie Feeney so eloquently explains,

“Where we’re trying to move the brand towards a celebration of individuality...whatever your thing is, as long as it’s true to you, then be confident in it, express it, and work it!”

In short, I am with 72andSunny Amsterdam Managing Director Nic Owen when he says that he is glad to help the brand move away from its crude “spray-and-get-laid advertising.”