Back in October 2011, I read about a TV ad for body deodorant being banned in South Africa, because it offended the ‘religious sensitivity’ of Christians - essentially one Christian who chose to complain.
I didn’t give it much thought, as we in India are used to seeing such censorship all too frequently - for hurting religious sentiments or inciting hatred (enmity?) among groups of people.
Isn’t one such complaint causing waste of money and time of the judiciary right now? The case against web-tech companies for their inability to filter ‘offensive’ content?
There is a subtle difference between what the plaintiffs want, and what the web tech companies can and actually do. And that is a subject for another post, another time.
BTP, it didn’t bother me much (the report of banned ad that is, not the censorship bid) till I saw the TV ad for AXE Provoke body spray, when it was introduced back home. It was a small matter to put 2 and 2 together and conclude that this AXE Provoke ad, ‘Even Angels will Fall’, must have been the one in question.
Only AXE is called Lynx in South Africa and the Provoke has been named as ‘Excite’.
End of December, I decided to try out the AXE Provoke and got me one. It has a somewhat chocolaty smell, which wasn’t to my taste (should I say, didn’t agree with my nose?), but wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t use it. So throughout January and till 05th Feb (a Sunday), I continued to use it. Normally a 150 ml standard can of body spray lasts between 45 to 60 days for me.
Right from the New Year’s eve, I started having headaches. On 1st of January, I attributed it to the 2nd bottle of beer at the New Year’s bash. But when it continued, even during the Pongal weekend, I became afraid.
The headaches used to start around 3 o’clock in the morning and continue till about noon or so, after which it completely disappeared. It became difficult to read newspapers, computer screens or walk, drive in the sun - the feeble winter sun at that. In the 3rd week of January, I steeled myself and decided to consult my doctor.
His observations were encouraging to a certain extent, but not totally so. Since I didn’t have any giddiness or didn’t swoon or blackout, and the pain seemed to jump from one side to another on random days, the good doctor thought that chances of a Brain cancer or tumour are less. He suggested that we give it a week or two before jumping into a scan machine. He thought that it was most likely a case of migraine, though puzzled that an attack could last for weeks or that be restricted to ante-meridian hours.
On 6th February, my local super market fellow slipped me a new deodorant from Park Avenue, given to him as sample to try out. So for 4 days, I shucked the AXE Provoke and went with the new spray.
Viola! The headache disappeared. Even then I didn’t make the connection, but was only happy that I was free of it. I never realised that my headaches were caused by an allergy to body spray. On Friday, I was ambushed with a vengeance, on whiffing Provoke again. It wasn’t until Monday the 13th, I made the connection and chucked the AXE Provoke for good.
For last 3 days, it has been pretty wonderful and a great relief from that awful headache.
:-D
BTW, the AXE Provoke is marketed as ‘AXE Provoke’ in South East Asia. And Unilever makes no bones about it - because the can carries the info in the languages of SEA, of which Thai (recognisable with the wriggly earthworm pattern of writing) is most prominent. But what is different is that (in the Philippines, at least) it is not the Angels who fall but the ‘Goddesses’ - both the halo and the wings of the Indian (and S.African) ad are not there, and instead the ‘goddesses’ are encased in a shimmering luminescence. See for yourself.
My Naughty half natters, ‘So did any Angels fell for me? I guess if any Angles did fall for my Provoke, they all did so on my head.’
LOL
I didn’t give it much thought, as we in India are used to seeing such censorship all too frequently - for hurting religious sentiments or inciting hatred (enmity?) among groups of people.
Isn’t one such complaint causing waste of money and time of the judiciary right now? The case against web-tech companies for their inability to filter ‘offensive’ content?
There is a subtle difference between what the plaintiffs want, and what the web tech companies can and actually do. And that is a subject for another post, another time.
BTP, it didn’t bother me much (the report of banned ad that is, not the censorship bid) till I saw the TV ad for AXE Provoke body spray, when it was introduced back home. It was a small matter to put 2 and 2 together and conclude that this AXE Provoke ad, ‘Even Angels will Fall’, must have been the one in question.
Only AXE is called Lynx in South Africa and the Provoke has been named as ‘Excite’.
End of December, I decided to try out the AXE Provoke and got me one. It has a somewhat chocolaty smell, which wasn’t to my taste (should I say, didn’t agree with my nose?), but wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t use it. So throughout January and till 05th Feb (a Sunday), I continued to use it. Normally a 150 ml standard can of body spray lasts between 45 to 60 days for me.
Right from the New Year’s eve, I started having headaches. On 1st of January, I attributed it to the 2nd bottle of beer at the New Year’s bash. But when it continued, even during the Pongal weekend, I became afraid.
The headaches used to start around 3 o’clock in the morning and continue till about noon or so, after which it completely disappeared. It became difficult to read newspapers, computer screens or walk, drive in the sun - the feeble winter sun at that. In the 3rd week of January, I steeled myself and decided to consult my doctor.
His observations were encouraging to a certain extent, but not totally so. Since I didn’t have any giddiness or didn’t swoon or blackout, and the pain seemed to jump from one side to another on random days, the good doctor thought that chances of a Brain cancer or tumour are less. He suggested that we give it a week or two before jumping into a scan machine. He thought that it was most likely a case of migraine, though puzzled that an attack could last for weeks or that be restricted to ante-meridian hours.
On 6th February, my local super market fellow slipped me a new deodorant from Park Avenue, given to him as sample to try out. So for 4 days, I shucked the AXE Provoke and went with the new spray.
Viola! The headache disappeared. Even then I didn’t make the connection, but was only happy that I was free of it. I never realised that my headaches were caused by an allergy to body spray. On Friday, I was ambushed with a vengeance, on whiffing Provoke again. It wasn’t until Monday the 13th, I made the connection and chucked the AXE Provoke for good.
For last 3 days, it has been pretty wonderful and a great relief from that awful headache.
:-D
BTW, the AXE Provoke is marketed as ‘AXE Provoke’ in South East Asia. And Unilever makes no bones about it - because the can carries the info in the languages of SEA, of which Thai (recognisable with the wriggly earthworm pattern of writing) is most prominent. But what is different is that (in the Philippines, at least) it is not the Angels who fall but the ‘Goddesses’ - both the halo and the wings of the Indian (and S.African) ad are not there, and instead the ‘goddesses’ are encased in a shimmering luminescence. See for yourself.
My Naughty half natters, ‘So did any Angels fell for me? I guess if any Angles did fall for my Provoke, they all did so on my head.’
LOL
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