Axe is ready to give credit to a Reddit user for its ad campaign that, ahem, borrowed some ideas from Reddit.
Axe’s latest ad was based on the premise of Shower Thoughts, which is a popular topic of conversation on Reddit, where users post their own anonymous musings. The Axe ad, however, wasn’t just inspired by the concept, it took a “shower thought” virtually word for word from a Reddit post dated seven months ago.
The Axe ad featured someone in the shower saying: “If you’re criticized for being short, they’re really just saying the worst thing about you is that there isn’t more of you.”
A YouTube video of the ad was posted to Reddit last week and caused a backlash from angry users there. They claimed Axe stole the idea. There were some reports that Reddit was looking for compensation for the originator of the idea.
Axe had not officially responded to the outcry until today, and it sent an email to Digiday saying it would work with the Reddit user who had the initial idea.
“Our intent with the Shower Thoughts series is to highlight the great creativity and conversations already happening in pop culture. As a champion for creative thought and self-expression, Axe will collaborate on an upcoming piece of content with the person who posted the Shower Thought being referenced,” Unilever, Axe’s parent company, said in the statement.
The Redditor will help write an upcoming piece for the brand and get paid for the contribution, a rep for Axe said.
The company could not immediately be reached for follow up questions. The campaign launched late last month, and was produced by Defy Media and Mindshare Entertainment.
More in Media
Walmart rolls out a self-serve, supplier-driven insights connectors
The retail giant paired its insights unit Luminate with Walmart Connect to help suppliers optimize for customer consumption, just in time for the holidays, explained the company’s CRO Seth Dallaire.
Research Briefing: BuzzFeed pivots business to AI media and tech as publishers increase use of AI
In this week’s Digiday+ Research Briefing, we examine BuzzFeed’s plans to pivot the business to an AI-driven tech and media company, how marketers’ use of X and ad spending has dropped dramatically, and how agency executives are fed up with Meta’s ad platform bugs and overcharges, as seen in recent data from Digiday+ Research.
Media Briefing: Q1 is done and publishers’ ad revenue is doing ‘fine’
Despite the hope that 2024 would be a turning point for publishers’ advertising businesses, the first quarter of the year proved to be a mixed bag, according to three publishers.