I happened to be a part of an all-male blogging activity called #SniffSniff. When we were invited to be a part of the campaign none of us was aware of the full campaign and I was thrilled to see the first-ever male-only blogging event.

The campaign was initiated by the brand by sending us some clues that were supposed to be the hints for the final product. After a few days of being a part of the campaign, I saw twitter trend #BanBodyOdour but didn’t realize that both campaigns were related. But from day 1 of #SniffSniff activity, I knew it was about a male perfume or deodorant.

The product was finally clear to me on the delivery of the same at my doorstep. I realized that it all started with this video which was supposed to be funny, even though I didn’t find anything funny about it –

The video showed Indian men having the problem of ‘disgusting’ body odour that needed to be banned. Well, at the face of it, the campaign seemed to be highly misandric to me. I didn’t understand why only men were targeted at having bad body odor, when both the genders may have this issue?

I was quick to check how the same brand promoted their deodorant for women and I found this campaign by Anushka Sharma –

You can see the difference in the ways of promoting a similar product for the two genders. When it was for men, the brand showed most Indian men having the problem of body odour; but when it was for women, it showed how one individual dealt with it.

We know that body odour is caused by bacteria thriving with our sweat and it is no surprise if men sweat more compared to women. When men are given the bread winner’s responsibility and are forced to work outdoors under extreme conditions, it is natural that men will have body odour. But does that mean that the brand needed to shame a gender for that?

I was especially shocked to see this misinformation spread when women actually get attracted by male pheromone and killing that odor or creating a fake alternate identity by artificial chemical substance will be suicidal for anyone. Because, if our own pheromone bears our chemical identity then covering or killing the same with a deodorant also means killing our own identity.

So, I turned to some medial websites to understand the reason of some people having really bad body odour and if this medical article is to be believed then men, women are equally susceptible to this problem. The main reason one may have a bad odor for others comes from one’s personal hygiene factors. The article also provides some natural remedies to fight body odor and suggests against using deodorant as they may block our sweat glands making it more harmful to us. This article also says that some studies show that deodorants may be the reason behind breast cancer or prostate cancer.

In short, this campaign for a male-only product creates unnecessary misandry and enough misinformation that men need to use deodorant to fight body odour, whereas in reality our pheromone or odor is the reason the human race survives. It is shocking to find that the marketing company could not think of a positive campaign for men to sell a product targeted to them.

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*For other campaign analysis click – here