My Soapbox: The Strange Popularity of Axe

I walked into the Junior High Boys Bathroom at our church
the other day, only to be hit with the putrid smell
of Axe deodorant.

Axe is the foulest smelling deodorant I have ever had the
priviledge of inhaling.
Haven't ever smelt Axe?
Just imagine, windex cleaner, a can of lemon lysol spray
and wet wipes all colliding at once, and you basically
have the deodorant, Axe.

Yet, for some crazy reason, the majority
of the High School and Junior High Guys at our church
wear it.

As a Youth Pastor, I spend a tremendous amount
of time studying youth culture in order to understand
the students I work with.
For the life of me,
I haven't ever been able to understand the popularity
of Axe, until...

for this blog posting, I went on the Axe website.
It was sad.
The axe marketing campaign is,
wear Axe, get girls, lots of girls.

It is a really stupid and sophomoric campaign,
but it seems to be working with high school guys.
This makes me sad, but it also makes me mad.

I am so tired of companies like Carl's Jr, Sports Illustrated and
Axe going after the temptation button of our High School guys
in order to sell burgers, magazines and smelly deodorants.

When will it stop?
When will we as men,
stand up and speak...no demand,
that our culture stop throwing sexual images
at our adolescent guys?

The pressures of being a high school guy have never been greater.

My Prayer

"Father, protect our high school guys.

Give them strength to be young men of purity who follow Jesus.

Give us older guys, courage and wisdom

to protect our young men

from being picked off by the monster

of sexual temptation."