Lynx Bullet

I saw this at a bus stop earlier today:

It's a teeny, tiny can of deodorant. Called 'Bullet'. Wow.

I think we all know who falls into Lynx's main market target audience - young men. On the basis of that slogan, I'm guessing young single men. In fact, having seen the advert for this on their website, I'm tempted to go as far as saying it's aimed at (slightly desperate) single young men. Which is probably a shame, because it has the potential to be a nifty little product, that has a decent idea behind it. Easily portable fragrance for stinking men - good plan.

But - and yes, it's a large one - there is one glaring problem with the marketing here, isn't there? Isn't there? Or is it just me that has a problem here? Can I be the only one that takes issue with the use of the word 'bullet'?

Okay, let's overlook the latent sexism of the Lynx advert - obviously, that's ridiculous, but we've come to expect that of Lynx; it isn't the issue here. Lynx adverts have always shown single, pathetic men being a bit sad and lonely but suddenly managing to pick up some stunning, scantily-clad model after a quick application of Lynx. In a way, that's always been the magic of the Lynx ad; even losers can have some companionship if they use Lynx. That said, if you read 'companionship' as 'casual sex' the charm is lost a little, though you probably have a more accurate world view. Let's not forget that Bullet slogan: Pocket Pulling Power.



No, the issue here is that word 'bullet'. Has Lynx settled on this as a name because knife crime is under the spotlight so much, and - presumably - isn't cool any more? Suddenly, it's become alright to make adverts that encourage young men to buy Bullets? Come to think of it, when did it become alright for someone (at 21.19) to design this thing? The Louis Vuitton Bullet (or LV-Bullet, for short):




Designer bullets? What? If that's not glamorizing gun crime, I don't know what is.

Since when was it alright to glamorize ammunition in the way this Lynx advert does? Lynx seem to be happy saying that young men should carry bullets with them. There's an especially bad bit in this press release by 'acclaimed thespian' Matt LeRoche.

"For spontaneous guys on the go who are often faced with unexpected pulling
opportunities".

Sorry, what? What exactly is it that makes those men different to your average gangster? They're 'on the go'...from the Police.

"Bullet is perfectly pocket-sized, measuring just under eight centimetres".

So, like a bullet, then? Like a small piece of lead designed to be fired at high velocity at another person with the intention of killing and/or maiming them? One of those, yeah? How is this a good thing to be selling and putting up on posters? Especially when we know that gun crime - especially in London - is increasing, who in Lynx decided this was a good product name? Surely there were better suggestions? The main exponents (read: criminals) of the explosion of gun crime are young men, who unfortunately happen to overlap with Lynx's target market. I say 'overlap'...they're the same people. Alright, so the criminals are getting younger, but they still see bus stop posters and TV adverts, and they still use deodorant (probably...).


Now, I realise that I may be in a wishy-washy, liberal minority here, but am I the only one that holds onto a basic belief that guns are - essentially - bad? Is there really only me that can't help thinking violence is not always - if ever - a good option? Am I the only one that thinks that a kid brought up like the Western-loving one in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a bad thing? I mean, a kid that has this webpage made about him must have something wrong somewhere, right? Therefore, making guns (and associated accessories) look good is also inherently bad, right? In fact, that word 'accessories' is probably more significant than I intended when I typed it - now I see it's a frighteningly good word for the whole issue of weaponed teenagers brandishing their status-symbol killing implements. On the whole 'accessories' front, look at the first paragraph of this Guardian report.

But, it's okay for Lynx to market their products like this?