- Drown yourself in Axe and you might get a sheep herd following you instead of lusty ladies.
Oh, Axe body spray and your ridiculous advertisements. You know, the ones where a kissless geek sprays himself all over, and suddenly every girl in his high school wants to rip his pants off.
Yet, some guys must’ve believed what they saw in the ads. If you ever had one of these dudes in your high school class, you’ll be painfully aware of just how strong Axe can smell.
That choking musk, however, is good for more than masking the stench of a hormonal teenager. As it turns out, it can also help you raise sheep.
Sheep farmers in the U.K. and elsewhere have discovered that a certain scent in the Axe body spray line is an incredibly useful tool for efficiently running their farms. It stops rams from butting heads and gets ewes to adopt orphaned lambs in the herd.
It’s all due to one simple reason. The spray smells so overpowering that it hides the sheep’s natural hormones that alter their behavior.
You know, that puts into a new perspective how bad an unwashed high schooler really smells — considering you could occasionally still smell the BO under the cloud of Axe.
I’ll Fight You, Mate
Roughly 18 years ago, British policewoman Sam Bryce suffered a back injury on duty. During recovery, she re-evaluated her life choices and decided to retire to a more peaceful existence.
So, she set up a sheep farm in eastern England, some 100 miles from London.
Although her farm operation has been successful, Bryce discovered that the daily lives of a shepherd and a cop have surprising similarities. After all, both have to try and keep belligerent, testosterone-addled boneheads from beating each other to a pulp.
On Bryce’s farm, the main offenders are Cash and Casper. They’re four-year-old rams in their prime — which means they have a lot of chutzpah and they’re not afraid to show it.
If kept together constantly, the two rams will manage to coexist in begrudging peace. But if they’re separated for even a short time, there will be trouble.
“They puff themselves up and square up to each other and make this grunting noise,” Bryce explained to Wall Street Journal.
“It’s like when you see drunk men put their fists up and say, ‘I’ll fight you.’”
And while Bryce probably knows how to talk down a couple of blasted bozos at a bar, the rams don’t give a hoot or a holler about a stern talking-to. So, Bryce went online to look for help on how to keep Cash and Casper calm.
‘No Argy-Bargy’
As it turns out, Bryce wasn’t the only sheep farmer who’s struggled with rambunctious rams. The good thing was, others had discovered an unorthodox solution.
Axe Africa body spray, marketed in the U.K. as Lynx Africa (someone had already trademarked Axe in the country). On the “Ladies Who Lamb” Facebook group, Bryce found a recommendation to spray the rams’ coats with the deodorant.
She may have been skeptical at first, but Bryce figured there would be no harm in trying. Lo and behold, the trick worked.
With the smell of Axe Africa lingering around them, Cash and Casper are like totally different rams. All of a sudden, they just didn’t feel like fighting anymore.
“There’s no argy-bargy, no rowing,” summarized Bryce.
It doesn’t take a lot of the spray to calm the rams down. Just a few long sprays and they’re solid.
Bryce discovered the secret behind the Axe’s calming effect is its overpowering smell. The ram’s natural hormones make them belligerent, but Axe Africa masks them completely and keeps Cash and Casper from fighting.
Bryce has also tried a few other Axe scents, but none of them seem to work as well. Only Africa’s potent musk can keep the rams calm.
Occasionally, however, Bryce does give Cash and Casper a spray even when they’re not fighting. More specifically, that’s when they return from… Acquainting themselves with the sheep.
“When the rams come back from tupping, they stink. They need a powerful smell,” she said.
Unisex Perfume
Yet, despite being marketed to a male audience, Axe Africa isn’t just for rams. It can help ewes as well.
Caitlin Jenkins runs a sheep farm in Suffolk, a bit south of Bryce’s operation. She has noticed that Axe Africa is the key to giving orphaned lambs a loving mother.
Normally, ewes identify their own kids through smell. If the lamb doesn’t smell right to the sheep, she doesn’t care — it’s not hers so why should she give a crap?
That’s nature for you, but you can see how this might be a problem for a sheep farmer. A lamb needs a mother or it will starve to death, which means a financial loss.
Not to worry, because Axe resolves this sheep-related problem as well.
As with rams, giving the lamb and ewe a quick spray virtually eliminates their natural scents. Since they both now stink of Axe Africa, the ewe figures the lamb must be hers and will take care of it.
“I always go for Lynx Africa because it has a very distinctive strong smell. The ones that don’t smell as strong have less chance of working,” said Jenkins.
You know, we can’t help but wonder if we’ve fallen for a new bizarre ad campaign by Axe. Maybe their super-macho ads don’t bring in customers like they used to and the deodorant brand has decided to shift to farming.
They might as well. At least the sheep don’t seem to mind the Axe stench.