Eau de Boy: There's such a thing as too much Axe

NEW YORK — If you have a son over age 10, you may be familiar with a fragrance I refer to as "Eau de Boy."

Eau de Boy comes in two unforgettable scents: Locker Room and Axe.

If you live with the Locker Room variety, then you have one of those boys who won't shower and whose socks and T-shirts must be decontaminated by a HazMat team before going in the laundry.

But if it's the smell of Axe deodorant you're used to, then you've got a kid who creates giant vapor clouds every time he sprays himself with the stuff, causing you to run around opening windows, hoping it dissipates before the entire family passes out.

Susan Wilson, a mother of two boys from Scottsdale, Ariz., had to ban Axe body wash in her house. "The 13-year-old was pretty responsible, but the 10-year-old was out of control!" she said. "They couldn't rinse the wash cloths out well enough, and when I washed them, we all wore Axe!"

A Minnesota state representative, Karen Clark, even proposed phasing out fragrances from schools to protect kids with asthma from their overly perfumed classmates. Clark later scaled the idea down to an awareness campaign that was approved by the City of Minneapolis School Board.

Even the makers of Axe are embarking on an education campaign. "We believe most everything is best in moderation, application of grooming products included," said Jay Matthew, U.S. marketing director for Axe deodorants. "One of our newest ad campaigns for Axe focuses on the best application of our deodorant body sprays. The ads focus on the tagline 'Double Pits to Chesty' and refer to the places where guys should apply the deodorant spray."

That is definitely preferable to what some guys do, the tagline for which seems to be "Double Pits to the World."

Matthew also says the target audience is young men 18-24 — even though the mothers of every 15-year-old in America have memorized the smell of Axe (and its 10 types of body spray, eight deodorant sticks and 14 shower gels).

"As with most brands that cater to college-aged guys, we do see that Axe is aspirational for a younger audience," he said.

Don't you feel better knowing that a 13-year-old doused with Axe is aspiring to be more mature?