We wanted to bring to life the chaos we imagined would happen after the launch of the 2 new Axe fragrance variants for him and for her - putting the 'Axe Effect' into the hands of women for the first time ever.

From a communications perspective, we lit many fires to make the epidemic appear real. Because that’s how it happens in real life. You might not know someone who has had swine flu personally, but you’ve heard a story. Caught a snipet on the news. Read a headline over someone’s shoulder. Suddenly it feels like it’s on your doorstep.

So we formed our own Epidemic by creating 82 films 'news alerts' chronicling the international crisis that arose because of Axe Anarchy. By casting 5 different actresses as news presenters with the intention of realistically portraying newswomen from many different regions, our films genuinely felt like the news.

We started with a series of 3 scripts that mirrored the arc of an authentic news story: in the first the epidemic was introduced and warnings issued; in the second, eye-witnesses discuss the development of the story and the global scale of the chaos was revealed; and the third, the human interest and local point-of-view on the crisis were played out.The 3 scripts were re-shot using 4 different actresses in the role of newsreader. They were filmed delivering the scripts in 13 different languages to appear authentic when played out regionally. With the various cut-downs required, the end result was a total of 83 different edits.We seeded rumours of the launch with Axe Anarchy appearing for sale on eBay and pre-sale on Facebook.

We surrounded the population with evidence of the epidemic staging 'flashsnogs' demonstrating the chaos that occurs when both sexes have access to the Axe Effect.

Results are still being calculated but some highlights include:Consumer:Female product outsold water in drug stores in its launch and second week.Female variant limited pre-sell on Facebook sold out in 3 hours.Client:Original project briefed to hit 11 European markets, upon local clients seeing the campaign this extended to 15 countries and went from Europe to global reach.