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Mitchum's Armpit Orchestra: Offensive or Inspirational?

CAMPAIGN INSIGHT: The Mitchum Man site has viral success written all over it. When reaching the site you are greeted with a tuning orchestra, and once the site loads you notice that there is a choir comprised of Mitchum-wearing, armpit-farting musicians.

Users control armpit farting by clicking on the different characters. Characters who hit a sour note can be easily tuned up by applying Mitchum to their underarms.

It might sound silly, but the utility of the campaign is impressive. You can create a tune to a hip hop backbeat or learn how to play other songs (the site gives you a tutorial on which people to click when to play tunes like "Take Me out to the Ball Game"). The site even allows you to record your own songs and share them with friends.

Additionally you can upload a photo of yourself to add to the choir, if you feel like being associated with this group of "musicians."

Once you get out of the armpit orchestra, you can explore the different products created by Mitchum or go play with the Man-O-Meter.

Mitchum is meant for strong men, and the Man-O-Meter determines just how much of a Mitchum man you are. By answering questions from the Mitchum Man spokesmodel, "Nina," they determine the level of your manliness. The more questions you answer, the more clothing Nina removes. There's the incentive for you.

Overall the site is welcoming and begs to be shared with friends and colleagues. That is if you're man enough. -- Krisserin Canary, associate editor, iMedia Communications

Panel Review:
I wasn't really sure what to expect when I clicked onto the site, but I realized halfway into my experience with the site that I would need to send this out to the team at large. As a 30-something woman, I'm not at all close to what I assume is the target audience of men 18-29-ish. I wanted the guys to weigh in as well, with their thoughts on the site.

After a somewhat long load time the visitor is presented with 12 people ready to play their armpits for you. You can listen to or learn to play a few classic songs like "99 Bottles of Beer" or "Take Me out to the Ball Game," record a song, or upload your own picture onto people's heads in the orchestra.

Quickly bored with the orchestra, I clicked 'Products' to get to the rest of the site. Advertising: check. Some of the guys here thought the advertising was clever for the intended audience. The Product lineup was easy to use, and gave me the information I needed (how much do you need to know about antiperspirant anyway?), with clean design and nice interactivity.

But then…I got to the Man-o-Meter test.

Mitchum is walking a thin line here. The bar was set very high last year with the Philips Shave Everywhere site. Edgy humor that plays to the stereotypes that we have about men and women can backfire if not done well. The Mitchum Man-o-Meter test alienates everyone who isn't a card carrying, beer swilling, pizza-eating, sports loving lad, and makes us ask, "Why did they do that?"

Video quality is good, the quiz works well, I like that if you play again, you get different questions in different orders. I like that Nina gets on your case if you ignore her (shame on you). But overall the message is stale and heavy-handed, and Nina is not a good actress.

I understand that antiperspirant and deodorant are a low consideration category. I understand the need to create content that will get people to take notice and visit a site for deodorant. What I don't understand is why, as a product line that targets both men and women, Mitchum has decided to so completely alienate some of their consumers. In doing some research, I found that the initial goal of the Mitchum Man campaign was to "introduce Mitchum to young men without alienating the older men who already buy it." I'm not sure this has worked. I think they have alienated their extended consumer base and when you consider that women are the major purchasers / influencers of household products for married men, Mitchum might be in trouble. I could understand this if Mitchum Man was a campaign site or a sub-site of the Mitchum brand, but mitchum.com lands you right on the armpit orchestra. This is the main brand site.

Overall the site is designed well—simple navigation, not too many clicks to get anywhere. The video production is done well, even with the long load time. The site functions as it should, with some minor glitches when sending songs to a friend. But, the message on the other hand, falls flat and left everyone feeling a bit cold. Does anyone want really want to be a Mitchum Man?
-- Kalie Kimball-Malone,VP/creative director, Worktank