• Ad Age, Thursday, January 8, 2009 10:50 AM

This is a story -- headlined "Could the Axe effect be real?" -- you'll want to hide from your sons, whose fancies have actually turned to other sorts of action-adventure sports, unless you enjoy the pervasive aroma of body spray in your home.

Craig Roberts, a University of Liverpool professor who focuses on the role of scent in mate choice among humans and mice, finds that men who use Lynx deodorant are seen as more attractive by females than men who use a "placebo" deodorant with no fragrance. Jack Neff reports that Lynx is "Axe's British-brand cousin."

The women didn't actually smell the men, but they did inhale the confidence they exuded. The women watched 15-second videos that men made describing themselves. The fragranced men got an average rating of 4.2 on a 7-point scale, 0.4 points higher than the 3.8 recorded for the wearers of placebo deodorant.

"Deodorant is supposed to make you feel good about yourself and give you confidence in the mating game, which is what Axe says," beams Monica Garcia, a consumer scientist for Unilever in the U.K.

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