South Africa Bans Axe Deodorant's 'Sexy Angels' Ad For Offending Christians (VIDEO)

UPDATE: Axe South Africa has started a campaign on their Facebook page to get the ad back on TV.

South Africa has banned an angel-themed Axe deodorant ads, saying they're offensive to Christians.

The commercial for the deodorant, which is known as Lynx in South Africa, depicts angels -- who are young and sexy, obvi -- falling from heaven to a town in Italy because they are attracted to a man's deodorant.

In the ad's final scene, the angels with smokin' bodies smash their halos, willing to abdicate their heavenly thrones to get closer to the dude who's wearing Axe. "Excite, the new fragrance from Axe. Even angels will fall," intones the voiceover.

But at least one Christian viewer refused to come under the spell of Axe's preternatural allure, reports the Daily Mail:

The male complainant told regulators he was angered by the suggestion that God's messengers could literally fall for a man on the basis of his shop-bought fragrance.

South Africa's Advertising Standards Authority eventually sided with the man, reports Telegraph:

ASA agreed, and ordered Unilver SA, which sells Axe deodorants, to withdraw the advertisement.

As such, the problem is not so much that angels are used in the commercial, but rather that the angels are seen to forfeit, or perhaps forego their heavenly status for mortal desires," it said in a statement.

"This is something that would likely offend Christians in the same manner as it offended the complainant."

It's kind of crazy that even one complaint can result in an ad getting, well, axed, no? Check out some of our other favorite ads banned by Britain's ASA:

• A spot for YSL's Opium fragrance got sacked in England for "promoting drug use."
• On a more positive note, perhaps, a Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington L'Oreal ad was also censored in Britain, but for showcasing too much Photoshop.

• A Louis Vuitton ad made the bags seem more bespoke than they really are.
• And the ASA also wagged the finger at sexy ads in general, banning them from proximity to schools.

Watch the ad below and weigh in: do you think this Axe commercial should really be banned?

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Comments

[okieggma]

04:52 PM on 11/28/2011

I think they are pretty cute.

[Geski]

09:33 AM on 11/27/2011

I liked this AXE ad funny and compelling.

[PrairieGayCompanion]

11:01 PM on 11/11/2011

The scent of Axe is infinitely more offensive than any commercial ever could be.

[longtimegone]

02:55 AM on 11/11/2011

Christians need not be offended; angels aren't Christian ( nor Muslim, nor Buddhist.) It is angels who should be offended; an artificially scented deodorant would never seduce them into falling to earth incarnate.

[ADP4]

07:56 PM on 11/09/2011

I'm a Christian but not humorless and mindless. This ad is hilarious in that Axe-y way, and beautiful too. They kind of look like they're spoofing Victoria's Secret angels, frankly.

[suvariboy]

03:30 PM on 11/09/2011

Angels aren't real so how could "Christians" be upset by this ad? And if they were, so what! They offend me all the time with their "intelligent design" and "the world is only 6000 years old" crap. And don't even get me started about their "traditional marriage" garbage. Perhaps if they spent more time doing good works - feeding the poor, helping the sick, stuff that Jesus told them to do - they'd have less time to sit around watching t.v. and getting offended by each and every thing they see. Honestly! It seems all they do is get feign offence - manufactured outrage - and go on letter-writing campaigns telling stores and television stations that they'll be boycotted if they don't do exactly what they want. They want to live in a "free country" with little or no government intervention yet they want GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION, laws that tell the rest of us how to live. Who we can marry. What we can/cannot do with our bodies. Imagine the peace there would be worldwide were there no organized religion.

[Jim Carter1959]

02:44 PM on 11/09/2011

Time to switch to Axe! Christians offend me!

[LiberalBuzz]

02:00 PM on 11/09/2011

Another good reason to ban religion worldwide.

Maybe then we could become a civilized race and get things done.

[egaeus]

12:35 PM on 11/09/2011

Yes, I, too, am upset that the ad uses fictional creatures to sell a personal hygiene product. How dare the advertisers insinuate that things that don't exist behave in ways that the people who made them up didn't intend.

[Anna Dorsey]

10:06 AM on 11/09/2011

How is this any different than Victoria's Secret models wearing wings? If we're going to ban one, mustn't we the other? Ridiculous.

[Mat Steele]

11:20 PM on 11/08/2011

Ha! People believe in angels.

[Retrofuturistic]

02:44 AM on 11/01/2011

Tee hee. The backlash against Christianity, which is a consequence of evangelicals having brought us the Bush administration, has even spread to deodorant commercials. And all it took to bring down the whole thing was a good-smelling man....

[dirigentin]

02:31 PM on 11/09/2011

go back further, they brought us Reagan.

and Axe body spray isn't a perfume, it's a biological weapon. the stuff stinks and provokes anaphylaxic allergic responses.

[MRstoner2udude]

04:12 PM on 10/31/2011

I loved it. I stopped being religious, and therefore easily offended, many years ago. Leave it to "christians" to spoil others fun.

[otgman]

11:52 AM on 10/31/2011

Many faiths and religions have angels, why aren't the others also complaining?
and angels are never naked but dressed in blindingly white robes!
how ignorant that ad agency is!

[racenmom]

10:00 AM on 10/31/2011

Last I checked commercials were used to sell products. Most people assume there are tactics used to sell those products that aren't actually "real". So unless you watch this commercial and think for a fact that these "angels" are real then you must also believe that red and yellow M&M's really talk..

[longtimegone]

02:54 AM on 11/11/2011

No. Only the blue ones talk.