A ‘lower body spray' for boys? What in the fresh hell is this?

Independent

2 days ago

During this week's heatwave, on the hottest day of the year, while my 16-year-old son lounged languorously on the sofa, sweating his way through Squid Game, I had the misfortune of stumbling across an advert for Lynx.
Anyone who grew up in the 90s will surely remember the 'Lynx Effect' ads, which led teenage boys to think that one squirt of this holy body spray would make them irresistible to women.
Now, the fragrance brand, first launched in France in 1983 by Unilever, has gone one step further and created a special 'lower body spray' – for, you guessed it, the nether regions.
The advert features a basketball player squirting his extremities and then another player being irresistibly drawn to them, as well as a geeky-looking bloke spraying his backside before walking through the cinema and having it sniffed lasciviously by a woman. There's also a boxer spraying his feet which smell so good his opponent is distracted by the heavenly scent.
I showed it to my teen, Charlie, who said it was 'pretty mint'. I then asked if it would make him want to buy it and – never one to over-promise – he said, 'possibly'.
He seemed to think it was aimed at athletes and I suppose that's what Lynx are doing – cleverly marketing a product for boys who want to get ripped.
As if 96-hour deodorant wasn't a hideous enough proposition, boys now have one for their private parts. I bet those lads from The Inbetweeners would lap it up. But whatever happened to having a quick shower?
The thing is, as a mum, I've already got an 11-year-old daughter who wants to spend all of her pocket money on skincare, while my eldest spends large parts of his weekends perusing the glossy-looking cologne counters of Selfridges trying to find that perfect elusive scent. And now this!
Perhaps it's time that boys were targeted in the same way that girls have been for decades – under the basic premise that there's something about them that needs fixing and that the only way that can be done is by buying a certain product. Lynx was, after all, from the same brand that produced Impulse – something every midlife woman like me probably once carried in her handbag.
But we can't deny the fact that these sorts of products, much like Femfresh for women, are targeting teenage boys and their vulnerabilities. It seems to give them the impression that a shower alone is not enough to make you fresh 'down there'.
Perhaps it's something of an antidote to other recent trends which celebrate slovenliness. First there was 'goblin mode' which was chosen by the public as the 2022 Oxford word of the year. The term, which refers to 'a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations', was the first word of the year to have been decided by public vote. It was first seen on Twitter in 2009 and gained popularity in 2022, as people around the world emerged uncertainly from pandemic lockdowns.
This was followed by the 'gross girl' trend, which went from being an insult flung around schoolyards to something you can take pride in on TikTok.
At its peak, in 2023, self-styled 'gross girl' Michelle Battersby's video of her 'gross' day to day life – which included crimes such as leaving a toasted bagel out all day and not making her bed – had over 3.6m views.
Battersby, founder of the Sunroom app, told her users: 'My account is for the kinda gross girlies. The ones that rely on dry shampoo. The ones that let their underwear take care of the last day of their period.'
I'd rather use dry shampoo than spray chemicals on my private parts, though. That's what I call really gross.