Photo source: Axe
On October 10, Axe unveiled a limited-edition can created in collaboration with Emily Zugay, the TikTok-famous graphic designer known for her deadpan humor and deliberately awkward redesigns of brand logos. The result is a minimalist white can featuring a single, clip art-style image of an axe, a nod to Zugay’s absurdist design style.
The collaboration originated from a TikTok video Zugay posted in July, where she unveiled her reimagined axe-style logo and humorously claimed the brand “wasn’t made for boys in middle school locker rooms, it was made for men.” The clip went viral, amassing over 5 million views, 500,000 likes, and more than 2,000 comments, quickly drawing Axe’s attention and setting the stage for the official partnership.
Within just 24 hours, Axe created a mock-up of the can featuring Zugay’s design and shared it across its social media channels. The partnership quickly expanded into the TikTok creator’s biggest brand collaboration yet: Axe named Zugay its new “Big Boss,” a fictional executive role at the center of a humorous social media campaign spanning TikTok and Instagram. To complete the collaboration, the limited-edition can was also made available for purchase on Walmart’s website.
“Brands that don’t take themselves too seriously and lean into meme culture really connect with people today,” Zugay said in a statement. “In a world oversaturated with traditional ads, it’s the brands that feel relatable and make us laugh or feel something that stick in our minds.”
The collaboration serves not only as a strong example of social listening, a hallmark of modern social media strategy, but also as a reflection of how Axe’s core audience of young men prefers to engage with brands: through humor, self-awareness, and a willingness to play along with internet culture.
“Young guys today don’t want to just be spoken to. They want to feel like they’re part of the process of creating brands,” Dolores Assalini, head of Axe U.S., said. “Gen Z guys and Gen Alpha guys really value online culture and influencer-driven trends, and they want brands to collaborate with them and give them what they want within this space.”
