The idea of launching the Axe Face Line with a Facebook promotion obviously was too literal. So the Unilever brand is launching its new line of facial-care products instead with a "Facescore" campaign on Tumblr as a social face-off, supported by ads running on various media websites — and, of course, a presence on Facebook too.

In doing so, Axe is entering a segment of the men's care business of the first time — a more challenging territory than when it had a fairly singular focus on helping young guys simply smell great so they could attract hordes of women.

The launch of the Axe Face Line—including a face wash, shave gel, and post-shave hydrator in four variants—also gives the brand a chance to circle back to promoting Unilever's "Astronaut" marketing platform for the Axe brand (and Lynx brand, in certain territories) grand giveaway of 22 trips to space in 2015.

"Research has shown that a majority of guys don't use facial cleanser; they reach for bar soaps or shampoos or other things to wash their face," Mark Link, Axe US brand manager for Unilever, told brandchannel. "We're launching [the Face line] to address their skincare needs."Continue reading...

Walmart philanthropic director Sylvia Mathews Burwell expected to be nominated Monday as Obama's budget chief.

India develops a taste for premium beer while officials approve $2 billion Diageo deal.

HSBC set for $23 billion profit as turnaround gains traction.

AB InBev takes to Twitter and newspaper ads to fight watered-down-beer charges.

AIDS drug breakthrough sees infant evidently cured through early use of virus-blocking drugs.

Alfa Romeo reboot marks tough road for Fiat.

American Airlines drops below 60,000 employees for the first time since 1987.

AOL's new Brand Group CEO Susan Lyne lays out her goals.

Asos joins brands using Twitter's Vine for short form social video marketing.Continue reading...

The Axe Apollo Big Game Sweepstakes is "the most ambitious thing we've ever done with the brand" in Axe's 30-year existence, Matthew McCarthy, senior brand development director for Axe North America, told brandchannel. 

And it's no wonder: the plan is to launch 22 people into space — or at least up to 64 miles, achieving weightlessness for up to six minutes — next year.

But don't pin this envelope-pushing campaign on any desire by the Unilever-owned brand to try to one-up Red Bull's recent Stratos stunt, in which Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner fell more than 128,000 feet to Earth.Continue reading...

Space travel has long been a subject of fascination, so private-sector companies such as Virgin Galactic have sprung up to try and eventually put mere mortals up into the high frontier where Neil Armstrong made history. Now we've got something to toast the late Armstrong with.

Scottish whisky maker Ardbeg has turned out a limited-edition whisky, Ardbeg Galileo, to make some noise and hopefully a few sales from a curious experiment the company is involved in.

According to the BBC, Texas-based space research company NanoRacks asked Ardbeg to be involved in a two-year space experiment late last year. Soon after, vials filled with chemical compounds from Ardbeg’s distillery were shot up to the International Space Station on a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan. The chemicals will undergo the experiment in near zero gravity while Ardbeg oversees the same experiment here on Earth.

Ardbeg, naturally, couldn't miss this galactic marketing opportunity. Its limited-edition Ardbeg Galileo, marketed to "astro-nuts," is described as a “12-year-old single malt whisky (from) a vatting of different styles of Ardbeg laid down in 1999,” the BBC notes. Talk about whisky-a-go-go.Continue reading...

The Curiosity Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) captured the rover's descent to the surface of the Red Planet, as it survived a potentially perilous landing dubbed the 'seven minutes of terror,' capping a decade of work by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (more commonly known as JPL) in California.

The world was watching as Curiosity, NASA's latest contribution to the Martian landscape, landed at 10:32 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5 near the foot of a three-mile tall mountain inside Gale Crater, which is 96 miles in diameter.

First-person updates on NASA's official @MarsCuriosity Twitter account include the historic touchdown tweet — "I'm safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!! #MSL” — which has been retweeted to date more than 71,000 times.Continue reading...

It may be soon that “musk” may not just signify male perfume. Instead, American consumers may immediately associate it with space travel or, more likely, with gobs of cash.

Like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Paul Allen, Elon Musk is a wealthy man who can now fund his boyish billionaire enthusiasm for space travel, and has now taken a major step toward making those kinds of trips more accessible to the common man.

The founder of SpaceX was obviously thrilled that his rocket made it off the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Tuesday following an aborted attempt. Its next challenge will be to hook up with the International Space Station on Friday to drop off a few things with the folks stationed there.Continue reading...

The Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-134) successfully took off on its 16-day mission at 8:56 a.m. EDT this morning from Cape Canaveral in Florida, making NASA's second-to-last shuttle flight. Atlantis, scheduled for June, will be NASA's last shuttle mission in space.

Showing a sense of humor on a poignant day, NASA released a Star Trek-like poster in honor of the team on board, led by Commander Mark Kelly (whose wounded-but-recovering wife, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was in the crowd watching as her team tweeted).Continue reading...