When full-body deodorants started to multiply on drugstore shelves and in Instagram ads last year, the response online was a chorus of verbal side-eyes. “What are these ‘whole body deodorant’ commercials?? Are people not washing???” tweeted a podcaster in Philadelphia . “I gotta know what are y’all doing to stink so bad?” asked another X user.
In June, a Reddit thread titled “What is up with whole body deodorant becoming so popular?” garnered nearly 600 comments. The most popular one: “Soap companies find a way to sell more soap.” Whole-body fragrances aren’t a new concept.
Axe Body Spray, for instance, is an aerosol deodorant that became a running joke, as well as a lifestyle for a certain subset of adolescent boys (as many a middle-school teacher can attest). And deodorising sprays for the “unmentionable” areas have been around for decades, too: FDS - for “feminine deodorising spray” - has been around since the 1960s and is marketed as “safe to use during your period and can help you control natural odours caused by your period”..
