2024 Lifetime Achievement Award

Sweat Gets Roughed Up, Mafia Style, in Mischief's Ads for Carpe Antiperspirant

Chatty OOH shows perspiration who's boss

We’re a sucker for well-written, copy-heavy OOH ads. And here are some fun ones by creative agency Mischief for Carpe, the antiperspirant brand.

Sweat is Carpe’s enemy. And where Carpe comes from, there’s one thing you do to your enemies. (Actually, there are several things.) You drive past their house and intimidate them. You cut off their pinky and mail it to their mom. You dig a hole and do what has to be done.

All of which happens to sweat in the wry ads below, parodying mob violence. (RIP, Ray.) Because apparently sweat wasn’t listening.

“Sweat won’t be bothering you anymore,” says the wild postings, which are appearing across New York City.

“Sweat’s tactics are menacing—it sneaks up on our lives at the most unexpected and uncontrollable moments,” says David Spratte, Carpe’s CEO and co-founder. “For excessive sweaters, it is constantly bludgeoning. And without the ability to change the thermostat, open windows or duck into a room to wipe off, sweat maroons us to the safe space of homes, alone, with the AC cranked up. But not with Carpe. With this campaign we want to celebrate the shift of power. Sweat won’t be bothering you anymore.”   

“Carpe’s stronger than a lot of deodorants,” add Mischief creative directors Pete Stott and Ryan Lefebvre. “So while most sweat-care products talk about how they’re going to protect you from sweat, with Carpe, it seemed like sweat would need protection from you. It’s a bit like Liam Neeson of the deodorant aisle. With that, we just had fun thinking of ways Carpe would end sweat on your behalf.”

2024 Lifetime Achievement Award