Dirty Rolling
- Brand
- Axe
- Year
- 2007
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Fashion & Beauty
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Firstborn
- With
- BBH New York
Objective
Axe wanted its Dirty Rolling TV spot to do more than run once and disappear, so it built a game around the ad's tagline — get dirty, then clean up with Axe shower gel. Turning the commercial into something a young male audience could actually play was meant to keep the joke alive online and spread it hand to hand through blogs and shared links rather than paid media alone.
Solution
On dirtyrolling.com, the player takes over the kissing couple from the ad, steering their tangled roll down a hillside using only the left and right arrow keys. The goal is reversed from what you'd expect: instead of dodging hazards, the player aims the couple straight into every filthy patch along the way — puddles, a tomato field, wet paint, oil slicks — and each hit adds to the score. The descent ends with the couple stepping into a shower, and a results screen delivers a sarcastic verdict on just how filthy the player managed to get. Runs are short, meant to be replayed for a higher score and forwarded to friends.
- 1
The player arrives at the campaign microsite dirtyrolling.com, where the TV spot and the game sit side by side, and launches the game from there.
- 2
A run begins with a kissing couple tumbling downhill through a sequence of changing locations, locked in their embrace the whole way down.
- 3
Control is limited to the left and right arrow keys, shifting the rolling pair sideways across the slope; the descent's speed and path are otherwise out of the player's hands.
- 4
The game inverts the usual dodge-the-obstacle logic: the player steers into scattered filth like mud patches, tomato fields, paint, and oil slicks, since each hit scores points rather than costing them.
- 5
The couple visibly gets dirtier the farther they roll, with grime accumulating on their bodies as the on-screen proof of how well the run is going.
- 6
The descent ends with the couple stepping into a shower, tying the payoff directly back to the Axe product.
- 7
A results screen shows the final score alongside a snarky remark about the player's filth level, then offers a replay to chase a higher score.
