Rock Face Launches Campaign to Poke Fun at the Weird World of Men’s Fragrance

Men’s grooming brand Rock Face has launched a UK-wide OOH and social campaign to show that men can smell amazing, without buying into the ridiculous posing and pouting of men’s fragrance ads.

The ‘Makes Scents’ campaign, created by agency Insiders, promotes Rock Face’s range of male toiletries and body sprays while poking fun at the cliched tropes of men’s fragrance ads - from crashing waves to pouting celebrities in the desert.

There are two strands of the campaign - 'Punch through the nonsense', and 'This smells amazing’.

‘Punch through the nonsense’ sees the Rock Face products breaking through the middle of a conventional cologne ad (think guitar-playing film star in the desert), while ‘This smells amazing’ play with ‘deleting’ the usual overblown copy around men's fragrance.

Rock Face came to Insiders with a brief to talk about the brand’s superior fragrances, but in a way that felt authentic to the Rock Face brand.

The Rock Face ranges are created by the world’s leading fragrance experts - making them as good as the best cologne, while remaining affordable, convenient, and available in your local supermarket.

This is Rock Face’s biggest investment in brand advertising, and positions the brand for significant growth in 2025, tying in with a range expansion across retail, which sees Rock Face now stocked in Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Boots, Asda, and Morrison’s amongst others.

James Langdon, brand director at Rock Face, said, “We came to Insiders with a tricky brief - standing out in a world of quite honestly, pure nonsense. Men’s fragrance ads are either there to get people running down the street after them, or go the full, unironic Blue Steel campaigns, with pouting models in various deserts and oceans. The reality is that most men just want to go about their day and smell good. Rock Face achieves just this, aftershave quality scents, available in your local supermarket.

“Insiders answer to this brief was better than we could have ever expected. They gave us something that got to the heart of where our brand sat, understood the tension and then delivered something that cut right to the crux of it, but with humour and heart. No nonsense, no guff - just simply smelling great - and funny to boot.”

Rory Gilbride, co-founder, Insiders added, “Rock Face has a unique offer — the best scents in the world, but available in your everyday antiperspirant or body wash. That’s what makes them interesting — they are miles ahead of everyone else on the supermarket shelf.

“Our campaign purposefully looks beyond the category tropes and our direct competitors, instead rubbing up against the big fragrance houses to help land the brand’s superior scent proposition. The result? A light hearted needling of the big fragrance giants. It’s about time they had a laugh.”