[September 17, 2014]

AXE® Peace Campaign Culminates with Celebration of Peace Day on September 21

Since the launch of its Peace campaign in January 2014, AXE® has spread awareness of peace by asking guys and girls to do their part one kiss at a time. Through the #KissForPeace campaign, AXE helped international non-profit Peace One Day's efforts to inspire people everywhere to show their support for love and tolerance. And now, during a time of uncertainty in many parts of the world, it's more important than ever to raise awareness and celebrate Peace Day, an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence, on September 21^st.

Lance Corporal Stephen and Ja'nus Frame receive a surprise anniversary message on the same billboards in Times Square where their original #KissForPeace appeared.(Photo: Business Wire)

"Given all of the conflict in the world today, optimism and hope are more important now than ever," said Matthew McCarthy, Senior Director, AXE & Men's Grooming for Unilever. "People are driven to make a difference and give back, and we found that having a platform for even the simplest gesture of love and peace can have a moving impact."

A Kiss Says a 100,000 Words

To kick things off at the beginning of the year, AXE encouraged guys and girls to take a photo of a kiss and share it online via their social networks with #KissForPeace. The response was overwhelming: thousands of people across the country contributed their #KissForPeace, resulting in over 112,000 shared photos. A significant portion of the photos shared came from military couples, such as Lance Corporal Stephen Frame and his wife Ja'nus, who shared a #KissForPeace photo of their wedding day taken days before Stephen was stationed in the Marines. Additionally, a number of celebrity partners took part in the campaign, including former college football star AJ McCarron and model Katherine Webb who each shared their own personal message of peace with their audiences.

Spreading the Movement

More recently, AXE shared four moving videos filmed and edited by community members of creative platform Tongal, each reflecting the creator's representation of #KissForPeace. The video with the most engagement, "AXE #KissForPeace: Guerilla Kisses" will appear daily on MTV2 "What's Good" beginning on September 18^th, leading up to Peace Day on September 21^st.

Peace Around the World

Globally, people across Europe, Africa, the South Pacific and the Americas have also helped spread awareness with AXE for this vital cause of Peace for Peace One Day.

• In Australia and New Zealand, AXE encouraged 1,300 pledges of blood donations that were committed to the Red Cross and will help save up to 4,000 lives.
• In the United Kingdom, "Young Photographer of the Year" Matthew Lloyd recognized local heroes makng differences in local communities. Additionally, AXE partnered with Naughty Boy, one of the U.K.'s most successful music producers, to bring together three diverse artists to create an exclusive peace-themed track.
• In Costa Rica, AXE created "Peace Project Costa Rica," which tasked guys and guys to volunteer and help build playgrounds, improve classrooms and create a mural of peace in the country.
• The AXE "Peace Riot," a music event in Mexico, brought together more than 1,000 people for the cause.

For more information, please visit AXEPeace.com and follow AXE on Facebook and Twitter (News - Alert).

About AXE^®

AXE®, a leader in men's care, is an iconic personal care brand around the world that helps guys look, smell and feel their best. The Unilever-manufactured brand is available in a line of bodysprays, deodorant and antiperspirant sticks, shower gels, hair and face care products. AXE® is the No. 1 men's fragrance* in the U.S. and globally. AXE® is also the No. 1 grooming brand, excluding shaving hardware**, and achieved this status only seven years after launch. Including bodysprays, AXE® is the largest men's deodorant brand in the U.S.

The brand's mission is to help guys get the girl with grooming products that reflect individual personality and lifestyle. For more information, visit www.theaxeeffect.com.

*Based on volume of men's grooming products sold (excluding shaving hardware): Total US Market for Men's Grooming Products 52 weeks ending November 23, 2013

**Source (News - Alert) Euromonitor International Limited; Men's deodorants, men's mass &premium fragrance retail value sales combined, 2012; Lynx includes all AXE/Lynx/Ego sales

About Unilever United States, Inc.

Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of Food, Home and Personal Care products with sales in more than 190 countries. Working to create a better future every day, we help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. In the United States, the portfolio includes brand icons such as: Axe, Ben & Jerry's, Breyers, Caress, Clear Scalp & Hair Therapy, Consort For Men, Country Crock, Degree, Dove personal care products, Fruttare, Good Humor, Hellmann's, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!, Just for Me!, Klondike, Knorr, Lever 2000, Lipton, Magnum, Motions, Nexxus, Noxzema, Pond's, Popsicle, Promise, Q-tips, Simple, St. Ives, Suave, TIGI, TONI&GUY Hair Meet Wardrobe, TRESemmé and Vaseline. All of the preceding brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the Unilever Group of Companies.

Our ambition is to double the size of our business, while reducing our overall environmental footprint (including sourcing, consumer use and disposal) and increasing our positive social impact. We are committed to helping more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being, sourcing all our agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020, and decoupling our growth from our environmental impact. Supporting our three big goals, we have defined seven pillars, underpinned by targets encompassing social, environmental and economic areas. See more on the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan at http://www.unileverusa.com/sustainable-living/.

Unilever employs approximately 10,000 people in the United States - generating nearly $9 billion in sales in 2013. For more information, visit www.unileverusa.com.

About Peace One Day

Founded in 1999 by filmmaker Jeremy Gilley, the non-profit organization Peace One Day drove the initiative that led to the unanimous adoption by the United Nations member states of an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence on September 21 - Peace Day.

With the day in place, Peace One Day's objective is to institutionalize Peace Day around the world, making it self- sustaining. A report supported by Mckinsey and Company estimated that 280 million people were aware of Peace Day 2012, with approximately 5.6 million people behaving more peacefully as a result. These figures were expected to double in 2013.

Not only has Peace Day been proved as a catalyst for broad-ranging civil society action by individuals and groups in every country of the world, but also for life-saving activities: notably, in 2007, Jeremy Gilley, his film crew and Peace One Day Ambassador Jude Law travelled to Afghanistan to help develop and document preparations for life-saving activities across the country for Peace Day. As a result of this work, since 2007, Peace Day agreements by all parties to conflict in the region have resulted in the immunization against polio of 4.5 million children in areas hitherto unreachable or hard to reach due to conflict. The United Nations Department for Safety and Security, which monitors security related incidents, recorded a 70% reduction in violent incidents on Peace Day 2008 in Afghanistan.

Peace One Day has launched a series of Peace Day coalitions and runs a number of campaigns to further awareness and engagement on Peace Day. For more information visit www.peaceoneday.org.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20140917006034/en/

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