Should Unilever Be Criticized for Hypocrisy?

Last month Unilever got some serious flak for it’s Axe ads, which portray women in an, ahm, interesting way. Part of the branding effort was to show Axe as a deoderant whose scent drives women completely crazy - even the most innocent schoolgirl transforms into a wild pole-dancer.

Taken seriously, it does seem rather hypocritical that the same company that put out the Dove Evolution video that went viral (at about 5 million views) and created the Campaign for Real Beauty. And of course there is "Onslaught" that drew similar attention in its "exposé" of the beauty industry and the ways in which it attacks the psyche of young girls, showing them unachievable goals of perfection and perpetuating issues of low self esteem.

Watch and see for yourself. And ask yourself this: does it matter that these two "campaigns" - the rather sexist (?) Axe ads and this viral video - are products of the same corporation? Or are people overreacting to a campaign that is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek? Is Unilever just as guilty for sending a message that could be construed as sexist?