Hai Karate - "Be Careful How You Use It"

"Be Careful How You Use It"

Hai Karate is best remembered today for its marketing plan, with a small self-defense instruction booklet sold with each bottle (to help wearers fend off women) and its television adverts. In the UK spots, a stereotypical nerd covers himself in Hai Karate and is promptly seduced by a female passer-by played by British starlet Valerie Leon; similar ads ran in the US as well. All of the spots contained the catch phrase "Be careful how you use it".

The fragrance was developed by the Leeming division of Pfizer and launched in 1967. As well as the original Hai Karate fragrance, versions named Oriental Lime and Oriental Spice were soon introduced. It competed successfully with such other brands as Aqua Velva, Old Spice, Jaguar, Dante and Brut before fading away in the 1980s.