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Logan Paul says his plans to create 'the next Axe' body spray were ruined after his 'suicide forest' video

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Logan Paul, the living embodiment of Axe body spray. Logan Paul/YouTube
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Before the world turned against him, Logan Paul was ready to change it.

Paul told The Hollywood Reporter that his infamous "suicide forest" video — where he filmed a dead body in Japan for his vlog — scuttled $5 million worth of business deals for the YouTube influencer. Among them were plans to create the next Axe body spray.

"We [were] building the biggest f---ing brand in the world," he said. "We're on the verge of, like, product launches. We were about to create the next Axe! And here we are just trying to wrap our heads around what happened."

Read more: YouTube released a movie with Logan Paul less than a year after his infamous 'suicide forest' video.

In January, Paul posted a video of himself and his other YouTube influencer friends in Japan, where the group made racially insensitive remarks and pulls off stunts that mocked Japanese culture. As part of it, they visited a Japanese "suicide forest" where they stumbled upon a dead body. Paul filmed the body and uploaded a video of it to his channel.

On the advice of his strategy team, Paul apologized for the video and created a mini-documentary about suicide awareness. But his career never recovered. YouTube pulled him from an advertising program for designated YouTube creators, and plans for his product launches — like the spray deodorant — were cancelled.

YouTube also paused the production of "The Thinning: New World Order," a movie Paul filmed under its production banner. But the movie was finally released in October.

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Jacob Shamsian
Jacob Shamsian is a correspondent on Business Insider's Enterprise news desk. He is also a Global Reporter for Axel Springer.He was previously on BI's Legal Affairs desk, covering major litigation, courtroom trials, and the legal industry.Jacob has reported on the criminal trials of Donald TrumpGhislaine Maxwell, Sam Bankman-Fried, Sean "Diddy" CombsR. Kelly, and Anna Sorokin (AKA Anna Delvey), He's also covered blockbuster civil trials, including both E. Jean Carroll v. Trump trials, the New York Attorney General's fraud trial against TrumpSarah Palin v. The New York Times, and Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard.His stories have been cited in judicial rulings, lawsuits, letters from congressional committees, and in numerous media publications. He was a pool reporter in Donald Trump's Manhattan criminal trial.Jacob has been interviewed on CNN, the docuseries "Surviving R. Kelly," ABC's "Good Morning America," and BBC News, among other programs. His work has been cited by media outlets, including The New York Times, Bloomberg News, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and New York magazine. He's also written for GQ, The Awl, The New Republic, Entertainment Weekly, Time, and Modern Farmer.You can reach Jacob on Signal at JacobShamsian.07.