Campaigns I Like: Old Spice and “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”

I went back and forth about whether or not I was going to write about how much I like the new Old Spice campaign because it seems like everyone is doing it. But you know what? Everyone is talking about it because it is awesome, and I’m not one to ignore awesomeness.

Isaiah Mustafa, the new face of Old Spice

First, a brief summary, in case you’re new to the internet: Proctor & Gamble (Old Spice’s parent company) and Wieden & Kennedy (an ad agency) recently enlisted former NFL wide receiver and all-around studmuffin Isaiah Mustafa to make a series of funny TV commercials pointing out that if only men would wear Old Spice, they could be as awesome as he is.

The campaign quickly spread like wildfire when Mustafa began responding to Twitter fans and bloggers with personalized video messages on YouTube. He made countless video responses, addressing both famous people and average joes, before announcing that he was done making the videos (and threw in the literal towel in exchange for a chainsaw and giant petrified fish).

When I say wildfire, I mean: this campaign has spread unlike anything the advertising world has ever seen. Visible Measures has done some statistical analysis based on YouTube’s numbers and they’re wildly impressive:

courtesy of Visible Measures

If you’re confused and think you’re reading it wrong: you’re not. These video responses have been viewed at a faster pace than some of the internet’s most beloved videos.

Ultimately, here’s what I love about this campaign:

It has an incredibly universal appeal. Fast Company just interviewed Wieden’s global interactive creative director, Iain Tait, about the campaign. They asked him how the agency came up with the idea for the social marketing campaign and Tait responded, “We had this character who is not only loved by ladies, but equally loved by guys. A woman’s man that was okay for men to love. And we realized there were no edges to where he could exist.” The character himself is universally appealing, but the agency quickly realized that he could be everywhere and people would still be interested.

It reinvents a classic brand. I used to associate Old Spice with my Granddad, but no longer. I overheard someone say on the train that “this campaign makes AXE look like my Grandpa’s Oldsmobile” and had to laugh. I have to think that somewhere, a creative director got his wings once that thought was uttered.

It exists in real time, a feat that seems impossible for something of this scope. In the same interview I referenced earlier, Tait explains that this campaign “blurs the lines between things that people don’t expect to be able to be done in real time. So that’s the surprise, that “Hang on, you’re producing these things kind of in real time? How on earth are you doing that?”

What do you like about the campaign?