Old Spice guy gets off horse, mounts Twitter, makes social media crowd go wild
Everyone loves the Old Spice guy. His musk is like the bottled essence of man. His rich, dulcet tones have made ladies all around the world instantly fall pregnant. And his ability to be on a horse is unparalleled. The first ad went crazy online and rightfully took the Film Grand Prix at Cannes recently, the second was a reasonable follow up and he’s also done plenty of others, including this moustache spot. But the agency responsible for creating the ‘man your man could smell like’ meme, Wieden + Kennedy, has taken ‘conversations with the brand’ up a big notch with its latest effort.
Basically, questions were posed to the Old Spice Guy, known to his mother as Isiah Mustafa, an actor and once pro-footballer, on Twitter. And, replete with towel, and with the help of a few props, including crowns, dumbbells and flowers, he responded to as many of the questions as possible very quickly (there were well over 100 videos created).
The responses, to everyone from Twitter founder Biz Stone, to GQ, to the Huffington Post, to Alyssa Milano, to Ellen deGeneres, to Darkechoes33, are truly outstanding. And it’s the essence of social media (and, given the questions being posed to @oldspice were also from traditional media outlets, also the essence of good PR).
Old Spice Guy, we salute you.
Kevin Andreassend
July 16, 2010
Is the ad going to make me want to go out and buy it…doubt it very much, no matter how much raving it gets or entertaining it is. Do I think any better of Old Spice …no. Its the same I see of a lot of ads, funny, interesting, down right stupid etc. A lot of ads simply create a negative impression, some are brilliant, but brilliance in a TV ad rarely causes this male to rush out and buy. As for Rhys Darby he has not caused me to join 2degrees – so many ads just seem to be irrelevant these days.