old spice

“Do you want a man who can bake you a gourmet cake in the dream kitchen that he built for you with his own hands? Of course you do.” Old Spice man asks his audience this question among a series of other rhetorical questions as he transitions, to continuously fit the image of the perfect man. The commercial begins with an attractive, charismatic Old Spice man standing in a towel bare-chested, on the beach holding a bottle of Old Spice. He associates being an attractive model man, with using Old Spice body wash. He then transitions into an adventurous man wearing khaki shorts, walking on a log, and then walking on water. After he carries said gourmet cake into the dream kitchen, he swan dives off a waterfall, into a hot tub. The commercial ends with the man sitting on a motorcycle holding a bottle of Old Spice body wash; modeling being both an Old Spice man and the ideal man, with the slogan SMELL LIKE A MAN, MAN. Old Spice, in the background. Humor is achieved by the tone that is set. The ad campaign is funny to a point that the commercial is pretty much making fun of itself. The sex appeal is apparent as the bare-chested man sells the product of a man, man. The product name and logo are repeated and shown throughout the entire ad, making repetition a strong selling point. This advertisement is effective because it appeals to a wide audience using humor, sex appeal, and repetition to sell the product.

Women like attractive men, but they also like men who are adventurous, handy, charismatic, and intriguing. In 30 seconds Old Spice man manages to embody all of these characteristics all the while shirtless, holding a bottle of body wash or repeating the Old Spice product name. He quickly transitions through the scenes using humor...

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... approach, selling men’s hygiene products, by appealing to a female audience. Though Old Spice targets and appeals to females, they do sell men’s hygiene products, thus, also attracting males and running an ad campaign that males can enjoy. The constant lack of shirt is just enough sex appeal to catch the audiences’ attention, without driving them away. The caricature of the perfect man easily enacting a variety of roles is entertaining for females and males. Additionally the commercial uses quick transitions and repetition to keep the audiences’ attention and to enforce the association of Old Spice with the ideal man. Old Spice sells their image as representing the perfect man, and hey if you can’t be him, well you can at least smell like him. With a humorous undertone and just enough sex appeal, the ad campaign is funny, attractive, appealing, and thus effective.