Old Spice
The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
The Definer
The Brief: Old Spice was seen as outdated. The brand needed to appeal to younger men without alienating existing customers.
Problem Reframe: Men do not buy body wash. Women buy body wash for men. The real audience is not the user. It is the purchaser.
Category Convention: Male grooming advertising speaks directly to men about performance, sport and rugged masculinity.
The Targeter
Audience: Female Purchasers
Tension: They buy toiletries for their partners but find male grooming advertising boring. They want their man to smell good but roll their eyes at macho posturing.
The Positioner
Position: For women who buy body wash for men, Old Spice makes masculinity funny because taking yourself too seriously is the real turn-off.
We Are Not: Earnest. Macho. Taking itself seriously. Boring.
The Strategist
Direction: Parody masculine advertising tropes while delivering the product message. Speak to women about men. Make absurdity the tone.
The Forge
Absurd Masculinity
Parody of male fantasies. Impossible transitions. Deadpan delivery.
Surreal, funny, shareable
Confident Charm
Direct to camera. Knowing wink. Self-aware swagger.
Charming, playful, quotable
Everyday Hero
Regular guys elevated. Bathroom transformations.
Relatable, aspirational, humorous
What The Creatives Made
Isaiah Mustafa delivering a monologue that moves impossibly from bathroom to boat to horse, directly addressing women about their disappointing male partners. Real-time video responses extended the campaign virally.
"The man your man could smell like."
Why It Worked
- Reframed the target audience from users to purchasers
- Made masculinity advertising self-aware and funny
- Real-time social responses extended the campaign virally
- Exclusions banned earnest machismo, forcing creative invention