“The man your man could smell like commercial” for Old Spice body wash is an example of an extremely creative commercial and won the Grand Prix for film award at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Old Spice advertising targeted men for several years with humorous creative built around the “Smell Like a Man, Man” tagline However this commercial was an ad that men and women can enjoy together. It is a humorous and entertaining spot featuring a very muscular and handsome young man (former professional football player Isaiah Mustafa) who uses a variety of unusual situations to demonstrate to women how much better their lives could be with a man who switches to Old Spice from a “lady-scented” body wash. The commercial has a number of elements that make it creative such as originality. The ad definitely contains elements that are surprising and move away from the obvious and commonplace. It shows Mustafa in various scenes such as stepping out of a shower with a towel around his waist brandishing a bottle of Old Spice body wash then goes on to show him on a boat wielding an oyster filled with “tickets to that thing you like” and then changing to a handful of diamonds. The commercial ends with the camera pulling back revealing the shirtless Mustafa on horseback as he delivers the signature line from the spot: “I’m on a Horse.” This commercial definitely struck a responsive chord with consumers as it became a viral sensation and was viewed more than 45 million times on YouTube by the end of 2013. Wieden & Kennedy developed a clever way to extend the life of this commercial by giving consumers the opportunity to submit questions to the “Old Spice Guy’ via twitter and Facebook and have him answer them in short video clips online. They received several thousand questions and comments from consumers and W&K’s digital marketing team shot nearly 200 clips Within a week, web views of the new videos eclipsed the original TV commercial and searches for Old Spice on Google soared by nearly 2,000 percent making it one of the most successful viral video campaigns ever done.
The commercial broke through all previous viral-records and became a part of popular culture. According to an article published in Advertising Age on July 26, 2010, the commercial helped increase sales of Old Spice body wash, although it was not clear how much of the jump in sales occurred because of category growth and sales promotion efforts for the brand such as couponing. The article concludes that the ad was effective in helping reverse a decline in market share for the brands in the very competitive body wash market which includes, Gillette, Nivea Men, Dove Men and Axe.
1. The AAAA contends that advertisers should not cut their budgets during a time of recession. Explain why advertisers usually do make cuts in marketing communications budgets during a recession. Is this likely to be an effective or ineffective strategy? Explain why.
2. Different companies believe that various media are more important than others for their marketing purposes. Discuss the various perspectives taken by these companies, and explain why everyone may not agree on the same level of importance for media.
3. Television commercials are often developed that rely on unusual creative tactics and have very little relevance to the product or service being advertised. Creative personnel in agencies defend the use of the strange messages by noting that they are novel and break through the clutter. Evaluate the pros and cons of this argument.
4. Evaluate the debate over creative versus hard-sell advertising. Discuss the arguments for and against each perspective. Who should be responsible for judging the creativity of an ad – clients or agency creative personnel?