Putting the Spice in Old Spice

I’m a sucker for funny or amusing commercials. And let’s face it, who isn’t? Honestly, I think a line that can invoke a chuckle or two is infinitely more enjoyable than any other advertising technique that can be employed. The simple reason being, if I’m watching them on TV or scanning them in a newspaper, at least I feel I’m no longer wasting my time watching these ads because there is comedic value to be gotten.

So I recently saw the Old Spice commercial The Man Your Man Could Smell Like along with two of its sequels and I loved it! I thought it was absolute hilarity, and I would suggest everyone to check it out if you haven’t already.

Naturally, I drew a mental comparison between Old Spice and its number one competitor, Axe. The first, most striking difference was this commercial’s distinct lack of women. Indeed, if Procter & Gamble aimed to target the straight adolescent male audience, perhaps using a topless male bodybuilder wasn’t the best idea. I kid of course; what should instead be noted is that Old Spice veered away from sex appeal as their main campaign strategy, and instead evoked the feeling of envy. Two interesting ways to sell [essentially] the same product.

The next point worth noting is that where Axe happens to aggravate the female population with its womanizing and sexist images of young girls demeaning themselves by clawing and fighting their way to a man wearing fragrances, Old Spice actually appeals to the ladies with this stunningly built half-naked gentleman. Not only that, but the tagline “The man your man could smell like” speaks directly to the women. I can already imagine the girl thinking “Boy, I sure want my man to smell like the man my man could smell like!” and subsequently pressure him into buying the product. The man, of course, is thinking “Boy, I sure want to smell like THE man her man could smell like!” You get the picture. You could say that Old Spice has effectively doubled their target audience compared to Axe, by including the other half of the world. Not to shabby, for the same 30 seconds of airtime!