In the days following Super Bowl XLIV (2010), perhaps the most buzzed-about television ad was a clip for Old Spice body wash. The ad single-handedly turned Isaiah Mustafa, formerly a practice squad football player, into something of a minor celebrity. In the ad, a towel-clad Mustafa asks for the attention of the “ladies” in the audience, then proceeds to explain, with humorously over-the-top arrogance, why he is superior to all other men. He concludes that a man should smell “like Old Spice, and not a lady.” And of course, he’s on a horse.
There’s only one problem with the legend of the Man Your Man Could Smell Like on the Super Bowl broadcast.
The spot never appeared on the Super Bowl broadcast.
Though released to coincide with the Super Bowl, the ad’s television run was fairly limited. It was viewed mainly as a viral video. On Youtube alone, the video has garnered 36.5 million views and counting.
These days, it seems like the “viral” phenomenon has even more power than television when it comes to pushing things into the cultural lexicon. The Old Spice Guy is ubiquitous. It earned its own Sesame Street parody, which is truly a signal that something has broken through to the mainstream consciousness. Though it addresses the audience with the salutation, “Hello ladies,” it was a sensation among the dudes as well. Millions of guys were going around claiming to be on a horse. (Most them weren’t, in fact, on a horse at the time.) Personally, if I go to a concert and someone asks me if I’ve got the tickets on me, I can’t resist holding the tickets up, raising my eyebrow, and declaring, in the best smooth baritone I can muster, “THE TICKETS ARE NOW DIAMONDS!”
It’s difficult to intentionally make a viral video. You can buy banner ads or sponsored links on Google, but to really go viral, a video needs to earn a life of its own. Average people need to e-mail the link to their friends. People think of advertisements as something they want to avoid. In the age of TiVo, television ads are something to be fast-forwarded through. A viral video is cool. People come to the video voluntarily. The video doesn’t just have a target audience. It has fans.
Having gotten that far by making a hip video, the campaign went further by inviting its fans to become part of the process. The following summer, Mustafa and company spent a few days recording short video responses to questions posed on Twitter and other social media. In addition to regular people, multiple celebrities got in on the act. How cool do you look when Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Alyssa Milano, Rose McGowan, George Stephanopoulos, Ryan Seacrest, Ellen Degeneres, Perez Hilton, and Apolo Ohno are just giddy about the chance to be name-checked in your videos? In all, there are almost 200 such videos on Youtube.
Having become socially involved with the fans, the hook is set. How can you buy another body wash now? This is the brand that you forwarded to your entire e-mail contact list. You “tweeted” a question to the creators (even though, if you weren’t really lucky, your question probably didn’t get answered). You wasted an entire afternoon clicking through 100 different short videos of a half-naked man in a bathroom. You’re part of the team now!
Honestly, I don’t think there’s that much difference between one body wash and any other. But when I’m in the hygiene aisle, and I’m staring at 18 different equal options, I see the Old Spice label and think of things that once made me laugh. So what if the gel inside the bottle isn’t special? In honor of the brand, I can afford the $3.79.
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