Teen Boys and Moms alike can Enjoy the Fresh Smell of Old Spice

  • published on16, Jul, 2017
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It always seems when I am at home watching Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block at 2am, I always stumble upon wacky, surrealist, and downright outside-the-box ads from major brands (I’m talking about you Subway and Skittles!). Old Spice is now the latest brand to turn to wild antics that are instantly attention-grabbing, self-referential, and incredibly dynamic. Whenever I am watching Adult Swim on the treadmill at my gym or on my laptop at home, I look forward to having these ads play during breaks and for good reason.

Honestly, when the ad first started off I had no idea it was for Old-Spice though I did possibly believe it was some sort of Axe commercial, given how hard they have tried selling “instant” sex-appeal to teen boys for years. It begins with two middle-aged moms are taking a nice jog together when they come across a dog dressed like a typical party-bro complete with neon shades and clothing, blasting-off into the sky and writing that they should by Old-Spice. Already poking fun at the way advertisers market deodorant to young men point out, “that’s supposed to sell deodorant, talk about something real…like the smooth sophisticated scent of Old-Spice”. With a little humor, they managed to craft a message that both moms and their target audience, teenage boys, can both agree is cool.

At that moment all I could think of was, “whoa?! what was that?! this is an ad for Old-Spice??”. It definitely stuck with me. Coupled with some goofy special-effects and a killer tagline “It Practically Smells Itself” (get it?), Old-Spice has knocked it out of the park with their current ad offerings. Please keep’em coming.