Smell better to look better.
When I was young, I always wanted to boost my sex appeal I turned to many products but Old Spice was the only product that caught my attention. Isaiah Amir Mustafa is an American actor and former American football wide receiver. Mustafa is widely known as the main character in the series of Old Spice television commercials; “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” Although I wore Old Spice, I didn’t feel any change nor did I feel sexier. In the commercial, the actor, Isaiah Mustafa, is wrapped in just a white towel around his waist with his abs exposed. He goes on to speak about the company’s products with his smooth deep voice and never loses eye contact with the audience while the back ground changes. With all that is going on throughout the entire commercial, Old Spice was combining gender stereotyping, sexual imagery, and maybe some racial innuendoes. It hypnotizes the viewers to think that you can become or smell like Isaiah Amir to what he portrays as what a true man is.
Isaiah Amir wasn’t the only popular actor that participated in this commercial, Terry Crews, an actor, has also played a role in the Old Spice commercial. Some examples of the movies that he has been in are: White Chicks, The Expendables, and my favorite Dead Pool 2. On the commercial for Old Spice, Terry Crews portrays a sense of dark humor as a bully making you feel insignificant about your body and your statements. Masculinity plays a huge role in this advertisement; smell is power and most people seek for that desire. Like Pho, the Vietnamese noodle dish, it’s very aromatic and can turn heads, even get my attention. In the article it states, “crews embrace aggression, domination, strength, competitiveness, and violence” (Kluch, p.2, 2014).
The actors on their campaign videos are always bumping heads against each other when it comes to their different commercial styles and acting. Terry’s character portrays for the young minded, explosive aggression with ignorance and violence for anyone that disagrees. All of Terry’s ads always seem to include him yelling at the audience, I believe he shows that your voice is the most powerful tool you have.
As compared to Isaiah’s character, where he portrays the commercial for more mature viewers, very persuasive in his tone as if he is seducing the viewers with his voice. The main point for Isaiah’s ad is obvious that he wants to or that he can steal your girlfriend or wife.
Even though Old Spice is a hygiene commercial, it never failed to make me and even others laugh when they come across it. Overgovideo.com states, “a marketing strategy can be made or destroyed depending on how the humor it is portrayed by the public” (Hogan, L., 2013). Old Spice has successfully made their audience react with laughter and there has been nothing but good responses towards these commercials. I believe that from the success of sharing humor and hygiene to others all in one, Old Spice was able to sell and persuade for as long as it has. However, there has been some negative feedback with Old Spice.
Throughout the commercials I’ve seen in my life, Old Spice uses a racial profile on African American men appearances to have a natural athletic body. Both of the Old Spice commercials with Isaiah Amir and Terry Crews commercials started around 2010–2012. Body language speaks to the young and old males about manhood and masculinity, making you feel very insecure about your body. The campaigns not only exploit gender stereotypes suggesting masculinity, but also stereotypes on the male body structure (Kluch, p.1, 2014). In spite of this, the audience was able to see the humor within the commercial and didn’t take it too seriously.
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Adults especially, are the ones that are mostly watching the commercials and understand the purpose behind it, which is to catch your attention through advertisement. Adults will easily be able to not take it to heart and decide for themselves if they want to purchase the product or not. However, if young boys that are going through puberty watch the commercial, they will easily be influenced to think that they need to have that specific product in order to pursue their goals, like I had previously thought. When I was in my teenage years, I thought to myself that if I wore Old Spice, I didn’t have to work out as much or try to impress myself and others when looking in the mirror.
Don’t get me wrong but Old spice was very helpful when looking back at my childhood, I personally used product to try to boost my confidence in myself and to show that confidence to others around me. Starting in my teenage years, cologne and deodorant were both very essential for my day-to-day life. I could never afford a “real” cologne like: “Versace Man” or “YSL Black”, those were more on the high-end product side. As a kid, my mother could only afford to provide me with Old Spice and I didn’t mind at all. Although the only confidence that it seemed to give me was that if you sat by me, you wouldn’t have to worry about smelling a bad smell. It made me feel as if, when you’re smelling good, it can make someone tolerate your existence.
The product had a huge impact on my life, especially after leaving Physical Education in school. I had some questions here and there from other students such as: “hmm… what cologne are you using?” or “hey could I borrow that deodorant stick? It smells good.” No one really wants to be that person in class that smells like body odor or bacteria. I remember when I got harassed in school, it was a very hot day, I never used deodorant at the time and a student made a remark in class, “that Asian boy smelled like wet dog.” Everyone started laughing as I just sat there wanting to go home and shower. After that dreadful day, I have never forgotten to put deodorant on and I am proud to say I do not smell like a wet dog anymore!
To conclude, Old Spice can affect and influence the audience in many ways. Even though it is just an advertisement, many will argue the pros and cons of it, be for it or against it. An advertisement that includes humor, good-looking and fit men will never fail to catch the eyes of both men and women. To add, since it is considered a hygienic product, the viewer making their way to purchase the deodorant, will not feel bad or guilty about spending money. You can’t ignore the fact that this commercial advertisement does its job by being able to pull in the viewers and persuade them to purchase or even help to remind them to make another purchase of the product.
Works Cited
“All of the Terry Crews Old Spice Commercials.” YouTube, 18 Apr. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq2SlCja3zo.
Hogan, L. “Friday favorite: Pros and cons of using humor in your marketing strategy.” 2013, www.overgovideo.com/blog/bid/99390/Friday-Favorite-Pros-and-Cons-of-Using-Humor-In-Your-Marketing-Strategy.
Kluch, Yannick. “THE MAN YOUR MAN SHOULD BE LIKE: MASCULINITY AND THE MALE BODY IN OLD SPICE’S SMELL LIKE A MAN, MAN AND SMELL IS POWER CAMPAIGNS.” 2014, etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=bgsu1395662263&disposition=inline.
“Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” YouTube, 4 Feb. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE&feature=youtu.be.
