“The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” Responds to the Internet
July 22, 2010 by Alexis
In case you haven’t seen Old Spice’s newest smash ad campaign, it centers around an attractive, mostly shirtless young man who calls himself “the man your man could smell like” (with the use of Old Spice bodywash, of course). All the clips are available on the company’s YouTube channel.
Between the coy, almost ridiculous lines and the smart delivery of actor Isaiah Mustafa, the commercials transcended television and were a near-instant hit across the Internet. Given his popularity, it was only natural for Mustafa to do a round of promotional interviews on shows like Ellen, Oprah and G4.
Old Spice took another step and moved to capitalize on Mustafa’s popularity on social networking websites, including notoriously cynical Reddit.com and 4chan. This post, titled “The Old Spice Man Responds to the Internet,” invites Reddit users to submit questions. Then, he created video responses to the most popular comments.
I’ve watched all the videos Old Spice posted, and I’m impressed with how well this campaign was done. While some questions are about the commercials and the product, others are more random – for example, one Reddit user asked, “Is it true you tore the wings off Pegasus and ate them buffalo style to achieve the manliness you exhibit today?” (See Mustafa’s response here.)
What surprised me most was that some of the responses even include inside jokes and jargon from Reddit – indicating that someone on the team regularly participates in the community. Additionally, the campaign is even courting Anonymous from 4chan (the collective whole of the website, known for large-scale Internet jokes and attacks) – a bold move.
If the responses on Reddit and 4chan are any indication (nearly 2,400 upvotes on Reddit as of the time I wrote this blog), it’s been a smashing success, and a great example of how to reach out to social networks.
Photo source: OldSpice
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