I wouldn’t describe myself as a religious contributor of Old Spice related Web content, but their latest viral campaign might just simultaneously leave me weak at the knees and change my mind. Any female who is reading this post and hasn’t been living under a big rock is aware of Taylor Lautner’s recent claims to fame in the chiseled body sans shirt stakes. However, we’re forced to admit that a) Jacob could turn into a wolf at any given time, which is a little off-putting and, b) he’s never going to contact us personally over, say, Twitter.
Enter Isaiah Mustafa as Old Spice guy. The only thing that this torso-god with his perma-towel and sultry voice is going to morph into is a veritable manly man, riding the crest of a wave of viral virility, muscles rippling. Like all great journeys, this viral campaign of over a thousand engagements kicked off with a single tweet – “Today could be just like the other 364 days you log into twitter, or maybe the Old Spice man shows up @OldSpice”.
Old Spice Guy’s strategy was simple: have a hot shower, shimmy into a towel and proceed to direct personalised video responses at bloggers, fans, YouTube respondents and Yahoo Answers commentators. Some notable recipients (alerted on Twitter) include Alyssa Milano, actress Justine Batemen (in whose video he confirms his affection for both bacon and bottle-nosed dolphins) and the girlfriend of one Johannes S. Beals. In that last one, Old Spice Guy proposes marriage - on behalf of Beals, of course. Old Spice Guy is too busy running from a stampede of scantily clad female admirers.
In total, these personalised videos have been viewed over four million times in just 24 hours. The campaign's success lies in the videos being directed at prominent personalities with large followings, as well as at regular people. The masterminds behind the shower curtain have achieved the ultimate: as Mashable’s Brenna Ehrlich puts it “individuals become personally invested in the brand, because they have actually become part of the world it has created”. The fact that the spokesperson was hot and shirtless and that the script would reduce Lurch from the Adam’s Family to hysterical tears of laughter, doesn’t hurt either.
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