Adverting Campaign LO:1 Advert:1

Old Spice - Small like a man, man

This particular Old Spice campaign was launched in 2010. The first commercial, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” was an overnight success and quickly became a cultural phenomenon, generating significant word-of-mouth buzz online and off-line, and getting referenced by many celebrity fans. The advertising campaign was endorsed by American actor and former NFL practice squad wide receiver Isaiah Amir Mustafa. 

As the advert is for mens deodorant and body wash one could assume that the target audience was male. However, when watching the advert Isaiah is clearly directing his line of address to women with a male partner; particularly older woman as Old Spice is a more "mature" fragrance and older women are more likely to have a partner who is a similar age to them. 

The key message of the campaign is that most male products smell like feminine products whereas Old Spice smells manly and is used by "real" men. This message is repeated constantly throughout the advertising campaign

To initially engage the audience (who are mostly female) Old Spice use what some would consider to be an attractive male actor. The actor (Isaiah Amir Mustafa) talks constantly throughout the advert to keep the attention of the audience. Old Spice stereotypically assume that the mostly female audience will find the actor attractive because he is very muscular.

The advertising campaign was mainly broadcasted on TV as this is how the target audience is most likely to be exposed to advertising because stereotypically, older people watch Tv most evenings and don't use the internet very often. Despite this pop up ads and banners where also used on popular websites such as Facebook and YouTube to try and attract more attention to the brand and perhaps widen its target audience to the younger generation so as to generate future customers.

Legal & Ethical


In the Old Spice adverts they use a shirtless male actor to advertise their male grooming products. They have avoided failing under ASA's scrutiny as they do not show anything bellow the actors waist meaning that it would be classed as tasteful nudity.