We’ve talked about the Old Spice Guy commercials before, but just recently I saw Axe’s campaign. You know your meme is famous when your competitor tries to mimic you.
I get where they’re going with this but I don’t think they’ll get the response they want. The Isaiah Mustafa spots were so wildly popular that the phrase “on a horse” is etched in the minds of millions. Hell, by this point I think just saying horse immediately makes one thing of the commercials. It was a great bit and a great campaign. Isaiah’s character talked to women, to convince them to buy Old Spice for their men. I think that is key. Axe spends a lot of time marketing mysoginistically directly to men and treating women as objects. Old Spice spent their time telling women that their man could smell better, and telling men that they could smell more like a man, without putting either gender down.
So, good luck to Axe — I hope you can come out with your own internet sensation, though I very much doubt you will. And good luck to Old Spice as well: they didn’t seem to sign an exclusivity contract with Isaiah, and now he’s apparently shilling for Microsoft and Windows 7, using nearly the same persona he did before.
By the way Old Spice, Isaiah > Ray Lewis. Just sayin’.
Truth in Advertising
The year was 1909. The US Army bought the first military aircraft from the Wright Brothers, Sigmund Freud lectured in NYC, and the Manhattan Bridge
May 30, 2023
