| The Man Your Man Could Smell Like | |
|---|---|
 Isaiah Mustafa appearing in the original advertisement |
|
| Client | Old Spice |
| Product | Old Spice Body Wash |
| Agency | Wieden+Kennedy |
| Directed by | Tom Kuntz |
| Starring | Isaiah Mustafa |
| Release date(s) | February 8, 2010 |
| Running time | 0:33[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Official website | |
The Man Your Man Could Smell Like is a television advertising campaign created by ad agency Wieden+Kennedy for Old Spice to market their brand of shower gel. The original ad features actor Isaiah Mustafa reciting a quick monologue about how "anything is possible" if a man uses Old Spice. It was written by Craig Allen and Eric Kallman. Mustafa is filmed during a single uninterrupted take[2] that transitions, with minimal computer-generated imagery (CGI),[2] from a bathroom to a sailboat to Mustafa riding a horse.
The New York Daily News gave the ad a favorable mention, citing Mustafa's "wildly smug, cool-cat smooth dude persona" which "helped make the cologne commercial pop".[3] People magazine's Blane Bachelor called Mustafa's monologue "sharply scripted" and his character "smug, and over the top".[4] The commercial was a hit on video sharing websites, such as YouTube, where it has already received 25,647,698 views (12/17/10).[1] In June 2010 it won the Grand Prix for film at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival[5] and in July 2010 the ad won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial.[6]
Around the same time as the original ad was released, a shorter "sting" ad consisting of Mustafa riding a horse backwards was also released.[7] In June 2010, a third commercial following a similar format to the first was released to television showing Mustafa transitioning from a shower station on a beach to log rolling to walking across a lake while catching a gourmet cake, through a dream kitchen under construction, to "swan dive" into a hot tub that collapses to reveal a running motorcycle.[8] Again, this commercial was filmed in one uninterrupted take. And still, another commercial has Mustafa in a rowboat taking off a fake mustache, then fake skin where the mustache was, revealing a similar mustache.
Subsequent to the original trio of Old Spice commercials, a YouTube campaign featured Mustafa reprising the same character and responding to over 100 YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Reddit comments in a series of brief videos. The short ads used the same humor as the TV spots.[9]
The spot has been parodied on Sesame Street, where the monster Grover takes Mustafa's role to illustrate the word 'on'.[10] His narrations do not go as smoothly, however: the dropped shirt fails to fall around his neck; the clam containing the tickets bites his nose, forcing him to fling it away; and despite claiming he is on a horse at the end, he is in fact on a cow.[11]
This ad was also parodied by Alaska United States Senate Nominee Joe Miller in his 2010 campaign against incumbent Lisa Murkowski and Democrat Scott Adams. Connecticut Congressional candidate Jerry Labriola also parodied this ad in his campaign against incumbent Democrat, Rosa DeLauro.
In 2010, Russell Gilbert made a parody of this ad in Australia for the show Hey Hey its Saturday.
Brigham Young University made a parody advertisement in July 2010 for its Harold B. Lee Library.
