How Old Spice Directly Addresses Women, yet Covertly Targets Men
Old Spice is a company known to have originally sold soap and toiletries exclusively to women, as stated on Proctor and Gamble’s website with the Old Spice newsroom, but now focuses exclusively on male hygiene products. One of Old Spice’s very first campaigns, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” was the title of their thirty second commercial released in 2010. This particular ad is one of those videos with millions of views on YouTube, which demonstrates just how effective Old Spice’s marketing team is at creating enticing ads. If anything, it serves as a testament to the fact that any medium, albeit an advertisement in this case, must carry a certain level of intrigue in order for their point to be heard, product to be sold, song to be sung, etc. The character called the “man your man could smell like,” seen in this original Old Spice ad, was portrayed by American actor and NFL wide receiver Isaiah Mustafa. In the advertisement he plays the character of a pompous male who is naturally attractive and affluent to the very core of his being. Now, Isaiah, whether he cared about the type of product he was promoting, or not, had to illustrate the idealized version of a man and narrate the commercial in a cocky manner. Both Isaiah’s use of a cool demeanor, accompanied with nonsensical changes of settings and other marketing strategies, were being used to keep the larger purpose of the advertisement very clear — that men should take their hygiene very seriously, because it is, according to Old Spice at least, necessary to maintain if one is to attain attributes such as confidence, masculinity, sex appeal, and wealth (and who doesn’t want that?) The purpose of this advertisement is so that the audience ends up wanting all of those attributes and sees Old Spice as a way to attain them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE
The marketing team at Old Spice were directly trying to market towards female audiences so that women/girls would care about what hygiene products their partners used, but also simultaneously targeting young males who are more susceptible to feeling insecure or inadequate when it comes to attracting the opposite gender. Even though the character is directly speaking to females in this ad and playing on their desire for their partners/male counterparts to be more attractive, he is really honing in on insecure men who want to feel more attractive. While Isaiah is addressing females in the ad, he uses lots of hyperbole when stating things such as “the tickets are now diamonds”, or “anything is possible when your man smells like old spice and not a lady”. This affects the female viewer in such a way that she feels envious of the woman whose man uses the product because that man can provide things for her such as tickets and diamonds, whereas the viewer’s man cannot because of his inferior body wash choice. Besides the female viewer, the male audience would either feel resentment towards Isaiah because he somehow knows what his lady wants more than he does himself, or they feel a call to action to change their life in accordance with the tenets subliminally portrayed in the commercial by purchasing some Old Spice body wash. This salient use of hyperbole is one of the commercial’s main rhetorical devices.
The commercial also deploys exaggerated imagery to reach its audience. In fact, the imagery itself is a kind of hyperbole as the scenes dramatically change from being in the shower to on a boat, and then on a horse to on the beach. To give a more depictive representation of these images, Isaiah does not change in appearance, but simply walks while different items appear in his hand and the camera moves outward. As he does so, the set changes along with his movement, in an unfolding fashion. This particular camera and set work effectively helps to give audience members the impression that you can do it all as a man who uses Old Spice body wash, from simply taking a shower, to traveling on a yacht, to being able to afford tickets to your lady’s favorite event, and even pretty diamonds to satisfy her. People may not believe that all these events will take place in their life by simply applying Old Spice body wash, but they certainly do believe that these can be achieved by someone who’s got it all together, and so they consequently believe that this is what Old Spice’s smell and brand stand for.
Another move the Old Spice team used to further perpetuate the audience’s growing need and want for their product, although very cynical indeed, took place in the beginning of the ad where Isaiah commands females to look at him and then their partner in a back and forth manner. He does this in a commanding way to emphasize the point that you are nowhere near the amount of man that he is and that your female counterpart notices this too. If I could give it a name it would be “comparative overkill,” where Isaiah is essentially stressing the importance to realize that you are different than him, and in a lower way. As a male or female viewer this “overkill” can be perceived lightheartedly on a conscious level, but there’s no denying the fact that deep down it just feels like bullying. And that is exactly what the ad is trying to accomplish here, to bully you either on a conscious or sub-conscious level into buying their product. The ad is essentially saying that something is wrong with you, preying on the majority of people who have weaknesses or insecurities of some degree. They are creating a problem that may have not previously existed, but a problem that is necessary in order for them to sell their branded solution. To them, a lady-scented, unconfident, and otherwise unattractive man, at least in comparison to Old Spice wearing Isaiah, is the problem that needs fixing. And this initial encounter involving direct address with the audience already has guys doing double- takes and asking themselves, “How can I be more like this guy?” Isaiah’s cocky assertiveness helps to set up an arena of vulnerability for male and female viewers alike that achieves the ad’s purpose to create a problem for which their product is the solution.
Logos is not really part of the discussion when viewing this ad, as it is clearly devoid of any logic with all of its logical fallacies present. Most commercials have some form of logos incorporated like say, for instance, a Pantene commercial which manages to still talk about the scientifically proven hydrating properties of their shampoo whilst showing persuasive images of walking alongside a beach or silky smooth hair. Old Spice uses a different approach, however, and simply makes illogical statements such as their body wash causing you to “smell like a man” and then visually on screen, instantly make the desires of both you and those around you come true. If Old Spice were to make this a logical statement, then maybe they would define what “smelling like a man” means, perhaps because their body wash formula is comprised of a “specially patented proprietary blend of male pheromones that boost one’s own natural smell,” or something to that effect; however, Old Spice fails to make any such scientific claims in their ad. This is what makes their commercials so distinct from others, because there is more room for visual entertainment to fill the absence of logic, which appeals more to their targeted audience of insecure men who may not want to hear about these problems logically or directly.
With the absence of logos, comes the shine of ethos in this clip which is clearly visible throughout its entirety, almost to a blinding degree. Right from the beginning of the commercial you encounter a physically well-built, macho Isaiah who serves as the focal point of the video. Besides his physical appeal, he is also a prominent figure in both acting and sports. Men of all ages see him and associate the attributes that Isaiah already carries (confidence, charm, physicality, strength, virility, etc.) with the Old Spice product that he supposedly endorses and uses himself, thus employing his ethos in the service of promoting the product. This is a very common theme with all commercials that use sports stars or celebrities to endorse their products/services, and therefore this use of ethos hits right in the hearts of many who would look up to athletes such as Isaiah because they too yearn to be just like him.
Even though the sight of this celebrity endorsing Old Spice’s product is enough to make certain people start purchasing Old Spice next time they run out of deodorant or body wash, the actions and words used in this ad are what creates yet another level of persuasion and helps appeal to the pathos of the audience. The character is always addressing “your woman” whenever he mentions “your man,” which immediately makes this ad very personal, whether you’re in a relationship or not. He’s essentially toying with one’s sense of masculinity and uses terms such as “lady-scented” or “lady”. The ad also evokes unhappiness or dissatisfaction by creating these sort of fanciful ideals that every man should strive for. And if you’re not every man, then on top of being left unsatisfied and motivated to do something, you’re also left feeling frustrated that you can’t seem to fit this ideal no matter what you do. Isaiah wants to convince you he has the attributes that a man should strive for, and that you should at least smell like you have these attributes if you can’t manage to actually attain them. That’s a real big line cross basically saying that we know you’re not good enough, so forget about actually changing and just use this body wash. We see this when Isaiah states that “sadly he isn’t me, but if he switched from lady-scented body wash and switched to Old Spice he could smell like he’s me.” That can really get under your skin. Almost to the point that you go and buy the darned thing.
Again, this was one of Old Spice’s first advertisements, and one can use this to explain the similar nature of the ones that followed due to the fact that this first model of marketing was effective with its blatant, yet rather fun rhetoric. Absence of logos in this advertisement opened doors for all sorts of alternate entertainment so that people’s emotions and feelings could be put in a vulnerable position before the ad then proceeded to appeal to the audience through bullying, idealism, and entertaining scenery. By doing playing these mind games the ad consequently built a psychological juggernaut that made it very hard to ignore what their product could potentially do for your life. If the essence this advertisement can be summed up into one phrase, it would read something like this: A Gender-Oriented Molotov.
Works Cited
1.) “Procter & Gamble.” History of Old Spice | Old Spice, news.oldspice.com/about/history_timeline.
2.) “Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” Youtube, Apr. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE.