Old Spice Hooks the Audience with their Funny, Sexy Ad Campaign,“The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”
A Psychological Case Study of Procter & Gamble’s ad campaign that navigates sex, masculinity, and a divided audience with one bottle of body wash
The Ad:
“The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign, launched in 2010, is a scripted product/service ad for Old Spice in a commercial format, played in broadcast cable and digital platforms, targeting the buyer – the wife of the intended user. An oldie, but goodie, Old Spice’s twist on masculinity has been enduring and effective.
Analysis:
This product ad uses an emotional appeal that is both funny and sexy, with a smoking hot model who makes lofty promises to wives everywhere – buy our product and we can make your man smell as hot as the man in this ad. The sex appeal could be offensive, invoking comparison and infidelity, so to counteract the rejection, they leaned into the ridiculousness of their claim and made it so exaggerated, it became funny. In the 30 second ad, the model invokes a series of fantasies women hold about frolicking vacations and riches their man could take them on, always comparing the fantasy back to the model. Humorous ads are memorable and invoke positive feelings. Likewise, the model invokes an attraction heuristic, which in this case, is appropriate since he is selling a grooming product. The attractiveness of the model directly reflects what the product is intending to sell – attraction.
Beauty invokes the social identity. We groom and strive to smell good to gain social status. In the case of Old Spice, the attractiveness of her husband reflects on the social status of the likely purchaser – the wife of the intended user. Appealing to the wife invokes a dual user: if the wife buys it, which is most likely, she has a sexy husband; if the man buys it, he is attractive to women. The appeal is win-win, both directly and indirectly. Compared to a similar ad campaign like Axe which has been widely criticized for sexism, Old Spice sidesteps that trap by putting the woman in the driver’s seat of her own monogamous fantasy, not his.
An Unpolarizing Ad, to a Polarized Audience
Old Spice is a highly recognizable legacy brand long associated with masculinity. The only person being objectified is a man, which any audience seems okay with. That single creative decision is doing more work than it appears. Attitudes toward masculinity have shifted significantly, placing legacy brands like Old Spice in a difficult position of selling an ad without alienating their audience. This ad is clean in its delivery – the same appeal of a sexy model, positioned carefully without any risk of appearing predatorial by removing the female counterpart. The fantasy belongs to the woman watching. If at any point the ad risks offense, the humor absorbs it.
What appears to be a simple, funny ad is in fact a carefully navigated piece of gender politics. Old Spice appears to have avoided a polarizing conversation, when in fact, the avoidance is an illusion. They are actually making a strong statement on changing attitudes toward masculinity.
In the final path to purchase, Procter & Gamble has not only purchased the majority of ad space to run their campaign, but they also own the majority of the shelf space where the final decision is made. Repetitive ad placements go through an inverted U-curve, from unfamiliar, to engaging, to annoying, before pushing past the annoyance to acceptance (Berlyne). The humorous and sexy appeal buffers against the irritating repetetive cycle into habituation. Functioning as a conditioned stimulus, the consumer is trained to like the product and reaches for it without deliberation. Classical conditioning is achieved through repetition, something only an advertiser with deep pockets like Procter & Gamble could ever hope to achieve.
Conclusion
“The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” is an ambitious and costly ad campaign, built on brand reputation that delivers results through the oldest advertising trick in the book – a sexy model. Unlike the sexist ads of a by-gone era, Old Spice flips the script by objectifying a man in a female sexual fantasy, successfully navigating a complex, prickly, and divisive audience. Men are happy, women are happy, we’re all entertained and no one is offended. They appear to have avoided a potentially harmful political campaign about gender, when in fact, they have discreetly played right into gender politics. A tall order for a bottle of soap, but Old Spice executes it with consistency and light-hearted humor that maintains the reputation of a highly masculine brand.
Jennifer Whitfield is a marketing analyst and technical writer based in Maple Ridge, BC. She holds a BA in Psychology from Athabasca University with studies in organizational psychology and mass media. She analyzes advertising and content strategy through a psychological lens at jenniferwhitfield.ca