Why Wieden & Kennedy, Old Spice, and Isaiah Mustafa Deserve To Be Crowned Emperors of The Universe
By now, the Wieden & Kennedy ad campaign for Old Spice, featuring Isaiah Mustafa, is a thing of legend. Even Advertising Age, not prone to handing out cheap praise, says that they have seen nothing like The Man Your Man Could Smell Like campaign.
Oh, and it’s over, too. Really? You didn’t even know it happened?
We’ve got 5 reasons why Wieden, Old Spice, and Isaiah absolutely rocked this campaign:
- Isaiah Mustafa – As the saying goes, all the women love him, all the men want to be like him. Mustafa carried his part with just the right balance of arrogant humor. Given the difficulty of these scripts, Mustafa had his work cut out for him.
- Bizarre Scripts – “…I spent my younger years in a shark dentistry practice on a distant island…”
- Viral Like Crazy – Wieden had Mustafa tape many short spots, each aimed specifically to influence-makers in the web- and blogosphere: @mrskutcher, @rosemcgowan, @knitmeapony, and so on. Mustafa was so well-integrated into the viral campaign that he was even responding to blog comments himself.
- Incredible Visuals – GCI or not, the Swan Dive spot takes the cake for mind-blowing visuals.
- Quick In, Quick Out – Old Spice has already pulled the campaign–long before the world got sick of it.
