Old spice is to its old tricks again, maybe not has brilliant and iconic as the well-loved ‘’I’m on a horse’’ campaign, but definitely an ad worth noting. At the start of the year old spice realised to the world the ‘’mom song’’ a 1 minute commercial about how old spice will make your son a man.

The ad tells the story mother coping with the loss of her son to manhood, brought on by old spice. This is done through an extremely well worded song, the chorus featuring the classic line “he smells like a man, and they are treating like one”. The ad follows several mothers around as they stalk their sons as they are on dates with girls and start to grow into young men. The Commercial does an excellent job of capturing a mothers struggle to let her baby grow up

The main reason the ad works is because somehow old spice has manger to speak to two completely different demographics at the same time. The ad works well for teenage boys because the idea of becoming a man will always appeal to them, the ad isn’t full of half-naked woman way out of anybody’s reach but just normal teenage boys, who are going on dates. Plus the idea of growing up and leaving your mother behind is always going to be a winner with teenage boys.

The ad also works with the people actually likely to buy the product, the mothers. The sheer humour of the ad is enough to make the brand stick in the older demographic heads. It’s something they can relate to, exaggerated for sure but all mothers feel the sense of their children growing up and leaving them behind. Adding humour to what could be a traumatic experience tackles the issue head on and makes the blow a little easier. The brand is going to stay with them through the catchy song and truthful lyrics. A stroke of Genius for old spice.

Although the Commercial wasn’t realised on TV here in Australia it did have a large online presence, and feature on almost every YouTube pop up commercial for about a month, and the facts that most people didn’t skip pass the annoying pop is a sign of the quality of the ad, it was interesting enough to keep the interest of some of the most easily distracted people….. Teenagers

So is this mom song as game changing as the legendary as the well-loved old spice ad, no but it does hold its own, much like the I’m on a horse campaign the ad targets those buying it more than those who will wear it, a brilliant marketing insight that old spice runs with. The advertisement isn’t going to be a YouTube success and lectures aren’t going to bring it up at the start of every year as an example but the Commercial hold its own, it does the job perfectly and isn’t just another run of the mill deodorant ad full of naked girls, cars and explosion. Well done I say.

Post by Aleisha Baty