2oceans Vibe

Former NFL star Isaiah Mustafa, the character from the Old Spice adverts, has received some new competition from former romance novel cover-boy, Fabio. Old Spice did some rebranding last year and Mustafa’s campaign is regarded as one of the greatest viral campaigns ever conceived. One has to wonder what Wieden+Kennedy, Old Spice’s agency, is up to now.

The first thing that comes to mind is the word sequel. It’s well known that it’s not often that sequels work out too well for their producers.

However, we might be looking at something different here, and this sequel just might do the job it was meant to do – reinforce the Old Spice brand amongst a new target market.

Wieden+Kennedy are not a bunch of idiots either and have won awards for their creative work in the past. They knew that no matter what, the adverts will garner comment, not only because of the nature of the previous campaign, but more importantly, because people love Mustafa.

There is also a little bit of industry murmuring about the fact that the last of the Mustafa adverts didn’t feature too highly at the Cannes Film Festival, and hence, a revival of sorts is needed.

Procter & Gamble, Old Spice’s manufacturer, got spokesman Mike Norton to appease things a bit too, and he denied allegations that Mustafa had been replaced, and said simply that: “Fabio will be taking his message to the airwaves.”

Here you go:

Fabio and a piano…

Fabio has beautiful, long, hair…

Fabio and a fireplace…

Personally, if the adverts had been really badly produced, my opinion may have fallen on the failed-sequel side of the fence.

But, I think these new adverts are pretty funny, even though they rely on a certain stereotype.

We may just be seeing the beginning of a long campaign featuring many Fabio’s and Mustafa’s, I mean, more “ultimate man” type characters to aspire to be.

[Source: AdNews]