Do you ever wonder what Don Draper would think of what’s become of advertising?
Gone are the days of conjuring up ideas that tug on a consumer’s heartstrings and rely on nostalgia to drive potential buyers toward products, à la Mad Men. Now, it’s all about creating commercials that become embedded your mind. Most tactics rely on something being so catchy, chances of it leaving your brain are slim. Like singing “Nationwide is on your side” while making a sandwich, for instance.
Then there’s the technique of creating images that are so bizarre, so twisted, they leave viewers scratching their heads and wondering, “What the heck did I just watch?” Enter Old Spice and their newest spot with Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s Terry Crews.
www.youtube.com/embed/AtJPZGsqaYs
Violence, screaming, beard shaming. Not to mentioned the graphic image of Crews erasing himself from existence with an Old Spice brand electric face shaver. Doesn’t exactly make me want to run out and pick up some Old Spice, but then again, here we are talking about it, so there’s that.
More:7 Sexist Super Bowl commercials (VIDEOS)
Though the latest commercial is surely strange, it’s hard to say if it’s even the strangest in the world of Old Spice advertising. You be the judge.
1. “Dadsong — #SmellcometoManhood”
www.youtube.com/embed/cKhqUOncefY
Never mind the sexist stereotypes in this one, what’s with the lady encased in ice and the two parents permanently implanted in their movie-theater chairs? However, Old Spice did take a page out of Don Draper’s nostalgia playbook in this one.
2. “Nightclub”
www.youtube.com/embed/Ik6RqvKErqA
Because the only thing more reliable than actual human pheromones is the intoxicating smell of Old Spice. That and the fact that women are simpleminded, easily fooled creatures.
3. “Digital High Five”
www.youtube.com/embed/4ujy8_CSkJk
Did someone slip some ‘shrooms into my morning coffee?
4 & 5. “Gym” and “Meeting”
www.youtube.com/embed/-VQ7iSfu_3E
www.youtube.com/embed/csai_UBruRQ
Not sure what’s creepier: the rapid movement of hair all over the place (eew) or being hit on at the gym/in the work place.
6. “Blown Mind”
www.youtube.com/embed/BNbMvlPc_7U
Terry Crews isn’t the only one on the Old Spice payroll whose brain has left the building.
More:VIDEO: Jimmy Fallon, Terry Crews in oily nip-sync battle
7. “Mom Song”
www.youtube.com/embed/JEbpbNTkIdk
This features crazy imagery just like its fatherly counterpart. If your mom making a mind-numbingly frightening mask to spy on you doesn’t terrify you into put off becoming a man/not wearing Old Spice, we don’t know what will.
8. “Old Spice MANta Claus — Ladies”
www.youtube.com/embed/BQVEaelOC1Q
In this spot, featuring Isaiah Mustafa, it seems like the pumping heart in a jar is just a little too Edgar Allen Poe to be commercially enticing.
Images: Old Spice/YouTube
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