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Tis the season for a little unexpected star power in commercials. Apple provided it last week by putting Zooey Deschanel and Samuel L. Jackson in its latest iPhone spots. Now, Old Spice features a humorous cameo by Heather Graham in its brand-new campaign for Old Spice Champion.
The Champion line (deodorant, anti-perspirant/deodorant, body wash and body spray) celebrates the true champion in every man and "gives them the motivation and self-confidence to win in the game of life," says Old Spice agency Wieden + Kennedy. Like its other recent Old Spice work, the new ads are humorously hyperbolic. In the 30-second spot below, a skinny hero is seen amping himself up by listening to a self-help tape (on cassette, through absurdly giant old headphones) that reminds him that he has "big muscles and cool hair," sophisticated friends and an environmentally friendly car (made completely of sand).
Soon, his superhuman abilities are on full display. He dumps Heather Graham at dinner, much to her surprise, and then wins a horse race—with himself as the horse. The theme extends to a new print ad, with a different guy seen rounding a corner with a jockey on his back. (Horses have a hallowed place in the Old Spice canon. There was the centaur spot a couple of years ago. And of course, Isaiah Mustafa was famously "on a horse" in the Emmy-winning Tom Kuntz ad. You can make the underlying insinuation about the connection between men and horses for yourself.)
The new campaign's goofiness this time extends to the tagline, too: "Believe in your smellf"—a comically idiotic slogan that fits nicely within the marketer's larger theme of exaggerated yet self-deprecating manliness.
There's nothing revolutionary—or even evolutionary, really—about the new work. But Old Spice clearly doesn't want to mess with a winning formula. And the new campaign shows the campaign still has some horsepower left.
CREDITS
—TV SPOTS
CLIENT Old Spice
PROJECT NAME Believe in Your Smellf
CLIENT CONTACT Rishi Dhingra / Michael Sabbia / Dan Jackson
W+K PORTLAND
Creative Directors Jason Bagley / Craig Allen
Copywriter Jason Kreher
Art Director Max Stinson
Producer Jeff Selis
Account Team Michael Dalton / Diana Gonzalez / Yaya Zhang
Executive Creative Directors Mark Fitzloff / Susan Hoffman
Agency Executive Producer Ben Grylewicz
PRODUCTION
Production Company Biscuit Filmworks
Director Tim Godsall
Executive Producer Holly Vega
Line Producer Rick Jarjoura
EDITORIAL
Editorial Company Arcade Edit
Editor Geoff Hounsell
Post Producer Ali Reed
VFX
VFX Company The Mission Studio
VFX Supervisor Rob Trent
VFX Producer Diana Cheng
MUSIC + SOUND DESIGN
Music+Sound Company Tonefarmer
Producer Tiffany Senft
MIX
Mix Company Lime
Mixer Joel Waters
Producer Jessica Locke
—PRINT + OOH
CLIENT Old Spice
PROJECT NAME Believe in Your Smellf
CLIENT CONTACT Rishi Dhingra / Michael Sabbia / Dan Jackson
W+K PORTLAND
Creative Director Craig Allen / Jason Bagley
Copywriter Jason Kreher
Art Director Max Stinson
Typographer + Typeface Matthew Carroll
Account Team Michael Dalton / Diana Gonzalez / Yaya Zhang
Project Manager Jane Monaghan
Art Buyer Kimberly Wilder
Photographer Clive Stewart
Executive Creative Directors Mark Fitzloff / Susan Hoffman
RE-TOUCHING AGENCY
Agency W+K
Re-toucher Frazer Goodbody / Amy Corcoran / Greg Radich / Saskia Thomson
—INTERACTIVE
CLIENT Old Spice
PROJECT NAME Believe in your Smellf
CLIENT CONTACT Rishi Dhingra / Michael Sabbia / Dan Jackson
W+K PORTLAND
Creative Director Jason Bagley / Craig Allen
Copywriter Jason Kreher
Art Director Max Stinson
Producer Andrea Nelson
Account Team Yaya Zhang
Executive Creative Directors Mark Fitzloff / Susan Hoffman
Agency Executive Producer Ben Grylewicz
Developer By Hook, LLC
Digital Designer Ojai Mitchell / Matthew Carroll
Exec Interactive Producer Pierre Wendling
Art Buying Heather Smith-Harvey
Photographer Swanson Studios
DEVELOPMENT PARTNER
Development Partner Company By Hook, LLC
