STUPID/SMART
The Banger Blog · a Stupid/Smart breakdown
Classic · 2010

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

Old Spice (P&G) · Wieden+Kennedy Portland

From Old Spice.

The insight

Women buy a large share of the men's body wash, but the whole category shouts at men about being men.

The idea

A shirtless man addresses your girlfriend directly from a shower and explains that her man could smell like him.

The Stupid/Smart of it

Stupid: Selling a men's product by having a stranger charm the buyer's partner, then improvising 186 unapproved reply films in 2.5 days.

Smart: Flirting with the buyer instead of the user is absurd, but the moment you know who holds the wallet it is the only sane target.

Why it works

Old Spice's dusty, over-masculine heritage is exactly what makes the parody land; run it for Axe and it is just a handsome man.

A voice locked tightly enough that four writers could all write it, which turns one hit into an infinite content engine.

The magic

The in-camera transitions. Done as VFX the whole thing collapses into a gag; done practically it becomes a flex.

Craft-poweredIt dies when described. It only exists once made. Has to be seen to work.

The way in

The devices behind this one, from our library of ways in:

Aim at whoever actually paysPush it way past sensible
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