The Old Spice Guy Debates

Old Spice Debates: It’s a brave man who questions ad industry orthodoxy. One touchstone of the ad world is the brilliance Old Spice Guy campaign. The Wieden + Kennedy-created effort has been awarded high and low in ad circles for bringing new life to the P&G brand. But at Ad Age, brand strategist Jonathan Salem Baskin is unimpressed. He calls the campaign “a textbook example of why every brand doesn’t need a content strategy, and maybe why it isn’t so old-fashioned to focus marketing on selling things instead of being entertaining.” Ouch. But is that so? As my former Adweek colleague Andy McMains was quick to point out, the Old Spice campaign is credited with driving strong sales growth, as evidenced by its Effie award, which recognizes creativity that actually sells stuff. Of course, it’s hard to unpack what’s to credit for those type of things, but there’s little doubt the Old Spice campaign revitalized its place in the market. There’s certainly the suspicion, however, that the ad world loves the Old Spice Guy far more than average people.