David After Dentist ad could use a cleaning

It's strange how rarely you see YouTube's viral-video stars popping up in advertising, although Vizio packed quite a few of them into its Super Bowl spot this year. But now, one of the world's most-viewed kids—David DeVore of "David After Dentist" fame—has his own Web-only toothbrush commercial, which you can see below. And while it's good to see the boy's family getting paid (or rather, paid again, as he was also in the Vizio ad), I think we can assume this clip won't be getting another 65 million views. The New York Times tells of how the ad was dreamed up by Puneet Nanda, who manufactures toothbrushes under the name Dr. Fresh. Nanda promised his 14-year-old daughter an iPad if she could track down David, which she obviously did. But David's Dr. Fresh video has more than its share of shortcomings. Most notably, it seems to assume David is popular with children, which he's not. He's popular with stoners who like to see a young Hunter S. Thompson doing some primal screaming. Then there's the length of the Dr. Fresh video, which is … lengthy. Via Social Times.

Filed under Celebrity endorsements, Griner, Personal care
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Old Spice guy calls it a day after 184 videos

The Old Spice guy has left the bathroom. After filming, by our count, 184 personalized videos for his fans, Isaiah Mustafa bids farewell, for now, in the clip below. If you didn't get your own video, don't blame him. "I am just one ridiculously handsome man. I can't write to everyone," he points out. The YouTube stunt is already being called the best social-media ad campaign ever, though it would be good to remember that the real-time, responsive nature of the videos wouldn't have meant much without the more traditional element—a brilliant character written by Wieden + Kennedy and performed hilariously by Mustafa. We'll surely see copycat efforts in the coming months. Let's hope the content, not just the delivery of it, is half as enjoyable as this was. Silver fish hand catch!

Filed under Nudd, Old Spice, Personal care, Wieden + Kennedy
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Old Spice blitz includes a marriage proposal

Yesterday's blitzkrieg of 100-plus personal YouTube thank-you notes by Isaiah "Old Spice Guy" Mustafa was truly something to behold, and not just because it included a shout-out to AdFreak's own Tim Nudd. The Wieden + Kennedy team's reaction time was pretty incredible, as illustrated by my favorite video, below: a marriage proposal Mustafa made on behalf of a random guy on Twitter. @Jsbeals made this request of Old Spice: "Can U Ask my girlfriend to marry me? Her name is Angela A. Hutt-Chamberlin." Less than three hours later, Mustafa was holding a ring in the glow of candlelight and asking Angela to "make Jsbeals the happiest man in the world and marry him in real life." Obviously, with the request coming from such a beacon of masculine perfection, there was only one answer she could give. Now, that's engagement.

Filed under Griner, Old Spice, Personal care, Wieden + Kennedy
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Old Spice guy personally thanks online fans

Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy are well aware that they have a serious megahit on their hands with Isaiah Mustafa, aka "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like." He's done the two main TV spots, as well as the mustache clip, and now, in a truly fantastic addition to the campaign, he's doing a slew of personalized videos in which he thanks individual people—bloggers, YouTube commenters, Twitterers, celebrities—who've complimented his ads online. Check out his message to Apolo Ohno below, and see a crazy 18 more videos after the jump. The writing is all great, and the work takes the concept of a brand joining the conversation online to wonderful new levels. The only downside, of course, is that he hasn't done a video for us yet.  UPDATE: Actually, he has given us a shout-out, too. Also, these first 19 videos were just the beginning. There must be more than 100 on Old Spice's YouTube channel by now.

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Filed under Nudd, Old Spice, Personal care, Wieden + Kennedy
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Old Spice guy even cooler with a mustache

Isaiah Mustafa is back on a boat, and sporting a completely CGI-less mustache, in this latest Old Spice mini-gem from Wieden + Kennedy. "Use Old Spice Body Wash and get ready for a manly mustache surprise," the YouTube page wisely counsels.

Filed under Nudd, Old Spice, Personal care, Wieden + Kennedy
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Even big amorous apes need hand sanitizer

I don't appreciate Faux Fay Wray's attitude toward the giant lovesick ape in this Vietnamese spot for Green Cross Hand Sanitizer by ad agency Riverorchard. Geez, don't try to change him baby, he's already an endangered species! Sure, if he'd been on skid row like the simians in that French PSA campaign, who knows what he might've picked up under those fingernails. Still, I'd forget about the germy paws; judging by the amorous look on that gargantuan kisser, she'll soon have bigger problems. Like his horrible slobbering tongue! Via Adland.

Filed under Asia, Gianatasio, Personal care, Riverorchard
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Old Spice guy walks you through second ad

If there's been one knock against Isaiah Mustafa's second Old Spice ad, it's that the spot appears to use CGI—something the original famously did not. But actually, Mustafa says this one was completely CGI-free, too. In the interview below, from G4's Attack of the Show, Mustafa walks you through the new Wieden + Kennedy ad step by step. Apparently, his legs in the opening shot are prosthetics, and he was wearing a harness and wire the entire time, which is how he's able to swan dive into the hot tub. The one secret he won't divulge is how he changes from shorts into jeans at the end—though he says that was the hardest part of the sequence, which took "36 or 37 takes" to get right. The whole thing was shot on a custom set built—including the man-made waterfall—on a lake in Vallermo, Calif. One final piece of trivia from the G4 clip: Smelling Mustafa in person can lead to pregnancy in women. Via Consumerist.

Filed under Nudd, Old Spice, Personal care, Wieden + Kennedy
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'I'm on a horse' guy makes Old Spice return

His first Old Spice ad was just voted the best commercial of the past year at Cannes, and now Isaiah Mustafa is back with an encore. In this new Wieden + Kennedy spot, he log-rolls, walks on water, shows off the cake he baked in the "dream kitchen" he built himself, does a "swan dive" and winds up in a hot tub. At the end, he's perched proudly on a motorcycle instead of a horse. "So, ladies," he says. "Should your man smell like an Old Spice man? You tell me." Hard to argue with the awesomeness.

Filed under Nudd, Old Spice, Personal care, Wieden + Kennedy
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Axe boat loaded with ladies calls your name

BBH London put together this ad for the Axe Boat, which is apparently a contest with a cruise full of hot chicks at stake. At least, I think that's what it is. This Axe Boat site is in Spanish, so for all I know, this whole thing could be one of Axe Cop's sting operations. Not that I'm disparaging the possibility of waking up in a pile of bikini-clad women or anything, but the tone of this ad makes Axe sound more like a shady escort service than this generation's Hai Karate. Either way, they'd better clean up that boat before someone wins.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Filed under Axe, BBH, Europe, Kiefaber, Personal care
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Axe helps sofabed centaurs get women, too

Whatever qualms you have about Axe, you have to admire the product's consistency. Even an Argentine sofabed centaur can manage a smug, patriarchal attitude after using the stuff, as shown in this ad from Ponce Buenos Aires. I don't want to know how long those girls were folded up in his cushions, or what he thinks he's physically capable of doing with them. Or what Axe does to leather. It's weird enough that he lets his friends sit on him for hours without knowing he's part fold-out bed, too.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Filed under Axe, Kiefaber, Personal care, Ponce
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Philips seeking body shavers, world savers

Philips is back with an update to its much-lauded "Shave Everywhere" work for its Bodygroom razor. TribalDDB got a lot of kudos for its 2006 introduction of the product, a very fun site that introduced the concept of shaving "down there" into the mainstream. Tribal followed up with a crop of "manalogues" in 2008. Philips is back with a new take, although it's not from Tribal. Promo shop Alcone Marketing Group is behind the "Deforest yourself. Reforest the world" campaign, which tries to enliven the idea by linking personal hedge-trimming with adding greenery back to the planet. Philips will plant one tree for each Bodygroom sold through the end of June, up to 75,000. The centerpiece is a Web app that lets you customize a furry avatar for use as a Twitter or Facebook profile picture or desktop wallpaper. It's somewhat like what Deep Focus did on "Mad Men Yourself." The question is when this genre, which hearkens back to "Elf Yourself" and "Simpsonize Me," begins to get tired.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

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College kids to strip and run for Axe charity

Axe is involved in a brand-appropriate charity: getting people to donate clothes, which of course means taking them off first. Check out this trailer for the Axe Undie Run Challenge. Students at 10 colleges are squaring off this spring to see who can donate the most clothes. Participants will include loads of thin, gyrating chicks in their underwear along with many fat and nerdy dudes, also in their underwear. Via YesButNoButYes.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Axe, Colleges, Nudd, Personal care, Underwear
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Hide your incontinence, or not, with Depend

Here's the new JWT campaign for Depend adult undergarments. The ads exploit the shame and fear people feel about their incontinence—in particular, about other people finding out about it—under the theme "People know." But of course, the ads explain that while people can know everything else about you, they don't have to know about your "condition" (though if you really want to keep it a secret, you shouldn't leave giant packs of Depends lying around, as the characters in the ads do). See one more TV spot after the jump, along with some print work.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

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Filed under Depend, JWT, Kimberly-Clark, Nudd, Personal care
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Old Spice blows up more Terry Crews spots

Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy broke three new spots last week for Odor Blocker Body Wash featuring ex-NFL player Terry Crews shouting, punching and kicking his way through odor. Here are three more that rolled out over the weekend—a :30 below (in which we get to travel way, way inside Crews's lovely-smelling armpit, then see him riding a tiger) and two :15s after the jump. Simply explosive.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

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Filed under Nudd, Old Spice, Personal care, Wieden + Kennedy
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Big muscly dude blocks odor with Old Spice

More insane, awesome Old Spice work from Wieden + Kennedy. This time, we get a bodybuilder who punches, kicks, blocks and generally destroys odor—and everything else in his path—in the service of Odor Blocker Body Wash. This guy's on something, and it's not a horse. Plus, he has these crazy talking abdominals. Two more ads after the jump.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

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Filed under Nudd, Old Spice, Personal care, Wieden + Kennedy
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Speed Stick banishes angry armpit canaries

You may not have realized that your yellow underarm shirt stains are basically like angry canaries stapled to your pits. So, Colgate-Palmolive has put forth this educational spot for Speed Stick Stain Guard. It's similar to Tide to Go's fantastic "Talking Stain" spot, but the three-note "By Mennen" theme tweeted at the end is a cute touch. Not being the target, it took me a few seconds to figure things out, as there's no clear relation between birds and pit stains. Still, something worked. I can't remember the last time I even saw a Speed Stick ad, excluding its unpaid product placement in the "Read a Book" viral.

—Posted by Rebecca Cullers

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Obama advisers mix up their aftershave ads

"You could see it in their faces," he said. "It was kind of like that Old Spice ad where the guy smacked himself on the cheeks and said, 'Wow, that feels good!' It was like they smacked themselves on the cheeks and said, 'You are a member of Congress and now you can start doing things. Wow, that feels good!' " —Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, March 23, 2010

White House aides know healthcare, not ad campaigns—at least not for packaged goods. The self-motivating slap attributed in Maureen Dowd's Tuesday column to Old Spice actually belongs to Mennen's Skin Bracer campaign from Case & Krone (a forerunner of Jordan, McGrath, Case & Taylor) in early '70s. You would think either Dowd or President Obama's aide might also have recalled the actual famous tagline: "Thanks, I needed that." I don't think there was a major healthcare initiative during that President Nixon's first term. But the slap is clearly remembered, if misattributed, at the White House almost 40 years later. A cold slap in the face, perhaps, to the Democratically controlled Congress of that era.

—Posted by Jim English

Filed under English, Personal care, Vintage
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U.K. brand compiling pet names for 'vagina'

As you know from Kotex's recent experience, American TV networks are not fond of the word vagina. Luckily, a British "tampon alternative" brand called the Mooncup is collecting women's pet names for that part of the anatomy—giving American companies a trove of euphemisms to use. Check out the hundreds of submitted names at LoveYourVagina.com. Some of them, though certainly not all, could make it past U.S. censors. Humorously, MTV is reporting that Amy Winehouse is part of the campaign, having supposedly revealed her pet name: VaJewJew. But judging by Mooncup's recent tweets, that report seems bogus.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Europe, Mooncup, Nudd, Personal care, Vaginas
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Old Spice smells like a successful mountain

Here's the latest Old Spice spot from Wieden + Kennedy, advertising a new deodorant scent called Matterhorn, described as "a triumphantly fresh scent that smells like the world's most successful mountain." The product demo shows a fresh, snow-covered peak erupting from a guy's armpit, allowing him to expertly carve turkey and blocks of ice into shapes that are pleasing to his blonde companion. There are three other new scents, too. All four make an appearance in this brief spot, and are ranked "fresh, fresher, freshest, freshershist."

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Nudd, Old Spice, Personal care, Wieden + Kennedy
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Old Spice copy set to music of John Denver

Barbara Lippert mentions this in her Old Spice critique today, but we had to post it here: a folksy couple singing the ad copy from the Old Spice "I'm on a horse" commercial to the tune of John Denver's "You Fill Up My Senses." The performers describe it as "the text of the most romantic video [set] to the tune of the most romantic song." You're welcome.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Nudd, Old Spice, Parody, Personal care, Wieden + Kennedy
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Old Spice expects manly behavior from men

Quickly following up on the now-famous "I'm on a horse" commercial, here's a new 20-second Wieden + Kennedy spot for Old Spice showing men doing manly things—ripping out chest hair, destroying images of teddy bears and pink flowers, crushing hand-strengthening equipment. Also, be sure to keep your Old Spice body wash behind barbed wire, next to the quill, the binoculars and the half-eaten sandwich.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Nudd, Old Spice, Personal care, Wieden + Kennedy
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Wieden creatives talk about Old Spice shoot

Wieden + Kennedy creative team Craig Allen and Eric Kallman appeared on Leo Laporte's "This Week in Tech" video show to explain the story behind the Old Spice "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" TV spot. The commercial has developed quite a following—it's gotten about 2 million YouTube views as of this writing. Allen and Kallman tell Laporte that very little computer-based trickery was used in shooting the spot, which involved constructing a set on a beach and employing a crane-like device to move actor Isaiah Mustafa onto the horse for the ad's grand finale.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Filed under Morrissey, Old Spice, Personal care, Wieden + Kennedy
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Axe wearers go on auto-pilot with the ladies

Robots: They never rest in their fiendish quest for global domination. Sure, they seem helpful in this Axe/Lynx Twist spot by Ponce in Argentina (and The Perlorian Brothers) as they change loverboy's appearance during a date to keep blondie intrigued. (That's a nod to Twist's changing scents as the day wears on.) Well, those bots aren't doing Romeo any favors. The object of his desire looks awfully high-maintenance, probably wants a weekend place in the country with a yacht in the living room. And what are the robots doing to the guy's private parts? Tightening his nuts? Even if it's an enhancement, it's bound to hurt like hell in the morning. That's their idea of a joke, along with foisting cyborg rapper Drake on us. OK, Drake's either cyborg or Canadian. Same difference. Pure evil!

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Filed under Axe, Gianatasio, Personal care, Ponce, South America
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Old Spice stresses men's horse-like aspects

Old Spice has a thing for horses. First, we had the showering centaur, who was two things in one ("a man and a very smart shopper"). Now, we get two new spots from Wieden + Kennedy, half-aimed at women, starring "the man your man could smell like"—and in each one, the guys ends up on a horse. Why always a horse? Sociologist who've somehow found time to study Old Spice ads declare it to be a big anatomy joke. "Drawing in the idea of a particularly potent man being 'hung like a horse,' the [centaur] ad implies that users of Old Spice body wash are not only 'smart shoppers' and good 'providers,' but also that they are heterosexual dynamos in the sack with really big penises!" they write. Shameful! Axe did the same thing with Pitman (its disembodied armpit spokes-part) once upon a time. Who knows. The image below, from the second new Old Spice ad, won't refute the theory. See that spot after the jump.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

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Filed under Nudd, Old Spice, Personal care, Wieden + Kennedy
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Barbasol ad lathers on the American cheese

When you've been out trucking Barbasol around the country and living off roadside diner food, you know what's nice to come home to? A can of Barbasol. And a pile of pancakes. Served in ... your bedroom? This is definitely one of those ads where you keep expecting a punch line, but it never comes. Nope, it's just sappy Americana, handsome, free and tall. Hat tip to Vaughn Allen on Twitter, who described the spot as looking "like something Don Draper killed."

—Posted by David Griner

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