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Old Spice goes racy, retro to woo young men
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By Paul Thomasch and Jessica Wohl
NEW YORK/CHICAGO (Reuters Life!) - When Procter &
Gamble Co. wanted to create a younger, fresher image
for its Old Spice brand, the conservative consumer
products giant turned to the agency behind hip
marketing campaigns for Nike and ESPN.
The results of P&G's decision to hire independent
Wieden + Kennedy will be unveiled this week, with the
launch of advertisements for Old Spice featuring the
catch phrase "Experience is Everything."
The racy, retro ads allude to sex and male anatomical
parts, marking a major departure for P&G, the top U.S.
advertiser known for staid campaigns on brands like
Tide detergent and Crest toothpaste.
"When they came to us, we kind of told them that they
had this classic iconic brand that had been around a
long time, which they were feeling was a bit of a
negative," said Mark Fitzloff, a creative director on
the Old Spice campaign for Wieden + Kennedy.
"The initial talks were really about how do you turn
negative into positive?" Fitzloff said. "How do you
turn old into experienced?"
Known for creating iconic campaigns such as Nike
Inc.'s "Just Do It," Wieden + Kennedy spent about a
year working on the relaunch of Old Spice, the
80-year-old brand that includes deodorant, bodywash
and cologne.
One of the new ads features movie star Faye Dunaway
lounging by a fire with the caption "If your
grandfather hadn't worn it, you wouldn't exist."
Another displays a picture of a foot-long hot dog and
the caption "What? Is there some reason we can't just
have a picture of a 12-inch-long hot dog without
everyone freaking out?"
The renewed energy behind the Old Spice brand follows
years of ads that focused on specific products rather
than selling the brand's cachet. P&G, which is known
for marketing to women, is also now pushing out more
products aimed at men since buying Gillette Co. in
2005.
SEX APPEAL
While the brand is still a market leader, "we had lost
track of the great power that this brand has," said
Old Spice brand manager Carl Stealey. He said the
brand needed to be more "relevant" to younger men who
are more into grooming.
He declined to say how much Cincinnati-based P&G would
spend on the campaign, but said that the racy print
ads are targeted at 18- to 34-year-olds.
"They're making purchase decisions for the first time,
they're expanding their repertoire of male grooming
products. They've evolved a little bit, if you will,"
Stealey said.
The marketing effort started with a 60-second spot
during an NFL playoff game on Sunday, and
advertisements will soon appear in magazines including
Maxim, Rolling Stone and GQ.
Monica Taylor, another Wieden + Kennedy creative
director on the campaign, said P&G was "always
reminding" the agency of its tradition, but
nonetheless welcomed the racier approach.
"We're a bunch of dysfunctional, crazy people over
here so we thought maybe we can give them a little of
that sex appeal," Taylor said.
But she also said the agency wanted to stay away from
the more sexually aggressive advertising of Axe, a
rival brand from Unilever Plc that has captured the
young males that Old Spice wants to attract as
lifelong customers.
"It's hard to battle a girl in a bikini," Taylor said,
adding that she is proud of how women were portrayed
in the P&G ads. "I don't think there's anything that
we've done that is misogynistic at all."
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