Ashley Neuman
Mrs. Deezy
English 1302- 204
15 September 2014
RA Rough Draft
Old Spice was first created as a woman's product in 1937 called Early American Old
Spice. The product for men was then created in 1938. The Old Spice products were
manufactured by the Shulton Company that was founded in 1934 by William Lightfoot Schultz
(citation). The trademark for this product is the sailing ships. The ships appear on every product
of Old Spice. When Old Spice was introduced, William Lightfoot Schultz was interested in
maintaining a colonial framework for those products and chose a nautical theme for Old Spice
(citation). He then chose to use the colonial themed sailing ships. The Old Spice Commercials
were first created in late June of 2010 by the advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy for a
campaign called “Smell Like a Man, Man”. In this Old Spice commercial, it takes you through
several different scenes regarding how the Old Spice can make you smell like a “man, man”. In
Rhetoric, you break down the reading or the idea to figure out the true meaning of whatever it
may be that you are reading or watching. In this commercial there was plenty of rhetoric and
rhetorical appeals. The point of the commercial was to show men that if they used the Old Spice
product then they could also smell like a “man, man". In my opinion, the creators of the
commercial were speaking to men and women. Women, because if they want their man to
actually smell like a man, then they will go out and buy the product for their husband or
boyfriend. Men are being spoken to for the obvious reasons, so they can smell like a "man, man".
In this commercial there is a handsome, good- looking, muscular, light-skinned man
playing as the Australian man that men would “want to be like”. In the first scene, he is shirtless,
with only a white towel around his waist and the background looks as if he is standing on the
beach with an actual ocean behind him. He is looking deeply into the camera and he begins by
saying “Hello Australia” and goes into telling about how he swam butterfly style through gorilla,
shark infested waters to the world's manliest nation, referring to Australia. The camera zooms
into the squid stuck to his chest. He pulls it off and throws it behind him. In this part of the scene
he tells about how he swam through the gorilla, shark infested waters to somewhat show what
the Old Spice product could “possibly” do if a man were to use it. He makes himself sound
hardcore because what man wouldn’t want to be like that? The background that you thought was
a real beach with the ocean actually turns out to be a painting of the ocean and the camera then
zooms out to where you are able to see the whole painting. You are then able to see that he is in a
house. He goes on to say, “Do you smell that? Of course you do, that’s the sweet scent of old
spice smells even sweeter than you’re sun scorched, sea salted, Australian man sweat”. In this
part, he says that because it draws men to want to smell sweeter than your already sun scorched,
sea salted, Australian man sweat. It is trying to get out that you could smell better than that
already sweet smell if you use Old Spice.
He then pulls out a medium sized red colored bowl from behind his back and goes about
saying that, “it is widely known that the Australian man wrestles crocodiles, rides a kangaroo to
work, and eats nuts and bolts for breakfast”. As he continues walking through the house, the
background then changes. In the background now, is a window with mountains in the back and a
bookshelf full of all different kinds of books. In this part of the scene, nuts and bolts, out of a
cereal box labeled “Nuts and Bolts”, are poured into the bowl that he is holding. While still
holding the bowl, he tosses out the nuts and bolts and goes on to capturing a spider by covering it
with the bowl and sliding a thin, clear, plastic mat underneath it. While he does this, he says that
“the Australian man does not kill a spider, he sets it free”. Then he turns the bowl over and in the
bowl is no longer the spider, but a cat that looks like a bird. It has wings of a bird but the body of
a cat. He tells the cat "fly kitty burrow, find solace in the safety of the nearest scum tree”. He
looks deeply into the camera then back at the cat. The camera zooms into the cat in the bowl and
the cat meows. In this scene it shows that the Australian man has a sweet side also, aside from
them being hardcore. The background is now all white and he is facing away from the camera
with still just a towel around his waist and his hands on his hips. He says “Did you know an
Australian man’s arms can double as a tape measure?” while raising his arms and spreading them
shoulder length apart, quickly turning. As he turns around, a painting is being tossed to him. He
catches it saying “and he can hang a painting like a boss.” and tosses it at the wall. The painting
hangs crooked, “SPIRIT LEVEL FIST PUMP”, he shouts and he does a fist pump, with each
time he does a fist pump, the painting moves up until it is straight. The background then goes
back to him standing in the living room area, catching the product as it is being tossed to him
stating “and now with Old Spice in Australia, he can finally smell like a man, man”. He the
tosses the product away, catches a koala that is dropped down to him, and says “drop bear rugby
catch”. Here, it goes back to the Australian man being able to do all sorts or crazy things and
showing the hardcore side of him again. The commercial then ends with the different Old Spice
products available for purchase and a little whistling tune.
The rhetorical appeals included in this commercial were all three: logos, ethos, and
pathos. The Australian man goes about saying the things he does, so that the men will be
charmed into wanting to be like, smell like and possibly even do the things he does to become
the Australian man that a man would want to be. So in all, this commercial was created to show
men that there is a product available for them to use to smell like a real man and to also show
women a new product that they can go buy for their husband or boyfriend.
Old Spice has become such a popular product over the years and the commercials just
continue to grow and more and more are being produced. This causes the product to get out there
and get sold. The commercial did a great job of showing what a real man could be able to do if
they just used the Old Spice product.
Works Cited
"History of Old Spice." Old Spice Newsroom. Procter & Gamble, 1 Jan. 2011. Web. 23 Sept.
2014. <http://news.oldspice.com/about/history_timeline>.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsMY-xM0Do4
"Wieden Kennedy's Old Spice Ad Campaign Smells like a Portland-built Sensation."
OregonLive.com. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.oregonlive.com/movies/index.ssf/2010/07/old_spice_ad_campaign_smells_l
.html>.
Wardle, Elizabeth, and Doug Downs. "What Is Rhetoric?" Writing About Writing. Second ed.
Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2014. 325-346. Print.