HARMON, EMILY R
3/27/14
YOU COULD SMELL LIKE ME
Each year, Americans continue to be amazed at the price of Super Bowl commercials and
the amount of money that companies will pay in order to get their messages to their audience.
For the last few years, Old Spice has been one of the only toiletry companies that has purchased
a slot to place their witty messages for millions to see. In 2010, Old Spice made history with its
Super Bowl commercial being the most viewed video on YouTube within the first 24 hours of its
premier. In fact, after 36 hours of being shown worldwide, it had gained a combined viewership
of 23,198,055 (Wiancko, 2010). Old Spice’s “Your Man Could Smell like Me,” commercial is
rhetorically persuasive because it promises the audience their “perfect man” or “perfect body”
with the purchase of Old Spice body wash. Through Close Textual Analysis, this commercial is
an excellent example that represents the speaker’s specific delivery, the diverse audiences it
appeals to, and the timing and style of the presentation, in a clear manner.
The commercial starts out in a bathroom with a half-naked man addressing the audience
directly. The gentleman in the commercial, Isaiah Mustafa, tells the women watching the
commercial that their man is not him but if he stopped using “lady scented body wash,” that he
could smell like him. Throughout the commercial, the scenery is continually changing and
Mustafa is shown offering the audience fresh oysters, tickets to their favorite show, and even
diamonds all while being on a boat in an exotic island.
Old Spice’s commercial shows a different form of delivery by directly speaking to the
audience. Similar to Lincoln’s speech “Gettysburg Address,” Edwin Black argues that through
Close Textual Analysis, in persuasive communications, the elements of the presentation “reflect
back and forth on one another” (Black, 1994). Mustafa assumes that he is better smelling and
more attractive than the viewers and their significant others watching the commercial, yet he is
calling out to his audience to provide them with a chance to better themselves and be similar to
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HARMON, EMILY R
3/27/14
YOU COULD SMELL LIKE ME
him. Although there is a form of signalization through Mustafa speaking directly to the females,
the men watching are ultimately affected by his confidence and good looks. By using this
inclusive language, Old Spice appeals to not only the men using the products, but the women that
may do shopping for those products or females that suggest different smelling products to their
men. His sense of confidence creates an instant “cool” and imperturbable ease to him that many
people crave. Through multiple angles and how Mustafa directs his speech, the elements of the
commercial and the product being solely for men also reflects back to women and their choices
for their boyfriends or significant others.
When first learning about the specific products that Old Spice offers, one would
think that the advertising team would focus their audience around men, especially men under 50
years of age. In an interview, Iain Tait, from the advertising team for Old Spice, talked about
how they wanted a character that was “not only loved by ladies but equally loved by
guys”(Borden). The advertisements had an obvious unrealistic aspect to them but adding the
splash of comedy in the mix made the commercial pleasing and entertaining.
Mustafa is average height, in fantastic shape, with lighter brown skin. He wears very
expensive clothing, is “on a yacht” and rides horses. All of these aspects elude a sense of high
class and a rich atmosphere. For many of the viewers, this type of fantasy will never be a reality.
Most people will never be on a yacht, have handfuls of diamonds or even spend time on a horse.
Just eluding to the possibilities of “having it all” makes the potential customer intrigued. Similar
to the Declaration of Independence, Lucas points out that in effective communication, when
creating the audience (Americans in the Declaration), as “a separate people,” it invoked a
revolution (Lucas, 2010). We can also see this today by making the “men” watching the
commercial feel as if they are a separate classification because they are not using Old Spice.
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HARMON, EMILY R
3/27/14
YOU COULD SMELL LIKE ME
While Mustafa was noticeably standing with a green screen behind him and had some
help with special effects, the only thing that was edited in was the diamond out of his hand
(Wiancko 2010). The style of delivery was very persuasive and keeps the audience attached to
the screen. While giving orders to “look at your man, now back to me,” Old Spice engages the
viewers to pay attention for their next instruction. His quick speech is simple enough for the
audience to stay in tune with him but creates a sense of urgency and necessity to get his points
across. Leff argues that time is an element just as crucial as the persuasive argument itself. A
major point that he makes in “Dimensions of Temporality in Lincoln’s Second Inagugral,” is that
time is “essential to the internal dynamics of the speech,” (Leff, 1998).
Mustafa only mentions Old Spice twice in the commercial. Once at the beginning and
once at the end of the commercial. Many soap commercials focus on a man or woman in the
shower washing with the “so-called” product with their moisturizing wash and very few focus on
the smell of the soap itself. This type of alteration aids to the customer base and has the audience
thinking that their coolness or likeability is based on how good their body wash smells.
Mustafa’s performance was highly persuasive in this advertisement that it insinuated
follow-up interviews with Ellen DeGeneres and a series of 87 short comedic Youtube response
videos that featured Mustafa answering tweets and emails from fans in a comedic manner (Cary,
2010). These videos not only boosted Old Spice’s brand and got the word out about their
products, but it created buzz around the social media sites and Twitter specifically. Mustafa was
so popular that Old Spice partnered with Reddit and created a customized voicemail that used
Mustafa’s voice telling callers that the owner of the phone was not available.
Hence, this advertisement is truly powerful because it diverges from the expected soap
advertisement. It doesn’t feature him just soaping up in the shower and enjoying a hot rinse. We
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HARMON, EMILY R
3/27/14
YOU COULD SMELL LIKE ME
see a confident and witty character that can relate to a multitude of people watching the Super
Bowl in 2010. Old Spice has featured many of their commercials around this kind of comedy
with their products and it seems to work. These commercial appeal to a wide variety of people
and the communication goes back and forth between information and context of the commercial.
The sequence of the speech and timing of the events is also a crucial element that inhibits
success. The originality and different form of persuasion that absorbs their audience contributes
to its rhetorical power. Their biography description on the Old Spice Instagram is, “DropKicking dirt and odor, doing a clothesline to them and then slamming them with a folding chair.”
Since this commercial launch, it seems as though Old Spice is finding success in their witty and
amusing advertising for the last few years. Although Mustafa is no longer representing them on a
regular basis, he opened the door for people to pay more attention to their everyday soap and
deodorant commercials.
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HARMON, EMILY R
3/27/14
YOU COULD SMELL LIKE ME
Works Cited
Black, Edwin. "Gettysburg and Silence." Quarterly Journal of Speech 80.1 (1994): 21-36. Print.
Borden, Mark. "The Team Who Made Old Spice Smell Good Again Reveals What's Behind Mustafa's
Towel | Fast Company | Business + Innovation." Fast Company. Influence Project, 14 July 2010.
Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
Cary, Mary Kate. "The Irresistible Old Spice Guy Commercials." US News. U.S.News & World Report,
20 July 2010. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
Leff, Michael. "Dimensions of Temporality in Lincoin's Second Inauguration." Communication
Reports Winter 1988 1.1 (1988): 28-31. Academic Search Elite. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
Lucas, Stephen E. “The Stylistic Artistry of the Declaration of Independence.” Prologue: Quarterly of
the National Archives 22 (Spring 1990), 25-43.
Tschorn, Adam. "Old Spice's New Advertisements Grab Attention from Both Sexes." Memphis
Commercial Appeal. The Commercial Appeal, 23 Mar. 2010. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
"Wiancko. Isaiah Mustafa: Old Spice." Know Your Meme News. Know Your Meme, 2011. Web. 27
Mar. 2014.
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