#2: Funny Spoofs: When Ads Become More

Old Spice Man Spoof - Watch More Funny Videos

Found on Break.com


After watching this ad, it's clear to see what it's parodying. The bizarre Old Spice campaign had such a tremendous impact on its audience that it created its own tab in pop culture. Every ad and campaign wants to get across to its audience. And the way that this goal is measured is usually through sales. But the Old Spice ad "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" has sparked a different type of success. Sure, Old Spice sold a lot of deodorant after airing these ads, but what really set it apart was its viral presence. After the ad first aired at the Super Bowl in 2011, people could not stop talking about this absurd commercial. And people who hadn't seen it quickly searched for it so that they could take part in its popularity.

Ads like the recent Old Spice ads do not come about often or easily. After the original Old Spice commercial, several brands began to use a similar formula to try to create a viral presence. Brands like Dairy Queen started running similar ads where the spokesman would say and do odd things that didn't really have anything to do with the product. So then why would Old Spice have found success where other brands could not? The answer is in 2 parts. First, they did it first. As the pioneer in popular, weird commercials, Old Spice surprised the audience and gave them a laugh. Which brings me to the second part: they did it right. Humor can be tricky in commercials because you can't be sure the audience will laugh. If it fails to make the audience laugh, it probably won't sell many of the product. If it connects, you still can't be sure the product will sell. But Old Spice basically showed us a magic trick. They made the stage as big as possible (The Super Bowl) and they made the magic trick one of the best ones the audience had ever seen. Old Spice made their commercial the main event. Now the reason that other ads similar to the Old Spice ones did not go as well as they'd hoped is because the other brands tried to do the same magic trick without the same parts. I'll pick on Dairy Queen again, because Dairy Queen tried to do the same trick, but the audience had just seen it so they knew what to expect. Dairy Queen also tried to do it right after Old Spice did it, which failed because it's like following The Rolling Stones in concert with a karaoke amateur cover song. It's just not as good.