Audience reframing
Speaking to women about a men's product found an untouched conversational lane and doubled the campaign's relevant audience.
USAFMCGRepositioningIntermediate6 min read
Old Spice · USA
The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
Old Spice smelled like your grandfather. One shirtless monologue later, it smelled like whatever the internet was laughing at that week.
✦ The key lesson: Reposition by changing the audience of the conversation — and let self-aware absurdity make an old brand feel newer than the new brands.
Where it began
The situation
By 2010 Old Spice was a legacy brand losing young men to Axe and newcomers, with body wash purchases in many households actually made by women. The brand needed to be rescued from 'old man' associations fast, ahead of a Super Bowl window it could not afford to waste.
The spark
The insight
Research suggested women buy a large share of men's body wash — yet every brand in the category talked only to men. Addressing the couple, with a wink — telling women their man could at least smell like a fantasy — created a two-audience joke nobody else was telling, and comedy gave an old name permission to be cool again.
The plan
The strategy
Create a character — 'The Man Your Man Could Smell Like' — who embodies impossible masculine perfection while obviously being in on the joke. Launch big, then convert the character into a real-time internet presence so the TV ad becomes an ongoing relationship rather than a one-off spot.
What they actually did
The execution
The launch film starred Isaiah Mustafa delivering a flawless single-take monologue ('Look at your man, now back to me…') moving from shower to boat to horse. The follow-up 'Response' campaign was the real innovation: over a couple of days, the character filmed nearly two hundred personalized video replies to tweets from fans and celebrities — one of the first true real-time social campaigns at scale.
What happened
The result
The campaign became a defining viral phenomenon of its era — hundreds of millions of views across launch and response phases, sweeping industry awards, and coverage far beyond advertising media — and was credited with reversing the brand's decline and igniting sustained sales growth. 'Response videos' entered the standard social-marketing toolkit largely because of it.
The psychology
Why it worked
Self-aware absurdity
The brand mocked masculine advertising while performing it — letting viewers enjoy the fantasy and the satire simultaneously.
Real-time intimacy at scale
Personalized replies converted passive viewers into participants, and each reply became shareable proof the brand was alive.
Steal these
Lessons for marketers
Identify who actually buys (or influences) your product — the ad's addressee is a strategic choice.
Characters outlast commercials; build one the internet wants to talk to.
Follow the big launch with participation mechanics while attention is hot.
Legacy is raw material: an old brand with self-awareness beats a new brand with none.
Channels used
TVSocial media
Strategy types
HumorStorytellingDifferentiation
Tags
viralcharacterreal-time marketingbody washSuper Bowl
IndiaFinance
CRED
Ads So Absurd You Had to Talk About Them
A credit-card payments app made 1990s icons do things no celebrity should do on camera — and made a niche fintech product a national conversation.
Brand awarenessfintechIPL
Advanced7 minRead it
Lesson: When your product is niche and unsexy, buy fame first: being talked about creates the trust and curiosity that performance ads can then harvest.
USAD2C
Dollar Shave Club
Our Blades Are F***ing Great
A $4,500 launch video — one founder, one warehouse, ninety seconds of deadpan — took on Gillette and effectively launched the D2C subscription era.
Product launchD2Cviral video
Beginner friendly5 minRead it
Lesson: A sharp enemy (overpriced incumbents), a clear offer (a dollar a month), and genuinely funny delivery can outperform a nine-figure media budget.
USAFood & Beverage
Wendy's
The Fast-Food Account That Roasts Back
Wendy's turned its Twitter account into a comedy persona that roasts competitors and trolls — proving a brand can win the internet by talking like it, sharply.
Brand awarenesssocial mediabrand voice
Beginner friendly5 minRead it
Lesson: A brand persona with real edge — anchored to a product truth and consistent rules — earns daily attention competitors pay millions for.
The receipts
Sources & further reading
This is an original educational summary of publicly known work — written in our own words, with qualitative results wherever exact figures aren't independently verified.