Ray Lewis’ Epic ‘Old Spice’ TV Commercial

Added on Sep 09, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

For whatever reason, I never thought that the ‘Old Spice Guy’ commercials were the high water mark in broadcast advertising that everyone else seemed to. Sure, they were funny the first few times but after a million or so viewings and countless re-workings of the same theme they got a little stale.

That being said, Ray Lewis’ new commercial filling in for the now iconic (for this year at least) Old Spice Guy amused the hell out of me. Here’s a wordy explatation of the spot from the trade publication New York Sports Journalism:

Now, in the second year of P&G’s marketing alliance with the NFL, Old Spice is upping the macho factor by replacing Mustafa with Ray Lewis, the 11-time Pro Bowl linebacker of the Baltimore Ravens who is considered one of the league’s toughest players. Mustafa humorously spoke directly to women consumers who actually made the purchasing decisions for their men (“Hello ladies. Look at your man. Now back to me,” he says in one spot as he emerges from a shower wearing a towel. “Sadly he isn’t me. But he could smell like me if he switched to Old Spice.”). Lewis, however, is going right for the throat of male consumers.

The new spot actually combines elements of Mustafa’s spots with the harder edged and more off-beat spots that featured Crews for Old Spice Odor Body Wash (“Block, body kick, EXPLOSION!” he yells in one spot as he fends off offending odors.). The spot gets its network debut on Sept. 9 to coincide with the kickoff of the 2010 NFL season. Lead agency is Wieden + Kennedy, Portland.

In his spot, Ray Lewis gets out of the shower covered in a body suit of soap. “I don’t play fantasy football. I play “for real” football,” he states. “It takes a lot of hard work, a pinch of luck, body muscles, some salt and this — Old Spice Swagger body wash. It’s like a fantasy, only it’s real. ” He throws a saddle on a giant raven, climbs on board and takes off into outer space when for some reason, he uses a laser to blow up Saturn. Tag: Old Spice — Greatest Smell in the NFL.

For those of you not in the ad industry loop, Portland’s Wieden + Kennedy are like the San Francisco 49ers (Joe Montana/Steve Young era) of the ad world. They’ve come up with countless memorable campaigns including a little thing for an Oregon based shoe company that has stuck around: ‘Just Do It’.

For more Ray Lewis/Old Spice swag than you can handle go here:

Old Spice website

Anyway, here’s the Ray Lewis Old Spice commercial in all of its FLV video glory: