The Eyelet.

Not too long ago, consumers thought Old Spice was simply your father’s Aftershave. It came in a rather oddly iconic white glass bottle and anyone over 30 remembers seeing in their Father’s/Grandfather’s bathroom. It was cheap. It was potent. And supposedly, it was what “real men” smelled like. Strong, burly and handsome men. The kinds with hairy chests, that worked on ships and always got the girl. After all it was marketed, in all seriousness, as “The Mark of a Man.” But times change, the 80′s came and attitudes like that can only last for so long. The idea behind it became, for lack of a better word, cheesy, old and musky. And that will turn your hunky brand into a 90 lb weakling. So what does an irrelevant, stagnating brand do?

They replace that serious tone with an overly exaggerated, inflated sense of male bravado and proceed to turn around and punch men’s personal hygiene products straight in the face. In a good way. Think Burt Reynolds meets Ron Burgundy. Then throw in a splash Cool Hand Luke and with a shot of Conan the Barbarian. Mix them aggressively in old whiskey barrel with a baseball bat, broken glass and nothing but sheer brawn. Now just let it sit out in the Sun for a week until fully ripe. The result? What a man should feel/smell like when using Old Spice.

Could there be any better of a way to revitalize a brand or product geared towards men? Who doesn’t want to “smell like fighter jets and punching?” Yes, there is great new packaging, fresh print ads, and outlandish TV commercials, but it’s the new attitude that has revived and reshaped the once dying brand. I am pretty sure no one ever thought that Old Spice would be challenging Right Guard for odor protection dominance, but there they are. What is even more amazing is the simple fact they never exactly walked away from the past that had begun to kill their brand in the first place. They just embraced it and added a new twist to their story:

“Old Spice Cologne has been around for generations. If your grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist. Neither would velvet paintings, the chili dog and sheepskin rugs — manly things that were made by men who smelled strong and splashed Old Spice cologne on their faces before doing other manly stuff during their day.”

Sure, most men would love to live in a “bleak, maze-like environment where lasers fire in random directions and the sky is always filled with lightning.” But how long can this amplified masculinity last until it falls just as flat as a sailor having girl at every port? Not sure. But having such a strong attitude as base for their brand could give them the strength to piledrive their competition into submission.

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like. Target audience? Women.

Flex Your Muscles. Your Talking Muscles.