He’s on a boat. Now he’s holding tickets to that thing you love. Look again—the tickets are now diamonds. Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not lady-scented body wash. I'm on a horse.
It has been over fifteen years since Isaiah Mustafa first looked into a camera lens and told the women of America to look at their man, then back to him, then back at their man. "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" wasn't just a funny commercial. Honestly, it was a cultural reset. Before that 2010 Super Bowl debut, Old Spice was basically what your grandfather kept in a dusty ceramic bottle on his bathroom shelf. It was the scent of nostalgia, but not the cool kind. Then, in thirty seconds of seamless, single-take magic, the Old Spice guy on horse changed how brands talk to us forever.
The Chaos Behind the Magic
Most people think this ad was just a bunch of clever green screen work. It wasn't. That’s the most insane part about the whole production. Except for a few minor digital touch-ups, what you see is what actually happened on that set.
The "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign was directed by Tom Kuntz and created by the ad agency Wieden+Kennedy. They didn't want it to look like a CGI movie. They wanted it to feel like a theater performance. When Isaiah Mustafa transitions from the shower to the boat, a crane literally lifted the shower set out of the way while he stood on a pivoting platform. The shirt didn't disappear through editing; it was pulled off him by a rig from above. When the diamonds fall into his hand, they were dropped from a tube just out of frame.
✨ Don't miss: Why The Shield Season 1 Still Hits Like a Punch to the Gut
The timing had to be perfect. If Mustafa flubbed a single syllable of that rapid-fire monologue, or if the horse stepped slightly to the left, the whole shot was ruined. They did dozens of takes. It was grueling work for a bit of 30-second "effortless" comedy.
Why the Old Spice Guy on Horse Actually Worked
Marketing experts still study this. Why did it stick?
First, it broke the fourth wall in a way that felt inclusive, not annoying. Most body wash ads back then were either hyper-masculine "tough guy" tropes or weirdly clinical. Old Spice decided to target the buyers, not just the users. Wieden+Kennedy realized that women were often the ones purchasing household toiletries. By having Mustafa address the female audience directly—"Hello, ladies"—the brand bypassed the traditional "how to be a man" lecture and went straight for the humor that appealed to everyone.
Then there’s the pacing. It’s relentless. It captures the short attention span of the internet age before that was even a mainstream concept.
The Viral Response Campaign
If the original ad was the spark, the "Response Campaign" was the gasoline. A few months after the initial success, the team set up in a studio and filmed 186 personal video responses in two and a half days. They took questions from Twitter (now X), Reddit, and celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and Alyssa Milano.
🔗 Read more: Rage Against the Machine Saturday Night Live: What Really Happened Behind the Scenes
Mustafa stayed in character the whole time. It was the first time a major brand used a "real-time" social media loop to interact with fans at that scale. It felt human. It felt like the Old Spice guy on horse was a real person you could actually talk to, which is a level of brand engagement that most companies today would kill for.
The Cultural Ripple Effect
Isaiah Mustafa wasn't a superstar before this. He was a former NFL practice squad player with a few minor acting credits. Suddenly, he was the face of a multibillion-dollar brand. The campaign was so successful that sales of Old Spice Body Wash reportedly doubled in the months following the launch.
It also spawned a decade of imitators. You can see the DNA of the Old Spice guy in almost every "quirky" commercial that has come out since. The fast-talking, slightly surreal, self-aware vibe became the industry standard. But few have matched the charm of the original. Even when Old Spice brought in Terry Crews for a louder, more aggressive style of humor later on, the "Man Your Man Could Smell Like" remained the gold standard.
What Most People Forget
There is a common misconception that there was only one "horse" ad. In reality, the campaign evolved into a long-running series of increasingly bizarre scenarios. We saw Mustafa walking on water, log-rolling, and even interacting with his "son" in later years.
But the horse is the icon. It represents the peak of the "random" humor era of the early 2010s. It was the era of "The Most Interesting Man in the World" and "Dumb Ways to Die." It was a time when commercials could actually be good entertainment, rather than something we just wait to skip on YouTube.
📖 Related: The Fifth Wheel: What Most People Get Wrong About Kim Kardashian's New Movie
Leveraging the Lessons of the Old Spice Guy
If you're looking at this from a business or creative perspective, there are a few things to take away from why this worked so well. It wasn't just luck.
- Don't Fear the Weird: Old Spice took a massive risk by making their brand "absurd." It paid off because it was memorable.
- Production Value Matters: The fact that it was a practical, one-take shot gave it a "how did they do that?" quality that kept people re-watching.
- Target the Decision Maker: Knowing that women were the primary purchasers of the product changed the entire tone of the script.
- Speed is King: In the response campaign, they didn't wait weeks to reply to fans. They did it in hours.
To truly appreciate the craft, go back and watch the behind-the-scenes footage of the rigging. You’ll see a crew of dozens of people frantically moving walls and dropping props while Mustafa keeps a perfectly straight face. It’s a masterclass in coordination.
Actionable Next Steps
- Analyze your audience's "Purchaser vs. User" dynamic. Like Old Spice targeting women for a men's product, identify if you are talking to the person who uses the service or the person who pays for it.
- Audit your brand's "Brave Ratio." If your current marketing feels safe, it’s probably invisible. Identify one area where you can introduce "planned absurdity" to break the pattern of your industry.
- Study practical effects. If you are a content creator, look at how the "one-take" nature of the Old Spice ad created a viral loop. Try to incorporate a high-effort, low-edit sequence in your next project to build "how-to" intrigue.
- Implement a rapid-response strategy. If a piece of your content gains traction, set aside 48 hours to engage with every single comment in a consistent "voice." This builds more loyalty than the original content itself.