It definitely has significant problems.
Southern Fried Science explains most of its failings. The sunglasses bugged me, too, and really, you cannot stuff tennis balls down a whale’s blowhole.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Aren’t those sunglasses nowhere near it’s eyes? Why would a whale even need sunglasses? Wouldn’t sunglasses like that be a huge drag on the whale? Why would a sperm whale be spending that much time on the surface? So much shaking my head…
2nd thoughts. I mastered in Comm, so I feel like I should probably be commenting on advertising message rather than simple logical inconsistencies. Old Spice is going after shock value with these commercials, and pretty much all their campaigns for the last few years. Idea being that you’ll remember Old Spice when you head to the grocery store because the commercial is just so weird. The problem with this approach is that remembering that Old Spice exists is not the reason I don’t use Old Spice. I’m also not super concerned that their body wash won’t get me the requisite amount of clean, as they seem to be basing the new formula on. No, I don’t use Old Spice because the body wash gives me an uncomfortable rash, and I spend the rest of the day smelling like I just walked out of a gay orgy with the local rugby team. I’d be way more likely to buy if they said something like: “Hey, we toned the scent way down and made it hypoallergenic.” Wouldn’t even need any whale bothering in that one.
Man gets on whale. Man startles whale by getting on it. Whale panics and accidentally hits man with flukes. Man’s family files wrongful death suit against man’s employer.
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
What about golf balls?
“Is it a Titleist?”
What would Don Draper think about this (after 3 Lucky Strikes, 2 scotches, and an afternoon tryst with the neighbor’s wife)?
Sperm whales are pretty cool. They’re not beautiful (I’m spoiled – I spend my time with pretty dolphin species, namely orca and white sided dolphins) but they’re so gentle. I’m sure some of the sperm whales I’ve encountered were targeted by whalers and witnessed other sperm whales being harpooned and pulled up onto ships. They’re so long-lived. They’re smart too and they have such good memories. For some reason though the same animals who witnessed people and vessels killing members of their own species aren’t necessarily fearful of people and certainly aren’t aggressive.
They don’t wear sun glasses though. And they spend little time at the surface.
Surely they weren’t anywhere near a whale when they filmed that, just spliced it onto scenes of a whale swimming or maybe the whole whale is CG. I tried to find out how it was filmed but all I came up with was a list of who made it and there are a lot of SFX people listed. Or am I not in on the joke . . .
I had seen that before but never noticed what they were selling.
it was just silly on steroids like so much of advertising when it isn’t deliberately misleading.
uncle frogy
Forget the sunglasses, forget the really bad whale model. What’s it with the 1970s pimp mini moustache?
Oh look, a commercial that jumps the shark while riding a whale.
Seriously, though, I think the worst thing about that commercial is someone got paid a whole lot of money to come up with something that trite and boring.
I love Old Spice commercials, including this one. I also love the ridiculous hyperbole on the products themselves.
The commercials are amusing, but you remind me…I don’t much care for the smell of Old Spice. And worse for them, they’re trying to fight against the tide of opinion that says only old people use Old Spice (and Brylcreem, another product for a different generation).
I don’t think the “Smell Legendary” tag is going to help much with that perception.
By the way, that’s a baseball coming out of the blowhole and a baseball bat in his right hand. The man is talented:-)
Ok, I’ll come clean (ba dum tish!). I use their body wash. I’m not a fan of the original Old Spice, but I don’t mind the weirdly named body washes that they sell now.
And I find the absurdist commercials to be hilarious. However, I much prefer the wildly insane Tim and Eric directed commercials to this one. I still crack up whenever I see the watermelon one.
Dumb commercial, but it looked intentionally dumb. (I watched it with the sound off). To be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t mind if women’s soap/shampoo/other products had weird or surreal commercials.
Spem whales wear sunglasses? In that case, Old Spice must take responsibility for their actions!
I miss the Terry Crews Old Spice commercials. I have never really used Old Spice products, but the commercials are generally amusing compared to more advertisements.