How to (Almost) Beat Old Spice-- The Brut Slap Method
November 15, 2010 by Nate Winter
The battle for American men’s arm pits is heating up. Who will take charge and cool things off? In the Pomeganda post How to Beat Old Spice -- the Best-Selling, Best-Smelling Brand Around, I explained why AXE’s latest effort isn’t enough to overtake Old Spice’s dominance in the men’s personal care category.
Well, it’s two weeks later and another contender has entered the ring-- Brut. The new Brut Slap campaign invites site visitors to take out their annoyance on a variety of unsavory male characters by initiating a digital slap to their faces. These irritating characters include the Mime, The Playa (whose resemblance to Tiger Woods is uncanny), a full-on hippie and the Man in a Towel (who’s clearly modeled after Isaiah Mustafa from the Old Spice ads). Overall, Brut's campaign site is in line with my suggestion to keep things silly. It’s slapstick, cathartic and fun.
My critique of AXE’s ad was its insistence on cutting down Old Spice’s The Man Your Man Could Smell Like campaign. The public loves that campaign, and regardless of how much the corner-office MBAs at AXE hated it, there’s no amount of mud-slinging that can undo the campaign’s success.
This same critique applies to Brut Slap and the Man in the Towel-- it’s the concept’s sole weakness. This character unabashedly represents Isaiah Mustafa from the Old Spice ads. But who wants to slap him? I’ll say it again: the public loves that campaign. The desire to slap him represents the feelings of folks at Brut, not the feelings of visitors to the Brut Slap site. This character serves as a reminder of Old Spice’s dominance in the category, while also revealing Brut’s sensitivity in the matter. That’s not very manly, or very good marketing.
I think Brut Slap is a step in the right direction toward claiming cultural dominance in the battle for American men’s arm pits. But the Achilles heel of this campaign was Brut’s inability to resist taking a jab at Old Spice.
Whoever joins the melee next, would you please leave Old Spice out of it? Please?!
