Old Spice in the Terry Crews creator era: how Procter & Gamble kept a 1937-founded brand culturally relevant by leaning into absurdist creator marketing
Old Spice (founded 1937) was already in cultural decline by the mid-2000s as Axe (Lynx) and various competitors captured younger male grooming consumers. The 2010 Old Spice Guy campaign with Isaiah Mustafa, created by Wieden+Kennedy, reset the brand's voice toward absurdist comedy and helped restore relevance. Terry Crews joined the campaign in 2010-2011 as the over-the-top alternate Old Spice Guy, expanding the absurdist territory further. Through the 2010s and 2020s, Old Spice has continued the comedy positioning, expanded into TikTok-native creator marketing, partnered with NBA athletes (Coby White, Saquon Barkley), and avoided the brand-relevance decline that has hit many heritage CPG brands. Old Spice's revenue inside P&G's Grooming segment has continued to grow, and the brand remains the leading male body wash by US market share. The Old Spice case is studied as the worked example of a heritage brand staying culturally relevant through committed creative-voice evolution rather than periodic rebrands.
- Story: Old Spice was a declining heritage brand in the late 2000s before the 2010 Wieden+Kennedy 'Man Your Man Could Smell Like' campaign with Isaiah Mustafa reset the voice to absurdist comedy. Terry Crews joined 2010-2011, expanding the creative territory. The voice has evolved through the 2010s and 2020s — TikTok-native content, NBA and NIL athlete partnerships, continued category leadership in US male body wash. Old Spice's continued relevance is the worked example of heritage-brand voice continuity across 15+ years rather than periodic rebrands.
- Why it matters: Old Spice is the worked example of heritage-brand relevance maintenance through committed creative-voice evolution — distinct voice, long-term agency partnership, continued investment in non-traditional creative formats.
- Takeaway: Pick a creative-voice direction distinct from category convention and commit to it long-term.
- Takeaway: Invest in creative-territory expansion within the voice rather than periodic rebrands.
- Takeaway: Heritage-brand relevance maintenance is structurally easier than rebuilding lost relevance — invest before the category position erodes.
Old Spice Terry Crews era — the four-step story
Old Spice Terry Crews era at a glance
Quick facts
The 2010 reset: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
By the late 2000s, Old Spice was perceived as an older-male brand whose primary product line was aftershave for grandfathers. Axe (Lynx) had captured young male grooming with its 'Axe effect' positioning emphasizing female attraction. P&G needed to either let Old Spice continue its decline or attempt a major brand reset.
Wieden+Kennedy's pitch (developed under creative leads including Craig Allen and Eric Kallman) was to take Old Spice in an entirely different direction from Axe: instead of competing on sexual-attraction implication, take an absurdist comedy approach. The Super Bowl XLIV (February 7, 2010) ad with Isaiah Mustafa — the famous 'Hello, ladies. Look at your man, now back to me, now back at your man, now back to me' single-take ad — introduced the absurdist voice. The ad went viral immediately and became one of the most-referenced ads of the 2010s.
Terry Crews and the expansion of the absurdist territory
Through 2010-2011, Old Spice and Wieden+Kennedy expanded the brand voice beyond Isaiah Mustafa to include Terry Crews as an over-the-top alternate Old Spice Guy. The Crews work pushed the absurdist territory further:
- Crews's physical-comedy intensity took the brand voice to a more extreme place than Mustafa's deadpan delivery, expanding the creative range without diluting the core voice.
- Co-starring multiple personalities (and later muscular Crews variants in side-by-side ads) created a kind of comedy multiverse for Old Spice that supported many years of executions.
- The 2011-2014 'Smell is Power' campaign continued building on the Crews work with surreal product ads, branded video content, and social-media-native executions.
- The brand voice influenced an entire generation of CPG creative, with many other categories trying to replicate the absurdist tone (most less successfully).
- Wieden+Kennedy's continuing relationship with Old Spice through multiple agency-of-record cycles is one of the longest sustained CPG-agency creative partnerships in the industry.
The 2015-2024 evolution: TikTok, NBA partnerships, and continued absurdism
Old Spice has continued evolving the creative territory rather than holding the 2010-2014 work as static:
- The Old Spice TikTok account (active 2019 onward) has produced native short-form video content that's been among the most-followed CPG-brand TikTok accounts. The content extends the absurdist voice into TikTok-native formats.
- NBA partnerships including Coby White (Bulls) and various creator-athletes have integrated the brand into sports culture without losing the comedy positioning.
- NCAA name-image-likeness (NIL) era partnerships have given Old Spice early access to college-athlete branded content as NIL became legal in 2021.
- 'Smell Magnificent' positioning has been the more recent global brand pitch, continuing the comedic confidence theme.
- Continued category leadership: Old Spice has remained one of the top male grooming brands by US market share, despite category fragmentation from Harry's, Dollar Shave Club, and other DTC challengers.
The structural advantage of sustained creative-voice commitment
Old Spice's distinctive feature among heritage CPG brands has been the willingness to commit to a creative-voice evolution over 15+ years rather than periodically rebranding. Most legacy CPG brands in similar relevance-decline situations attempt periodic 'rebrands' that produce short-term campaign attention but don't establish the durable creative-voice that sustains relevance across consumer cohorts.
P&G's brand-management approach with Old Spice has been distinctive: long-term agency partnership (Wieden+Kennedy since 2007), creative-leadership continuity with periodic refresh, willingness to invest in non-traditional creative formats (long-form video, TikTok-native, NIL athlete partnerships) ahead of category peers. The combination has produced compounding brand-equity returns rather than the periodic-spike-and-decline pattern more typical in CPG.
How RGM thinks about heritage-brand relevance maintenance
Old Spice is the case study we cite most when clients with heritage brands (founded pre-1980, multi-generation customer base, recognized brand equity, but cultural relevance in question) consider how to maintain or restore relevance. The structural lessons: (1) Pick a creative-voice direction that's distinct from category-convention and commit to it long-term. Old Spice's absurdist comedy is different from Axe's sexual implication and different from premium-grooming's craft-and-tradition positioning. (2) Invest in continued creative-territory expansion within the voice rather than periodic rebrands. The Crews expansion, TikTok-native content, and NIL partnerships all extend the same voice rather than restarting it. (3) Maintain agency-creative relationships across many years rather than the periodic agency-cycle changes that fragment creative continuity.
Our honest framework: heritage-brand relevance maintenance is structurally easier than rebuilding lost relevance. The Old Spice 2010 reset worked partly because the brand still had distribution, recognition, and category presence; the 2010 work captured cultural attention that translated into purchase. A brand that has lost both relevance and category presence has a much harder path back. The lesson for clients managing heritage brands: invest in creative-voice continuity before the category-presence position has eroded, not after.
Frequently asked questions
What is Terry Crews's actual role with Old Spice?
Crews has been a featured talent in Old Spice campaigns over multiple periods since 2010-2011. He's not a permanent spokesperson in the traditional sense; rather, he's a recurring featured presence in particular campaigns, appearing across many years' worth of executions. The relationship has been ongoing rather than tied to a fixed contract that ends and renews.
Is Old Spice profitable for P&G?
Yes. P&G's Grooming segment (which includes Old Spice along with Gillette, Venus, Braun, and others) generates roughly $7 billion in revenue with healthy margins. Old Spice's specific contribution isn't disclosed, but it's a meaningful contributor and one of the higher-margin brands within the segment given P&G's manufacturing-scale advantage and pricing power vs DTC competitors.
How does Old Spice compete with Harry's, Dollar Shave Club, etc.?
Old Spice competes by maintaining cultural relevance (preserving the brand premium and consumer preference) while leveraging P&G's distribution, shelf-space, and pricing-power advantages. DTC competitors have captured share of grooming spend but haven't displaced Old Spice from category leadership in mass-market US. Old Spice has also expanded into DTC channels (Amazon, direct-to-brand site) to defend on price comparisons.
What was Axe's response to Old Spice's resurgence?
Mixed. Axe attempted several brand-direction changes through the 2010s, including a more romantic/relationship positioning to move away from the 'Axe effect' women-as-objects framing that had become culturally out of step. The repositioning didn't restore Axe's earlier US category-leading position; Old Spice retained the top-share spot for body wash through most of the post-2010 period. Globally Axe remains stronger; in the US the brands have switched positions.
Why has the Old Spice TikTok worked when many brand TikToks haven't?
The absurdist voice is well-suited to short-form video natively. Old Spice's TikTok content can be 15-30 seconds and still convey the comedic absurdism that the longer-form work established. Many brand TikTok accounts fail by trying to repurpose long-form-voice content for short-form contexts; Old Spice's voice was already short-form-compatible because the underlying comedic logic doesn't require setup time.
Sources & references
- Wieden+Kennedy Old Spice case — Wieden+Kennedy creative archive.
- AdAge Old Spice retrospective — AdAge's analysis of Old Spice creative legacy.
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix coverage — 2010 Cannes Lions awards for Old Spice campaign.
- P&G annual reports — P&G annual reports for Grooming segment performance.
- Famous Campaigns case write-up — Famous Campaigns retrospective on Old Spice 2010.