Old Spice - "Questions" Ad (Rhetorical Question)
Channel: Anthony Kalamut
Date: 2021-06-10

Rhetorical Question


This creative style approach asks a question to which no answer is required or expected. It is asked to bring your listener or reader to your chosen conclusion. 


Don’t look away from this spot — you’d be missing something great. But do feel just a little sorry for its timing, coming on the non-lady-scented heels of the “Man Your Man Could Smell Like” commercial. 


TMYMCSL (Man Your Man Could Smell Like), which sounds like an impressive Roman year but is the acronym for the title of the original, won the Grand Prix in Film at Cannes and has tallied 20+ million views on YouTube while spreading its magic catchphrase — “I’m on a horse!” — worldwide. 


In this 2010 follow-up clip called “Questions” actor Isaiah Mustafa again enacts a kitschy female fantasy. His morphing from beachcomber to logroller to kitchen builder to swan diver and, finally, hot tubber, is pretty funny, but lacks the diamond dust of the original.
 
Just a couple of cavils: The product he holds up next to the shower at the beach looks like sea salt. And the kitchen part comes off as a bit too Brawny Paper Towel Man for my taste. What’s with those khaki shorts?


Still, the ending makes up for everything else, as our man swan dives into a hot tub, which then explodes, Titanic-like, while transforming into a flooded deck, on which Mr. Spice perches shirtless, in wet jeans, straddling a most manly motorcycle. It’s so big, unexpectedly hilarious and covertly (or flagrantly) sexual, it pulls the whole thing together in grand fashion.
 
In the end, compared with the original, “Questions” is like being Lance Armstrong’s younger brother. Then again, there are worse things to be saddled with. – Barbara Lippert (AdWeek)


The campaign had a significant impact on Old Spice sales, both for body wash and the overall franchise. Old Spice has month over month strengthened its market position and is now the number one brand of body wash and deodorant  in both sales and volume with growth in the high single/double digits.



A rhetorical question, meaning a persuasive question, asks the listener or viewer something in a way that makes him feel positive about your product. The answer may be obvious, or the question may require no answer at all. The purpose of the question is to create an effect.

NOTE: This video is posted strictly for educational purposes and is posted under Fair Use to solely assist current and future advertising students and creatives.