Old Spice made an explosive entry into the marketing world last year when the company introduced a new ad campaign featuring bare-chested manly-man Isaiah Mustafa, aka “The Old Spice Guy.” The ads went viral; the company’s image was instantly given a hip, funny revamp; and the use of Old Spice coupons skyrocketed.
But as it turns out, Old Spice has always made headlines – just not always on their own terms. I was recently cleaning out my grandma’s basement when I found, in an old issue of the Boston Globe (July 1968 to be exact – the basement cleaning I did was looooong overdue), a story about a guy who tried to hijack a plane by claiming that he had a grenade in his hand. The hijacker waved a fake gun around, demanded to be flown to Cuba, and then pulled out his “grenade” to scare the plane’s 64 passengers into compliance —but that grenade turned out to be a bottle of Old Spice cologne, and the hijacking was ultimately unsuccessful – though the story successfully reached the pages of newspapers across the country.
I know Old Spice is powerful stuff, but it’s not powerful enough to do what that crazy hijacker wanted it to do! You can’t use Old Spice coupons to induce terror, thank goodness – you can only use it to smell great.
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