Old Spice’s 2017 commercial, “Man Hunt”, features a buff Terry Crews who shouts with great intensity about the effectiveness of Old Spice’s invisible spray deodorant. This deodorant, he claims, is so effective at making men manlier, scientists are hunting him down to study his extreme masculinity. Old Spice’s 2017 commercial, “Man Hunt”, uses the persuasion tactics of credibility, humor appeal, and cultural values to create an advertisement that aims to compel men ages thirteen and older and adult women to buy its deodorant product. This paper will discuss the effectiveness of these tactics by incorporating research studies—one on the relationship between voice intensity and credibility, and one on the effect of humor appeals in advertising.
Old Spice’s 2017 commercial specifically caters to men ages thirteen and older and heterosexual women. As boys come of age and start using deodorant around the age of thirteen, this ad attempts to inspire them to buy Old Spice’s product. Old Spice appeals to heterosexual women by enlisting the celebrity endorsement of Terry Crews. This incorporates an element of sexuality. The commercial further tries to sway a woman’s purchasing decision by juxtaposing the likeness of her male partner with Crews.
One persuasion technique that the commercial “Man Hunt” establishes is credibility. Credibility, according to O’Hair, Wiemann, Mullin, and Teven (2015), is “the quality, authority, and reliability of a source of information” (pg. 357). Crews’ celebrity endorsement of Old Spice offers a subjective credibility. A facet of this credibility is the similarity of which his adult male audience identifies with him; or at least him inspiring the emulation of ideal masculinity from his audience. Because of Crews’ physical fitness and attractiveness, both the male and female target audience may buy into his credibility and attribute his physical aspects to using the Old Spice product. This perceived attribution gives implicit “expertise” to Crew.
The manner in which Crews speaks throughout the entire commercial also gives a certain amount of credibility to his argument. Crews is yelling and using high voice intensity and power the entire time; it’s part of his character trope in the Old Spice commercials. Within the study, “Voice and Advertising: Effects of Intonation and Intensity of Voice on Source Credibility, Attitudes toward the Advertised Service and the Intent to Buy”, researchers Gélinas-Chebat, Chebat, and Vaninsky study the effect of voice quality on audience reception of product. According to these researchers, “voice has been neglected in research on advertising and attitude change” (1996, pg. 243). They argue that intensity of voice is more persuasive under low personal involvement (for example, purchasing a product directly from the store) and intonation of voice is more persuasive under high personal involvement (purchasing from a spokesperson or sales representative). Subjects were presented with an advertising message recorded on tape which featured a professional actor who modified his voice with either low or high intonation and intensity. The two advertising messages were based on financial services with either low or high personal involvement: Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) cards or student loans. The scientists found that their original hypothesis had been proved: how loud or quiet an advertiser’s voice has dramatic effect on whether the consumer will purchase that product through passive action, such as buying it from a store. Therefore, Crews’ voice intensity is effective for this advertisement. Had Crews been tasked with personally selling Old Spice, the cadence and intonation of his voice would have been more significant to purchasing decision. Not only is Crews’ voice delivery salient, it adds to the cultural value aspect of his masculinity. Credibility helps the effectiveness of this advertisement by allowing its target audience to have confidence in the product. Credibility gives the audience an impression that Crews’ arguments have substance.
Old Spice is notorious for the outlandish, over-the-top hilarity used in its commercials. Tubbs describes the use of humor appeal as using “humor as a means of ingratiating [oneself] with the audience” (2013, pg. 389). As aforementioned, Crews’ recurrent “Old Spice Man” uses outrageous voice intensity to demonstrate his hyper-masculinity. He has several alter-egos that help him in his escape from the ruthless scientists that are trying to study his masculinity, and one of them even morphs into his get-away vehicle.
The use of humor and other emotional and rational appeals are studied in “Do All Advertising Appeals Influence Consumer Purchase Decision: An Exploratory Study” by Verma. The study is, according to Verma, an “attempt to test empirically the effect of different advertising appeals on consumer purchase decision” (Verma, 2009, pg. 34). Verma tested various emotional appeals via a questionnaire that followed a “personal interview” technique in order to gauge individual responses to certain advertising appeals. Surprisingly, out of the emotional appeals questioned (thrill, affection, pride, fear, and humor), humor did not have any significant effect at attracting attention to a product itself. However, it had a significant impact only at the purchase stage. This could be because when a consumer is presented with a product, he or she will remember the humorous aspects of the product’s advertising when making a decision about purchasing. With these results, Verma concludes that “the belief that humor in advertisements might be instrumental in catching the attention of consumers did not find any support in statistical evidences” (Verma, 2009, pg. 39). These findings somewhat support that humor in advertising is effective. Although the results undermine the effectiveness of using humor to attract attention to a product, they do support that humor is important in the final purchasing decision. Humor is effective for this advertisement and this product because it sets Old Spice apart from other adult men’s deodorant advertisements. Normally, to most, body odor is not a humorous subject but by incorporating humor and making this advertisement entertaining, men and women would not only pay attention but more importantly be more inclined to purchase this product. Through advertisement association—since Old Spice has a reputation for creating humorous ads—adult men and women would be more likely to purchase this product and remember its name.
Cultural values are distinct in commercials because they present the values and beliefs of the greater audience. Cultural values, as O’Hair, Wiemann, Mullin, and Teven (2015) state, “reflect the larger culture in which [one has] been raised” (pg. 133¬). The three notable cultural values that Old Spice emanates are: masculinity, sexuality, and dominance. These values are especially prominent due to their weight on the message that Old Spice wants to portray. This commercial not only caters to Adult men but also teenagers, thirteen and up. Age thirteen is when puberty starts for most men—when they “come of age”. Society expects them thereon to be “manly”, and Crews embodies this “ideal hyper-masculinity”. He fits society’s concept of what the “super-man” should be: muscular, a projecting bass voice, and with a strong personality. Even the female caretakers of men ages thirteen and older would be inclined to purchase Old Spice if they put stock in the masculine ideal. A facet of this “manliness” cultural value is that masculinity is deemed to be “sexy”. Women would more likely buy their male partner this product if they, too, buy into this “manliness is sexy” cultural value. Yet another part of masculinity is that Crews radiates dominance and power. He’s aggressive and assertive; he yells at the camera, and his sculpted, shiny body almost makes the centerpiece of the commercial. His presence figuratively yells and demands: “if you want to be powerful and masculine like me, buy Old Spice”. Cultural values are presented in commercials so that advertisers can align themselves with their audience. These values are effective for the advertisement’s message to adult men and women because they speak to a commonly-agreed upon image that adult men and women have of the “ideal man”.
Old Spice uses several persuasive advertising techniques in order to convince consumers to purchase its product. By establishing credibility, using humor as an appeal to emotion, and through portraying cultural values, Old Spice creates a commercial that effectively advertises men’s deodorant. “Man Hunt” especially appeals to an audience comprised of thirteen years old and older men and adult women, and all techniques analyzed are equally effective in persuading this demographic. It is crucial that persuasive techniques used in advertising are effective; otherwise, products are not purchased and companies lose money. Effective communication in this commercial is made possible by the source quality and message strategies. Through these tactics, what results is a commercial that is notoriously memorable and, in turn, profitable.