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BlogHers are hyper aware of the Old Spice Man. Maria Niles is trying to get him to come to BlogHer10 in New York. She's even appealing to him on Twitter, which is where he's been hanging out lately.
Shamelessly batting my puppy dog eyes @OldSpice http://bit.ly/cvGSLj Pretty please @isaiahmustafa come join us at BlogHer xoxo
Maria Niles marianiles
The Old Spice man was on Twitter in dozens of short videos over the weekend, in all his shirtless glory, responding personally to tweets. Bloggers such as MommyCosm took note with posts like Old Spice vs Dove. I'd been thinking about what's happening with social media lately, because I've been watching Sarah McLachlan's social media campaign for her new album and the Lilith Fair concert tour. I was impressed with Sarah, but Old Spice has set a new standard. Let's start with the 200+ videos produced by Old Spice over the weekend. They are available on YouTube and Facebook, and, of course, Twitter. These two responses to tweets are typical of what went on all weekend.
The famous and the unknown were tweeting the Old Spice man, hoping for a response video to them on Twitter. How the Old Spice Videos are Being Made on ReadWriteWeb explains how this was done in real time. In No, seriously: What the Old Spice ads can teach us about news’ future, Megan Garber wrote
The real hook of the videos isn’t the OSM’s awesomely burly baritone, or the whimsy of his monologues (the scepter! the bubbles! the fish!), or the postfeminist irony of his Rugged Manliness, or any of that. It’s the fact that we’re seeing all those things play out dynamically, serially, in (semi-)real-time. And: in video. Video that, though laughable in production quality when compared to most of its made-for-TV counterparts, is literally laughable in a way that most of those counterparts simply are not. The ads are weird and wonderful and hilarious. And the made-for-YouTube gag is part of the joke; the poor production value, relatively speaking, is part of the point. In other words: The process of the videos, here, matters as much as the product.
Alyssa Milano, like many others, felt inspired to create her own video imitation. She went in her bathroom, wrapped up in a towel, and challenged Old Spice to use their success with this campaign to donate some bucks to charity.
Here's what they responded.
@Alyssa_Milano Apologies for dlay. I'm saving village by damming flash flood w/left pec while typing u this msg w/right pec. My ppl 2call.
Old Spice OldSpice
I feel safe making two predictions. One, Old Spice will show up with some money for Alyssa's cause. Two, social media has been taken to new heights with this campaign, and we are going to see more like it.
And what about Sarah McLachlan?
Before the Old Spice phenom, I would have told you that Sarah McLachlan was getting the best social media advice available. I've been watching her organize a
