The Man You Hope To Smell Like

Old Spice deodorant has in recent years come out with a line of somewhat similar commercials that delight audiences of both genders by featuring unrealistically manly “users” of Old Spice. For a while, the commercials featured Isaiah Mustafa as “the man your man could smell like.” They all involved misdirection; as he spoke in his soothing, low, manly voice, he moved through different areas and his clothes changed faster than his “distracted” audience could notice. He invariably is shirtless in every commercial however. In his speech, he is a gentleman, offering gifts to the (female) viewer and being considerate of her feelings, while at the same time highlighting his own manly characteristics and encouraging her to get her man to smell like an Old Spice man.

Another line of Old Spice commercials featured Terry Crews as a louder, more “explosive” figure. He was mainly advertising Old Spice’s Odor Blocker body wash, billed as having the ability to block body odor for 16 hours. Crews highlights this claim as making the body wash “powerful” in all his commercials, as well as making the wearer feel powerful. He yells the entire commercial in most of them, flexes his biceps and pectoral muscles in nearly all of them, and every commercial involves explosions, if not during the body of the ad, at the end when there is always the same explosion of a clock (with the words “16 Hour B.O. Blocker around it). He plays opposite skinny, nerdy looking white guys in a couple of them as well, who are made to look foolish by the end, in one case for not believing the product can block B.O. for 16 hours. Two of his commercials even begin by advertising another completely different product, until eventually Crews comes bursting through the wall saying something like “Old Spice body spray is too powerful to stay in its own commercial!”

At the heart of all this ridiculousness is a simple message: using Old Spice deodorant/body wash/body spray will make you manlier, more powerful and more attractive to women, because, while you can’t be Isaiah Mustafa, you can “smell like [you’re him].” This plays on the innate desire, or hope, all men have: to be attractive, powerful, and manly. And Old Spice assures us that even if we can’t look like the men in their commercials, at least we can accomplish the easy task of smelling like them simply by purchasing their product (and possibly through this, feel as manly as them). We as humans have that wired within us to be attractive for the opposite sex, and smell is a powerful device to either attract or repel the opposite sex.

Scripture has a lot to say about what makes a real man. Ephesians 5:1-2 says “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love…” (NIV). Matthew 12:34-35 says “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” God doesn’t concern himself with outer appearance or smell; he only sees the heart. A man in God’s eyes serves God and Him alone, not himself. While there’s nothing wrong with valuing one’s appearance (as it can be a tool for winning people to Christ), making your appearance an idol that you view as more important than your heart for the Lord, it becomes an issue.

Our world, or at least our American culture, is obsessed with the self and with looking good, feeling good, and in this case, smelling good. It also enjoys ridiculous “manly” humor involving muscle-bound men. Being a part of this culture, we fall prey to this idea that in order to attain the “good life,” we have to buy certain products that will help us become attractive and desirable. Scripture says that the good life can include these things, but they are not the most important. Living for God’s glory is.