Old Spice Ad Analysis

Old Spice, a widely known men’s body hygiene company, has flourished and became popularized in the past couple of years due to their successful advertisements. The company’s commercials received huge amounts of praise; they tend to intertwine lots of humor in their advertisements to reel the audience in. “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” Old Spice advertisement debuted at the 2011’s Super Bowl and instantly became a hit. It was later awarded the grand effie title, an award that honors the years most effective marketing communications idea. The ad itself boasts over fifty million views on YouTube alone. The advertisement utilizes charming actor who advertises Old Spice body wash by claiming that he uses it and implies that other men should use this product if they want to become more attractive like him. Using three analytical lenses, I will criticize this commercial and call out its bogus arguments. Hugh Rank’s downplay model emphasizes the concept of playing up aspects in a persuasion

The ad implies that the man is perfect because he uses Old Spice and smells “not like a lady.” The commercial lacks relevant data of any sort to warrant this huge claim made. Not a single piece of statistical data exists to back up the claim, in fact, the only evidence to back up the claim is the actor’s ability to produce concert tickets and diamonds before the audience’s eyes. The warrant, or the explanation of the data, does not exist because there is no data to explain. According to Toulmin’s model of argumentation, this ad’s argument or claim contains extremely weak aspects due to the absence of verifications and lack of a warrant. Overall, the ad lacks sufficient data and does not provide any logical warrants, so the main claim falls victim to Toulmin’s