Famous Brands That Avoided Bankruptcy Thanks to a Single Product

Old Spice had enormous brand recognition, but by the beginning of the twenty-first century that recognition came with a problem: many younger consumers associated it with their fathers or grandfathers. Procter & Gamble, which had acquired the brand in 1990, gradually expanded and repositioned Old Spice beyond its traditional aftershave identity. The introduction of Old Spice body wash in the early 2000s helped place the name inside a growing men’s grooming category where younger customers were increasingly spending money. The product itself was only part of the transformation, because marketing ultimately became the brand’s most powerful weapon. Campaigns increasingly emphasized humor, exaggerated masculinity, and deliberate absurdity rather than nostalgia. That strategy reached another level with the 2010 “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign featuring Isaiah Mustafa, which became a viral advertising phenomenon. Body wash gave Old Spice the product category through which much of that reinvention could happen.