The Mary Sue

When Feminism Becomes a Marketing Tool

Is it okay to use feminism to sell products? Commence mixed feelings in 3-2-1...

by Teresa Jusino Oct 22nd

Feminism seems to have made such a dent that companies now see being anti-sexism as a way to sell products! It’s almost as if women are a majority of the population and it would be a smart business move to market products with their interests in mind, or something!

New Old Spice Ad Encourages You To Believe in Your Smelf, Has Sand DeLorean [Video]

by Max Eddy Apr 23rd

You had me at sand DeLorean, but the rest of this new Old Spice ad is downright delightful. When their ads stop being hilarious, we'll stop posting them. Also, those are sweet headphones.

Tim and Eric Return to Advertising With Amazing New Old Spice Ads

by Max Eddy Feb 3rd

First, let me just say that I love Isaiah Mustafa. He's a beautiful man, and his ads were, and still are, fantastic. However, when Tim and Eric get back in the driver's seat for Old Spice advertising, it reaches a whole new level of amazing. These recent ads, which still feature the be-muscled Terry Crews as spokesman, are apparently too powerful to stay in their own commercials. You'll see what I mean. Also, there's something fantastic with a vending machine. Just...just watch them, below the break.

This is How Old Spice Commercials Get Made

Great Moments in Advertising

by Susana Polo Mar 3rd

It might be more complicated than you think. (via Jezebel.)

What’s That, Old Spice Guy? More Words Coming Out of Your Mouth? [Video]

Highly Successful Marketing Strategies

by Jamie Frevele Feb 18th

I'm pretty sure Isaiah Mustafa could sell me a box of used diapers. Is he even saying anything? Because all I saw was torso and ice cream. Super Hetero Lady Moment over. (URLesque)

The Monster Your Man Could Smell Like: Grover Does an Old Spice Parody Video

by Susana Polo Oct 9th

Will we ever get tired of Old Spice Guy parody videos? You might as well ask us if we'll ever get tired of the Old Spice Guy himself. Answer: No. And certainly not when Muppets are involved.

At the Mountains of Freshness: Great Old Spice

by Susana Polo Sep 19th

When tales fly thick in the grottoes of tritons, and conches in seaweed cities blow wild tunes learned from the Elder Ones, then great eager vapours flock to heaven laden with carnation, citrus, and cedar. And Great Cthulhu emerges from the shower.

Geekolinks: 7/27

by Robert Quigley Jul 27th

The use and history of "Spoiler Alert" (The Awl)

Lady Gaga kidnaps Commissioner Gordon (The Onion)

Madden ratings czar on how he became Madden ratings czar (SportsGrid)

Dos Equis guy bigger than Old Spice guy? Say it ain't so (FastCompany)

Cat gives birth to dog, says Russia Today (TFT)

"My son is a meme?" (news.com.au)

How to rebuild your attention sp (LifeHacker)

(title image via That Will Buff Out via TDW)

Library Releases Old Spice Ad Parody You Wish Your Old Spice Parody Could Smell Like

by Robert Quigley Jul 16th

Given the overwhelming Internet response to Old Spice's CGI-free, intricate one-shot commercials starring Isaiah Mustafa, it was probably inevitable that the parodies would come: Fortunately, this one is extremely well-done. The Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University has whipped up an excellent shot-for-shot parody of the Old Spice commercial that started it all. Bonus: It promotes books and learning.

Video below:

Geekolinks: 7/15

by Robert Quigley Jul 15th

How Old Spice won the Internet (ReadWriteWeb) The ten best Old Spice response videos (Urlesque) Adorable dog thinks he's a wolf (Reddit) The problem with software patents (Big Think) Axe Cop coming to Dark Horse (Comics Alliance) Was our universe born inside a black hole in another universe? (io9) Malformed MIME header (B3ta) (title image via GeekTyrant)

Isaiah Mustafa Is Recording Epic Personal Response Videos AS WE SPEAK

by Jamie Block Jul 13th

For the past many hours, the Old Spice twitter feed has been incredibly active. Old Spice poster boy and coolest man on the planet Isaiah Mustafa is recording personalized, hilarious response videos to many tweets, YouTube comments, and other methods of Internet speech, some of which aren't even directed at him. For example, if you ask Yahoo Answers how to do something totally manly, he might see it and give you a mention. And these videos aren't some backlog that Old Spice has decided to unleash all of a sudden today. These are happening right now! You want proof? I'll give you proof.

The 2010 Emmy Nominations: Ultimate Geek-Out

by Jamie Block Jul 8th

This morning, the 2010 Primetime Emmy Award nominations were announced. And while that's generally exciting for a TV nerd such as myself, this is a system for geeks you're reading on. So I have embarked on an epic mission: I am going through all the nominations (not just the elitist ones that actually get into the televised awards show), category by category, to provide a full-on geek perspective. The only ones that shall be skipped are those with no good geeky offerings, or the ones where you don't even know what the name of the category means. In other words, here's everything that matters to a geeky television viewer. For reference and your personal knowledge-accumulating pleasure, here is the full list of nominees. For those of you who care more about which shows prevailed, here is the nomination summary, that just states number of nominations per program without specifying the categories. I'm going to be going in order through the categories as they appear in the full list linked above so that it's easy for you to follow along at home. Ready? Let's begin.

There’s a New Old Spice Commercial, and it Involves a Motorcycle

by Jon Bershad Jul 1st

Sometimes it pays to spend money. In just the first few months of 2010, Old Spice has spent more than 2/3 of their entire ad budget for 2009 in the most recent stage of a massive corporate makeover started in the early years of the last decade. So, how has it worked for them? Well, folks like Time Magazine are blogging about how excited they are for a sequel to a freaking commercial, something’s going right.

Video below: