Unbelievably Long-Lasting it can only be Old Spice

To promote its upgraded range of products with a longer-lasting formula in perfume quality, Old Spice and the agency Burns have created a fantastical campaign that originates from a strong consumer tension: products out there don’t last through the day, or nearly as long as they promise. This campaign and the products new formula, challenges that and aims to demonstrate the long-lasting product efficiency of the Old Spice products aboard the smelliest setting on the seven seas: a pirate ship.

Launching today, ‘Unbelievably Long-Lasting it can only be Old Spice’, was created by independent Spanish agency Burns. Set to run in more than 40 countries across Europe and Central Asia, the new campaign is led by a comic yet impeccably crafted film which combines Hollywood-level production values with an entertaining narrative - as well as offering a clever twist on an iconic moment from the Old Spice advertising archives.
Directed by Martín Jalfen through production company ROMA, the film brings to life a blockbuster script set aboard a reeking pirate ship. Amidst the noisome smells of fish, unwashed feet and rotten teeth, one pirate is accused of being an intruder - due to his unusually fresh and unbelievably good smell - and sentenced to walk the plank. As the captain himself points out: ‘No one can smell this good for this long!”

Even the discovery of the new Old Spice deodorant, antiperspirant and shower gel amongst his belongings can’t save the protagonist from his watery fate - but, after backflipping off the plank into the sea, there’s a twist in this swashbuckling tale. In a witty riff on the brand’s beloved 2010 ad, The Man Your Man Could Smell Like - which memorably featured star Isaiah Mustafa proclaiming ‘I’m on a horse’ while mounted on a white steed - the hero of the new spot emerges riding a giant seahorse into the sunset.
To elevate the film’s look and feel and give it blockbuster appeal beyond a regular advert, the production process was driven by realism by tracking down an authentic pirate ship - the Nao Victoria, docked on the Costa del Sol.
A year in the making, the new campaign represents a significant milestone in Burns’ growing international profile, building on the agency’s previous global campaigns for the Olympics and Lexus.

In addition to the hero film, the campaign consists of a 20” antiperspirant , 15“ shower gel execution and multiple other shorter formats.