Old Spice "Radio Daze" (2017) :15 (USA)

Ah yes, old man shaking his fist dramatically in the wind as Old Spice comes down to kill the youngest. For the drying times indeed. Dumb? Yes. But hella product-focused, too. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this new campaign which includes a Grapes Of Wrath spot, isn't the horrific pun of "Drying Times." The weirdness is still intact of course, although it looks like they had a much smaller budget this time. And the humor is still as out there as ever. But the big change is thatt this is the most product-centric I think Old Spice has been in a while. And by product centric, I mean they are showing benefits and even usage, albeit in a cartoonish way. This is far removed from the Terry Crews Isaiah, Mustafa fights that were too meta for their own good, becoming a shark jumping moment. At least this is proof you can make an ad that is different, and with a product benefit without it sucking.
Except for the Drying Times pun. I know the dumb words are a long running schtick. (I'm still trying to forget Smellf.) But something about Drying Times is so obvious it's just a little too close to hack for its own good.

Client: Old Spice
Client: Janine Miletic, Marketing Director, Matthew Krehbiel
Associate Brand Director, Eugenia Chacon – Assistant Brand Manager
W+K Portland
CD’s: Matt Sorrell, Ashley Davis-Marshall
Copywriter: Ryan Niland | Steve Etheridge (“Lean Times” only)
Art Director: Chen Liang
Producer: Jennifer Hundis
Account Team: Ghada Soufan, Phil Williams, Thomas Harvey
B.A.: Dusty Slowik
Production Company: Gifted Youth
Director: Fatal Farm
Executive Producer: Dal Wolf
Line Producer: Alistair Walford
Editing house: Joint
Editor: Tommy Harden
Assistant Editor: Dylan Sylwester
Post Producer: Jen Milano
Post Executive Producer: Leslie Carthy
VFX Company: Joint
VFX Supervisor Katrina Salicrup
Lead Flame Artist: Leif Peterson
Flame Artists: Leif Peterson, Robert Murdock, Chris Payne, David Jahns
Flame Assistant: Noah Poole
VFX Producer Rebekah: Koerbel
VFX Associate Producer: Nathanael Horton
VFX Executive Producer: Alex Thiesen
Sound: Joint
Sound Designer: Noah Woodburn
Telecine: Joint
Colorist: David Jahns