He's still on a Horse

He was going to be featured here eventually. If you've been watching any American commercials over the past year and are equine inclined, you probably know of the Old Spice Guy, A.K.A. The Man Your Man Can Smell Like. He's on a horse.

Old Spice has also had equines in their marketing before. The Centaur Man was used a few years ago but didn't leave as much of an impact.

Plus there's that whole, 'is it bestiality' thing with his human wife and other stuff we'd rather not think about.

So who is this Old Spice Guy? This man we want our men to totally smell like?

He is Isaiah Mustafa. Besides being Old Spice Guy, he is also a comic book fan and takes his daughter to California Comicon every year. So he gets extra kudos points from the land of geekdome. He is also a vegan so animal rights activists don't need to put him on a list or anything.

This Old Spice Guy marketing scheme has been very notable with Mr. Mustafa, and strangely it seems to be alcoholic drinks that are trying to steal the thunder. Would be interesting to have a meeting of The Old Spice Guy, the Dos Eques Most Interesting Man In The World and Key Stone's Keith Stone. Old Spice Guy and Dos Eques Have Keith beat in equestrian ability though.



I say there should be a jousting part of said made up tournament. Old Spice Guy would probably ride backwards, Most Interesting Man possibly using ninja fencing techniques while doing dressage yoga. It shall be an epic battle my friends.

I'm On A Horse, has become a catch phrase for the Old Spice brand and they sell merchandise with it.



The original commercial has even been parodied with Grover from Sesame Street!

If you didn't at least get a smile from this yours may be a hardened dark soul.

Recently there has been a brouhaha about the latest Old Spice commercials including that face on every bodice ripper novel of the 80s and 90's, Fabio. In commercial land he apparently wants to take over as the new Old Spice Guy. The gauntlet has been thrown.

"Mine is a horse."

This has caused an uproar in the online community. What about Isaiah? Will we have to stare at Fabio now? Please no! The horror! However, that commotion seems to be the plan of the company. Isaiah is still employed with Old Spice and they admit to having more plans for him. This seems to be a ploy to get more people interested in the products and specifically the actor who is most closely associated with them in the public mind. Check out the outcry on the Old Spice YouTube page. People are pissed.

Why is there so much of a hubbub about all this? Honestly, the Old Spice Guy commercials are amusing even if they get over the top. And the actor himself is relatable as a person. He seems like an honestly nice guy, check the interview.

This combination had caused the public to like Old Spice Guy on multiple levels. Those who are attracted to him because he is attractive, equestrians because he's on a horse, and geeks around the world for he is one of their own. Plus these commercials are more entertaining than the "use our product and random people will sleep with you instantly" tactic.

... I'm looking at you Axe (Smell Like a Chemical Bath) Body Spray.

"Horse Trailers" Brave & War Horse

So 2 trailers of movies on my "to see" list came out recently.

The first is the latest Pixar movie Brave. WSTopdeck and I saw one of the Pixar guys named Eben Ostby at Vassar College this past February at NonCon (the non-convention convention). This is some of his early work in the Pixar short Beach Chair. He mentioned this project stating that Pixar was finally doing a "princess movie". However, this is Pixar and they really try to do things right in their animation and storyline. This is a Scottish tale of a princess who defies her family and tradition to carve her own path in life. Vague story description, but at least they don't give away the whole plot before you can see it like most family movies these days. The animators had to make a specialized custom physics program just for the main character's hair!



Did you see that Shire? The hair, the feather, the movement, the expressions. I'm a sucker for fantasy too and the lush environment with magical creatures is major eye candy.

The next is War Horse. Earlier this year WSTopdeck, Beautygirl151o and I saved our money and traveled to Lincoln Center in NY to see War Horse the play on stage. It was an amazing production with larger than life sized handspring-puppets, wonderful music, and a dramatic and heart wrenching storyline (because all horse stories need to be sad, it's pretty much mandatory). You know a story is good when it makes you laugh and cry during the performance. This play originally started in the New London Theater, but was temporarily presented across the pond for us Yankees to take a gander at. Let's just say after seeing the play in person that all three of us optimistically hope to one day make the trek to London to see it again.

The play was based off a book by Michael Morpurgo. The director Steven Spielberg got his hands on the rights to make a movie about the story. Let us hope it will be better than Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skulls. The trailer for the War Horse movie was recently released and I am hopeful that it will be good (glad the main equine character Joey wasn't recast as a Friesian!) The horses and people at least visually appear to fit their characters and the feel of the time period and environment is well established.

Can't wait for the releases of these two.

~~~
Brave Update: here
War Horse Update: here