Ode to Old Spice

WOW I am having a hard time concentrating today. Going to Olive Garden with my co-workers and applying for a few jobs has me all wired. Only an hour and fifteen minutes until Kin comes to my office, begging me to get her out of this place. :)

When I was at Olive Garden today, I saw the BYU Old Spice guy eating a few tables away from us. Marla was the first to spot him, and the rest of us took turns furtively turning around so that we could see for ourselves. It was him all right. I wonder how dramatically his life has changed since he became the "BYU Old Spice guy."

My mom is VERY against commercials. All growing up, we were required to mute the commercials. My mom daily threatens to execute my dad when he doesn't exert his King of the Remote powers to her satisfaction. As we older girls have moved out, we have continued the tradition of muting commercials—they just add all of this unnecessary noise in the background and they usually aren't saying anything we want to listen to anyway. And we haven't been able to fully turn off the Mom Radar—there are times that I just know that Mom is sitting at home, sensing that her children's minds are being corrupted by the annoying sounds of the commercial jingles and yelling. So, we mute the commercials. (However, we still stare at the silent screen, something that my Aunt Lore thought was quite humorous.)

However, my mom has gotten a little bit lenient over the years. Every now and then, my dad will unmute a commercial that he thinks is funny without suffering the effects of execution, and the commercial ban is completely lifted on Superbowl Sunday.

And then came the Old Spice commercial. Somehow, we all missed in on Superbowl Sunday. We must have all been asleep. Thankfully, I accidentally watched the commercial when I was at someone else's apartment, and didn't quite know what to think of it. The next time I watched Lost, I did the unthinkable and unmuted the TV when the shirtless black guy came on and I made Kimberly watch it. From that moment on, we were hooked on that commercial. After quoting it extensively to our family, we finally made them watch it on YouTube, and it became the highlight of all of our Lost parties and more—so much more. I thought we would be among the minority of the people who liked that commercial because it seemed to fit the Carter sense of humor so well, but I was soon proven wrong.

As of today, each of the Old Spice commercials have been viewed almost 18 million times on YouTube. I'm pretty sure that number will keep growing until it is nothing short of a bajillion. Not only are people still watching them, but people still talk about them with their mischievous smiles and childlike excitement.

And then the BYU version came out, and it is nothing short of awesome as well. I am sure hundreds, if not thousands, of people have made their own versions of this commercial (my family included). And it wouldn't surprise me if Old Spice sales have gone way up in the past 6 months or so.

I have often tried to pin down exactly why the Old Spice guy is so awesome. It's not (at least not entirely) his incredible good looks or his manly smell (neither of them helped him in his recent marriage that lasted approximately a month). The random dialogue and vastly different settings may contribute to the awesomeness. But why is it that everyone has heard of the commercials, and that everyone likes them?

I don't think it can be explained—the Old Spice guy is just awesome. Thank you for the hours of entertainment, Mr. Old Spice.