There’s been a huge buzz the last few days about Old Spice and The Man Your Man Could Smell Like. This is absolutely deserved: Old Spice has essentially created the first guaranteed viral advertising video series ever, smartly targeting both internet celebrities with huge swaths of social media influence and regular unknown fans with personalized video responses, shot and posted often within an hour of the initial message on Twitter or Facebook.
While the Old Spice Guy was becoming the face of the company over the last year – and before this ridiculous advancement in awesome advertising – there was an incredible in-betweener series of ads for Old Spice Odor Blocker Body Wash, starring Terry Crews and created by Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. Tim and Eric and Terry made ads that were over the top ridiculous. They also made the only bits of advertising that ever compelled me to try a specific product.
After seeing about seven ads as ridiculous as this one, I had to know. I had to know if Terry Crews was lying to me.
My review of Nivea For Men Active3 found that product to be excellent at everything it claims to do. When I tried Odor Blocker, I set my expectations similarly – it wouldn’t be fair for me to expect Odor Blocker to be a good shampoo, or good for shaving. All Odor Blocker had to do to be true to Terry’s word was keep me from getting stinky – for up to 16 hours in regular conditions.
I am not a smelly dude by nature. Some people just are, and there’s not much they can do about it if the power of their funk overcomes deodorant and generally decent hygiene. Thankfully, I’m not one of those guys – even if I’m out in the heat all day or active for a prolonged period of time, I normally don’t get gross.
The exception to that rule is golfing – if I’m out in 100 degree weather for four hours engaging in physical activity, I smell like a man. And not in that Old Spice Guy, Man Your Man Could Smell Like way. Like in a manly sweaty manly way. So, I started using Odor Blocker regularly for about a month and tracked the results.
The form of the experiment is pretty typical – most modern dudes bathe every day and wear deodorant or antiperspirant or a combo of the two, found usually in a single product. Manwash is easy enough to find now, ranging from the vile AXE products to offerings from major soap companies, but they usually clean off the funk you’ve already got and do one other function, like moisturizing or exfoliating or mentholating. Odor Blocker claims to do something after you put it on other than just make you smell decent, which is something of an advance in manwash technology.
And you know what? It does what it says. I stopped using Nivea, and every day I would use the Odor Blocker Body Wash and use my regular deodorant. I don’t normally smell if I follow those basic steps (AS I SAID BEFORE) and the same held true here. In fact, I smelled great.
On days I would golf with my father, I would do the same routine and then go sweat balls for four hours. The result? The same – I didn’t get funky even in those adverse conditions. This hasn’t been the case with any other soap or body wash I’ve ever used.
Because I was so impressed with Odor Blocker, for a few days I used only the body wash and didn’t even bother with deodorant. Now, every man gets a little funky if he doesn’t wear deodorant, even with only a normal day’s wear and tear and no significant sweating or physical activity. But on the days when I just rocked Odor Blocker and nothing else, I didn’t. That’s how legit it is.
There are a few caveats here, but only a few. Odor Blocker is no better for shaving than a bar of Irish Spring and it isn’t really good for washing your hair with. Also, I suppose if you are a super funky dude who smells like a fucking slaughterhouse sometimes no matter what you shove in your pits, your results may vary.
But ultimately, the measure of a product is whether it does what it claims to do as well as it claims to do it. Nivea For Men Active3 claims to be great for washing your body and your hair and also for shaving whatever you want to shave. It does those things and does them well, so it got a 5. Old Spice claims that Odor Blocker Body Wash blocks odor, and it totally does. It might not put out the sun or destroy buildings or punch that guy from The Room in the face, but for keeping you from smelling like a man and helping you smell like A Man, it is just the ticket.
Score: Old Spice Odor Blocker Body Wash gets a 5 out of 5.
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