Old Spice Unleashed a Superb Sendup of Classic Monster Movies

Old Spice’s uproarious sendup of monster movie mayhem is so brilliantly berserk, it just might make you sweat. 

If so, you can always head to Walmart for some Dragonblast and Yetifrost, new additions to the brand’s Wild Collection of deodorants and body wash. 

In the six-minute clip below from, Wieden + Kennedy Portland, YouTube comedian DangMattSmith hangs with a rubbery dragon and a mangy yeti. Exposed to the awesome power of the scents they inspired, these cut-rate creatures expand to preposterous proportions and duke it out in the silly, over-the-top style of 1960s Godzilla flicks: 

So, they demolish an entire city, including billboards and buildings marked “Stinky & Co.” and “Odor,” but they leave Walmart unscathed? Those beasts are on brand! 

“When [copywriter] Eric Fensler and I were tasked with introducing Old Spice’s new scents, Yetifrost and Dragonblast, instantly our brains went to an epic battle [based on those names],” W+K art director Kyle Chin tells Muse. “Since they were available at Walmart, it made sense for the battle to start there.”

But why include DangMattSmith, who’s big with Gen Z and millennials, when the content skews retro? 

“His audience of 8 million young guys lines up nicely with who we wanted to talk to,” Chin says. “Plus, he was perfect to introduce a janky, modern take on this old-school concept to a crowd who’s probably never seen anything like it before.”

Of course, vintage monster films are pretty ridiculous to start with, and Old Spice stays true to the source material with its toy-truck-smashing, miniature-skyscraper-mashing monster bash, played for only slightly broader laughs than the kaijū eiga originals. Smith’s d’uh-we-just-saw-that narration (“He just blew up that building!”) is a hoot, and also pays homage to the low-rent genre.

Stunt performers Seth and Treet Allison played the yeti and dragon, respectively. As brothers, “they naturally were ready to rumble,” Chin recalls. “They were exhausted by the end of the shoot. All their fight moves were awesomely intense. So, of course, the costumes didn’t hold up for too long, and we kept getting shots where you could see some human skin. But you know, at the end of the day, seeing those imperfections here and there added some charm to the final video.” 

Maybe the beastly bros just aren’t themselves when they’re hungry.

CREDITS

Client: Old Spice 
Project: Mythical Beasts 
Brand Manager: Gwynedd Davis
SECONDARY CLIENT CONTACT 
Assistant Brand Manager: Jack Barry
Brand Manager, Walmart Team: Ryan Bennett

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy Portland
Executive Creative Directors: Jason Bagley, Eric Baldwin 
Creative Directors: Ashley Davis-Marshall, Matt Sorrell 
Copywriter/Art Director: Eric Fensler, Kyle Chin
Producer: Kacey Klonsky
Account Team Member: Katie Schaller
Creative Operations Manager: Andrea Drapcho
Strategy Directors: Drew Phillips, Samantha Serocki
Media Team: Melissa Meier, Natalia Naranjo
Business Affairs: Dusty Slowik
Traffic: Joe Chaath
Design Ops Manager/Design Producer: Patrick Cahalan
Studio Designer: Eric Reigert
Print + Fabrication Producer: Ellen Osborn

Production Company: Droptree Productions 
Directors: Matt Miadich & Connor Martin 
DP: Kevin Fletcher 
Producer: Faryl Kagan

Costume Fabricator: Sara Neiman

Editorial Company: Droptree Productions 
Editor Matt Miadich 
Assistant Editor Connor Martin 
Post Producer: Faryl Kagan

VFX Company: Droptree Productions

Color Company: Pinata Post/ Droptree Productions

Music
Artist: Spencer Bastian

Sound Designers: Spencer Bastian, Connor Martin

Mix
Audio Mixer: Spencer Bastian