Dear Dairy Queen and Edge Shave Gel – Stop Ripping Off The Old Spice Guy

Okay, I get it…we all miss the Old Spice YouTube campaign. It was a great example of how a brand can come up with the unique idea and then engage their fans in a way that raises brand awareness and changes perception. Before the campaign, Old Spice had a stigma as an “old man’s aftershave”, but that changed when the brand chose to engage an entirely new audience via Twitter and YouTube. In fact, it’s probably one of the best uses of social media in 2010.

And while imitation is definitely the sincerest form of flattery, the recent attempts by Dairy Queen and Edge Shaving Gel to leverage the success of the Old Spice format, they just come off being desperate and lame.

Dairy Queen’s spokesperson is a guy with a guitar that plays dolphin sounds. It doesn’t come off as unique, innovative, or funny. Instead, it comes off as awkward and a little bit creepy.

Edge Gel’s ripoff is even more blatant, with their spokesperson moving from room to room and different events occurring. Again, an awkward, blatant ripoff of the Old Spice guy. Maybe Old Spice should respond?

The big letdown, here, is that Edge did a great job with their Edge Shave Zone Twitter campaign, so this copycat approach is disappointing. DQ and Edge need to seriously question their advertising partners’ understanding of social media and whether a viral campaign can ever be replicated.  Next think we know, they’ll be tweeting and setting up a YouTube channel.

I’d be interested to hear thoughts on whether viral campaigns are usually “one and done” or whether they can be replicated in-part or in-whole by other brands. Feel free to leave thought/feedback in a comment.