The video: Following the success of a quirky viral ad campaign featuring actor Isaiah Mustafa, Old Spice has crowned a new strapping spokesman: Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. In this latest off-the-wall commercial by ad house Wieden + Kennedy (watch below), a lathered-up Lewis explains that he doesn't "play fantasy football." He plays "for-real football," which takes "hard work, a pinch of luck, body muscles, some salt," and, of course, Old Spice "Swagger" body wash. The football star then climbs aboard a rocket-powered raven, flies off into space, and blows up Saturn with a giant laser.
The reaction: Ray Lewis' "powers of seduction don't quite measure up to Mustafa's", says Katla McGlynn in the Huffington Post. But "seeing him saddle up a jet-powered raven and blast off to Saturn is pretty impressive." Yes, although Lewis shouldn't get the credit for that, says Tim Nudd at Adweek. The real star of this ad is the "robotic, jet-powered, laser-blasting space raven." That bird is "fairly epic." Watch the Ray Lewis ad below:
