Earlier today on Twitter, I said:

The @oldspice copywriters deserve every prize on the shelf they’ll build with their bare hands after exploding Cannes with sheer brilliance.about 4 hours ago via Tweetie for Mac

The guys behind the new Old Spice commercials showed a good understanding of social media before when they spread their ads virally online, but yesterday they pretty much won the game. Getting Isaiah Mustafa to come back into the studio with nothing but his bare chest and a towel, they started producing video responses to fans on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube. Over a hundred personalized responses in all. Some were replies to counter-replies, so we can see that these were being written/performed on the fly to some degree. It is a very high standard to be achieving on the fly, both as writing and performance.

Online engagement doesn’t get any better than this – rewarding content that viewers happily seek out and interact with, even celebrities like @aplusk, @guykawasaki, @rosemcgowan, and @alyssa_milano. He wore a tie when responding to @GQ, gave himself a trophy on HollywoodLife.com’s advice, and even helped someone propose to his girlfriend with wheeled-out candles and a ring. She said Yes.

Here’s the latest TV ad for context: