Time for another installment of our Great Challenges in Advertising series. Today, we discuss how you attract a young, hip audience to a product that is so old that, well, it has Old in its name. 

When Old Spice was a brand-new product, World War II was still several years off, and your grandfather, or your great-grandfather, slathered it on his face after shaving. So the question, according to the advertising guy who took the challenge, was “How do you turn old into experienced?”

So, they went for a racy new line of ads. One features a picture of a foot-long hotdog.  Another, and I’m not making this up, shows actress Faye Dunaway lounging by a fire with the caption, “If your grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist.”  

Eeeeeeeew, too much information!  Next, are you gonna tell me if Grandpa and Grandma hadn’t consumed a case of Schlitz beer one night, I wouldn’t exist?  Paul Thomasch and Jessica Wohl report:  

Faye Dunaway arrives at the premiere of the film ‘The Fountain’ at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, November 12, 2006. REUTERS/Jason Redmond