Old Spice’s bewildering French ad at the Grammys

In what was a bold move during the Grammys, the P&G brand created a quirky French ad with no subtitles.

Even for the notoriously quirky Procter & Gamble brand, a 60-second spot entirely in French with no subtitles made the plot very cryptic for non-French speakers. What was it all about?

In the commercial, a woman, after sniffing a red-sweatered man holding Captain body wash (part of the brand’s new Red Collection), suddenly becomes distraught and wanders around a picturesque seaside town yelling “Old Spice!” All her friends join her in a desperate chorus, before she finally reconnected with the man in the red sweater and all seems to be well again.

It was a bold move to use a pricey 60-seconder on a major award-show broadcast to tell a story most of your viewing audience wouldn’t understand. But Old Spice was up for the stunt, from agency Wieden + Kennedy, hoping it would generate lots of curiosity and chatter on social media.

It did. But why is Old Spice playing down the ad with subtitles?

Source : http://www.adweek.com/creativity/old-spice-ran-a-baffling-ad-entirely-in-french-on-the-grammys-this-subtitled-version-explains-all/