Notes and Meditations

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In keeping with the Hollywood tradition of legacy ruining, John Hughes is planning to release a sequel to Pretty In Pink. It'll show us all how much the characters we adored as teenagers suck as adults.

I'm not expecting much as maybe you can tell.

Years ago, I read this book where P.J. O'Rourke wrote something like "There are only two kinds of men who wear cologne, those who wear Old Spice, and those who will."

It's happened to me. I ran out of my regular stuff last week. I had been planning to make the switch for months. I eagerly watched the level of my standard scent descend with in its swanky glass bottle.

"When it's gone", I told myself, "I'm going to jump ship." Perhaps it would have been more accurate, given the OS packaging, had I said "I'll be climbing aboard the sailing vessel of aromatic American masculinity."

I bought my first bottle last night. Who needs to mess with going to the mall and sniffing for hours samples of the newest colognes from those effete little cards when you can just grab your signature scent at the grocery store along with your bannanas and paper napkins.

It smells OK. I'm afraid I may have been a sucker for the marketing though. I'm drawn to its quaintness, its place in the pantheon of Americana. But, maybe those facts say as much about my personality as the scent I wear.

It's strange that though most people can identify an OS bottle, I don't think many would recognize the smell of it. It'll be a while, I bet, before someone stops me and says, "Isn't that Old Spice your wearing?" I expect instead to get lots of queries about what that exotic and intoxicating odor I'm exuding is. "Something new from Ralph Lauren? Maybe Calvin Klein?"

"Nope, I'll say proudly. That's Old Spice. If you want your own you can get it on the toothpaste aisle."

Click here for lots of info on the history of OS and its distinctive packaging.

Update: Look at the OS site and see their dissapointing attempt to repackage their product for the Maxim crowd. Doing so is a mistake. Instead they should be playing up the nostalgia aspect. The market segment that wants to identify with the safety and comfort of the past is always going to be larger than that part who wants to smell like a grubby race car driver.