Everytime you mention Old Spice, you lose.

At last week’s Future Summit, P&G’s André Convents (Section Head Connect & Develop) had a pretty interesting presentation on the company’s efforts on consumer connect. He explained how P&G used co-creation and a central brand purpose to actually make a difference in people’s lives. How Arial’s BHAG is to have 70% of all laundry done in cold water by 2020. How Pampers is trying to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus by 2012.
As the last piece of evidence he used Old Spice’s ‘The man your man could smell like’, his ultimate proof that P&G actually ‘gets’ consumers and social media. And he even used *that* slide showing that Old Spice had more viral views than Obama’s inaugural speech in the first week.

He shouldn’t have. Seriously.

I loved the Pampers and Arial cases. I love the way P&G prefers acts over ads. I love their dedication to CSR. I totally believe that a purpose beats a plan every day of the week. And they have plenty of proof they are connecting with consumers.
But ‘The man your man could smell like’ isn’t proof that the mother company of Old Spice (P&G) understands social media or consumers. ‘The man your man could smell like’ isn’t even proof Old Spice gets social media. It is a (brilliant) campaign, no sustainable effort to connect to consumers.

So, inspired by yet another social media expert that uses Old Spice as a best practice, here are some simple new rules:

Everytime you mention Dell Hell, you lose.
Everytime you mention the Kryptonite case, you lose.
Everytime you mention Old Spice, you lose.
Everytime you mention Barack Obama, you lose.
Everytime you mention Zappos, you lose.

I am considering adding Volkswagen Fun Theory as well.

Any case I missed?