You’re watching TV, scrolling through YouTube, or catching a pre-roll you didn’t skip fast enough — and there he is. Confident. Direct. Talking to you like you’ve met before. One of those Old Spice guys.
But which one? Is that the original dude? A new guy? Didn’t they swap someone out at some point?
If you’ve been asking any version of that question, this article is written for you. We’re going to cover who the current Old Spice spokesperson is, who the “new” guy is and when he showed up, why the brand keeps fielding this question, and what makes these commercials stick in your brain years after you saw them.
First, a Quick Answer for Anyone in a Hurry
The main guy in Old Spice commercials right now — and honestly for the past 15 years — is Isaiah Mustafa. He’s the one who started it all in 2010 with “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” and he’s still actively appearing in new spots as of 2025 and 2026.
The “new” guy most people are thinking of is Keith Powers, an actor who joined the brand in 2020 as part of a campaign that literally played on the old-versus-new dynamic.
Beyond those two, Old Spice has always kept things weird in the best possible way — pulling in other faces, testing formats, and keeping the whole thing unpredictable. But Mustafa is the anchor. Has been for a long time. Probably will be for a while longer.
Now, the longer version.
Isaiah Mustafa: How One Commercial Changed Everything
Before Old Spice, Isaiah Mustafa was a former NFL wide receiver trying to break into acting. He’d had brief stints on practice squads — the Seattle Seahawks, the Tennessee Titans, the Jacksonville Jaguars — without ever playing a regular-season game. Hollywood was the next chapter, but it wasn’t moving fast.
Then in February 2010, Wieden+Kennedy released a 33-second commercial that changed the trajectory of his career and, honestly, of advertising itself.
The setup was absurd on paper. A shirtless man in a towel standing in a bathroom. One continuous shot. Rapid-fire scene transitions happening in real time. The man talking directly to the camera — specifically, talking to women about their men. “Hello, ladies. Look at your man. Now back to me.”
It sounds like it shouldn’t work. It absolutely worked.
Within the first week, the ad had millions of views on YouTube. Within months, Old Spice had become the most-talked-about personal care brand online. Mustafa did a follow-up series of personalized video responses directly to Twitter users, celebrities, and other brands. It was chaotic and brilliant.
The campaign won the Grand Prix at Cannes. It got studied in marketing classes. It got parodied by everyone. And Mustafa — calm, confident, effortlessly funny — became one of the most recognized faces in American advertising virtually overnight.
What Makes the Old Spice Ad Style So Recognizable?
There’s a specific formula running through Old Spice’s best work, and once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
Direct address. The spokesperson looks straight into the camera and talks to you personally. Not at a scene. Not at another character. At you. It creates this strange intimacy for a deodorant commercial.
Controlled absurdism. The settings shift. The logic breaks down. Things happen that physically shouldn’t be possible. But the person delivering the lines never blinks — they treat the absurdity like it’s completely normal, which makes it funnier.
Rapid pacing. There’s no room to breathe. The sentences stack fast, the transitions hit hard, and by the time you realize what you just watched, it’s already over.
A confident protagonist who’s clearly in on the joke. This is the most important part. The humor works because the spokesperson isn’t trying to be cool — he simply is cool, in the most ridiculous possible circumstances.
Isaiah Mustafa perfected this format. Everything else in Old Spice’s lineup has been a variation on what he built.
Keith Powers: The “New” Old Spice Guy
In 2020, Old Spice introduced Keith Powers as a new face in the lineup, specifically for their Ultra Smooth product campaign.
Powers is a Los Angeles-born actor best known for playing Ronnie DeVoe in BET’s The New Edition Story and for a role in Straight Outta Compton. He’s younger, brings a different energy, and was positioned — both literally and conceptually in the campaign — as the newer generation alongside Mustafa’s established legacy.
The 2020 campaign leaned directly into the tension between old and new. Mustafa represented the iconic, legacy Old Spice energy. Powers represented the updated, smoother version. It was on the nose in a way that felt intentional and playful rather than clunky.
If you’ve seen a commercial where two guys play off each other — one clearly the veteran, one clearly the newcomer — that’s the Mustafa/Powers pairing. Powers connected with a younger audience that maybe hadn’t grown up with the 2010 originals. He gave the brand a way to hold onto existing fans while speaking to a new generation simultaneously.
Other People Who’ve Appeared in Old Spice Campaigns
Old Spice has always been willing to experiment. Over the years, a few other names entered the mix.
Terry Crews ran his own parallel Old Spice campaign starting around 2010, with a completely different energy from Mustafa — loud, explosive, physically extreme. Where Mustafa was cool and smooth, Crews was a force of nature. Both worked, they just worked differently. Crews’ spots became iconic in their own right, particularly the ones where he yelled his way through physical comedy that nobody else could have pulled off.
Dolph Lundgren appeared in a 2022 campaign via deepfake — yes, an AI-generated version of Rocky IV‘s Ivan Drago, showing up in a deodorant commercial. Strange choice. Fit perfectly.
That willingness to get weird is part of what keeps Old Spice in the conversation. Other brands get conservative when they find something that works. Old Spice keeps pushing.
Why Does Everyone Keep Searching “Who Is the New Old Spice Guy?”
A few reasons.
One is that the commercials are actually memorable — memorable enough that you want to know who’s in them. That’s rarer than it sounds. Most ads are background noise. Old Spice ads make you stop.
Another is that the brand has kept things fresh. They’re not still airing the same 2010 commercial. New spots get made, new people show up, and the question gets asked again with each new cycle.
There’s also genuine confusion between Mustafa and Powers for people who aren’t following the brand closely. They share the same confident, direct-to-camera energy. If you haven’t tracked the transition, it’s easy to wonder whether someone was replaced or if the brand now has two spokespeople running in parallel.
The answer: both, kind of. Mustafa is still the primary face. Powers came in as an addition, not a replacement. As of 2025–2026, both have appeared in campaigns, and the brand treats that contrast as a feature.
FAQ
Who is the original Old Spice guy? Isaiah Mustafa. He launched the modern Old Spice campaign in February 2010 with “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” and has remained the face of the brand ever since.
Who is the new guy in the Old Spice commercial? Most likely Keith Powers. He joined the brand in 2020 alongside Mustafa for the Ultra Smooth campaign. If you’re seeing a younger guy in recent spots with that same confident, direct energy — that’s him.
Is Isaiah Mustafa still doing Old Spice commercials? Yes. As of 2025 and 2026, Mustafa is still actively appearing in new campaigns. Fifteen years with one brand is an extraordinary run for any advertising relationship, and he’s still going.
What did Isaiah Mustafa do before Old Spice? He played wide receiver in the NFL on practice squads for the Seahawks, Titans, and Jaguars, but never appeared in a regular-season game. He pursued acting after football, and Old Spice made him recognizable almost immediately.
Was Terry Crews the Old Spice guy too? Yes. Terry Crews ran his own Old Spice campaign around the same era as Mustafa but with completely different energy — explosive and physical where Mustafa was smooth and cool. Both campaigns became iconic. They were separate, not the same.
What’s the style of Old Spice commercials called? No official name for it, but the format is distinctive: a continuous take (or the impression of one), rapid scene transitions, a confident spokesperson speaking directly to camera, and surrealist humor delivered completely straight. It was innovative in 2010 and still instantly recognizable today.
Who appeared in Old Spice commercials in 2022? Old Spice used a deepfake of Dolph Lundgren — yes, the Rocky IV villain — in a 2022 campaign. Notable for the technology, notable for the sheer oddness of the choice, and very on-brand.
Where can I watch Old Spice commercials? Old Spice’s official YouTube channel carries most of the major campaigns going back to 2010. Genuinely worth the rabbit hole.
The Bottom Line
Isaiah Mustafa built one of the most durable advertising personas in recent memory — a former practice-squad wide receiver who never played an NFL regular-season game, turned into the face of a brand for 15 years and counting. Keith Powers brought younger energy in 2020 and has stayed in the rotation since.
What ties them together — and what ties all of Old Spice’s best work together — is tone. Confident without being obnoxious. Absurd without losing the thread. Direct in a way that actually makes you pay attention.
Whoever shows up next in one of those commercials, talking straight to camera while something impossible happens behind them, will be doing the same thing Mustafa started in 2010.
And you’ll probably Google them too.