June 24, 2013

Isaiah Mustafa

American actor Isaiah Mustafa is back on the local advertising circuit with an Old Spice commercial for the Israeli manly man.

Best known for his role in the award-winning 2010 Old Spice television commercial series, Mustafa was called upon to perform his Old Spice Guy routine for the Israeli audience. The ad is called “Israeli Men” and Mustafa’s hilarious lines on what makes a stereotypical gever-gever (manly man) have locals chuckling on social media sites.

With a towel wrapped around his waist, Mustafa speaks in Hebrew slang and says to the camera in a pokerfaced manner: “Israeli men … eat manly foods like shwarma, matboucha and gefilte fish. They play manly games like sheshbesh [backgammon], matkot [paddleball] and Taki [a kids’ card game].”

The commercial pokes fun throughout and is a great low-tech takeoff of its original American inspiration.

Of course, Mustafa is not new to Israeli ad campaigns. Earlier this year, he starred in a wacky online Maccabee beer ad that spoofed melodramatic Hollywood disaster movies.

Dressed as the president of the USA, Mustafa gives a serious-sounding talk about taste. The message, of course, is that Maccabee beer – not a highly regarded brand – is actually “tasty tasty.”

The video launched in April 2013 and two months later already surpassed the one million views mark.

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