Here’s a couple of the originals featuring actor Isaiah Mustafa:

Come on now: who can resist tall, dark and handsome? Much less towel-clad, with a sexy baritone voice, 99% muscle, and uses a wildebeest as a loofah to wash his chiseled abs? Isaiah Mustafa plays him well… very well (probably smells damn good too).

The recent, personalized video replies that are currently posted on Old Spice’s YouTube channel are a hit.

It all started just the other day with an Old Spice tweet that stated:
Today could be just like the other 364 days you log into twitter, or maybe the Old Spice man shows up.

I mean, who wouldn’t like the Old Spice Guy replying to one of their posts/tweets/comments, and in real time? I just wonder how many people are going out there and purchasing Old Spice products because of the clever viral marketing and great use of social media?

I must admit that I was (easily) sucked in to watching at least a couple dozen of them before my browser crashed (probably due to The Old Spice Guy’s super manliness). Kudos to the creative marketing and writing team behind this idea. Who would’ve thought that a company that sold after-shave that you would only buy for your 78-year old grandfather for Christmas could turn things around and cater to a younger, tech-savvy generation? The Old Spice brand has delivered a connection with potential consumers on a personal level that was not only effective, but clever, funny, and even used celebrities (e.g. check out the videos for Ellen DeGeneres, Alyssa Milano) as media outlets to get the job done.

Three slow claps for you, Old Spice!

If you haven’t already seen any of the videos in this brilliant advertising campaign, head on over to Old Spice’s YouTube channel. I guarantee you can’t stop at just one. Here are some sample vids:

What would happen if a zeppelin crashed into a bacon factory?

I wish I had Happy Birthday “sung” to me by this guy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I would so say “yes” if I was proposed to this way.

So Old Spice Guy: Is it a possibility that Old Spice will release a line of wonderfully-smelling body products for women in hopes that using it will attract a valiant, tenacious, He-Man-like, manly man like yourself?

After my moldy bagel experience, I headed home from school to get ready to watch my highly anticipated season premieres: Heroes and CSI: Miami.  Of course since I’m away from school and don’t have a PVR I had to flip between the two shows (hoping to fully watch them in their entirty later), mainly focussing on Heroes.  Then I realized that Prison Break was also airing in the same timeslot on Fox, so now I have to catch up on that as well (can you tell I watch too much TV?).

Anyways, the Heroes premiere was pretty good, but it left WAY more questions than answers after such a promising season finale.  Why was Nathan haunted by Linderman’s ‘ghost’?  Why was Mohinder dumb enough to inject himself with that power-inducing stuff (as much as I loved seeing him without his shirt on)? Why is there a chick who looks like Nikki who can freeze people with the force of liquid nitrogen?  Where is the REAL Nikki? What happened to Micah and Monica?  Where in the world is the Haitian?  How is it that Mrs. Petrelli Sylar’s biological mother? Why is Future Peter such a trouble-maker? Why did Hiro open that damn safe?

It was funny when Parkman thought he could read the turtle’s thoughts, and when Sylar commented on Claire’s question about him eating brains.   Can’t wait until next week!

My thoughts? I thought it was okay. They did the original series justice (no pun intended) by keeping a lot of the original events in with a few modifications. Putting a pool of water below events like Joust and Hang Tough, instead of the pads was cool. Too bad I could never go on this show since I can’t swim. I found there was way too much talking though… too many interviews with the contestants (and it seemed there were a lot of commercial breaks)… I wanted to see more action. I liked the new event of Hit and Run… looked kind of fun. The Wall has always been one of my favs though.

The Eliminator seemed a bit long. What’s w/ the fire on water… seems a little dangerous (one of the first contestants hit her head on the fire emitting metal bar). Get rid of the hand-bike already… or at least put it near the beginning when the contestants have more energy. LOL… they all were so exhausted at the end. One female contestant literally just lied down and hung on to the top of the reverse escalator near the end of it, losing her huge lead. I didn’t like the barrel roll thing they had in it either.
Most of the Gladiators seem all right. From the men’s side I like Toa, and on the woman’s side I think Crush and Fury are cool. I wouldn’t want to be caught alone in a dark alley with Hellga though.

Check out a clip from the new series and the original:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Very clever ad from Skittles. I feel like buying a pack right now.

Dammit… just as I was about to give the writers of Ugly Betty kudos for such a good season premiere, they had to ruin it with the revelation of a dream sequence!

If you remember from last season’s finale, Santos (Hilda’s fiancé) was a victim in a convenience store robbery. That show ended with Betty informing Hilda of the news at her son’s school play, and her breaking down in her arms.

Now that left us thinking is he dead?, is he just injured? Why is Justin talking about missing his grandpa who’s in Mexico when his father just supposedly died?!

The anticipation was finally over when I saw Santos waking out of Hilda’s bathroom with bandages around his supposed gunshot wound. Tonight’s episode went on with the happy couple savoring their time together, even though Hilda was very anxious about Santos being out of her sight (lest he get shot again).

Then in the last 5 minutes of the show a nice, bright bedroom with Santos saying his vows to Hilda in her wedding dress was ruined by a cut of Hilda in her darkened bedroom with tears in her eyes. She finally admit to Betty that Santos was gone.

It’s not good to tease an audience like that. I have enough dream sequences with all the soap operas I watch. I didn’t need to see it on one of my favourite prime time shows!

They could’ve kept Santos (played by Kevin Alejandro, who coincidentally had a reoccurring role on one of my favourite soap operas, The Young and the Restless) on the show. It would have been realistic if he survived the gun shot wound, dammit!

On to the other characters. Alexis woke up out of her coma… but she doesn’t realize that she became a she from a he (did you get that?).  Daniel kicked his pill habit, and Betty buried her last reminders of Henry.  Amanda and Marc search for the truth regarding her paternity (the scene with her parents is hilarious!).  And Claire and Wilhelmina clash.

There was a low shot of a man’s feet as he stepped of a bus at the end of the episode.  I thought it was Santos (hey… it could happen!  He could’ve said “F&*% NY!  I’m moving to Woodbridge“, and left the show that way after he got injured from gunshot wounds).  But it was Henry coming back to town.  I’m looking forward to seeing his relationship with Betty grow after the fact that his girlfriend may or may not be pregnant with his baby.

So aside from the little Santos trickery the show did, the season premiere was pretty decent.

Here’s a clip from Las Pasiones de Betty:

Set 4 months after the time when the season finale ended, tonight’s episode of Heroes let faithful viewers piece together the happenings after the citizens of NYC eluded the Peter-the-bomb-threat.

Almost didn’t recognize Nathan with his new bush-man beard. Glad to see hottie Peter is still alive, even though he was trapped in a shipping crate in Ireland for what seems like months.

Poor Hiro… he always seems to get himself into some predicament. He needs to beware of that whole space-time-continuum thing. Kensei not being Japanese is a bit of a twist.

Looks like Claire’s made a new friend, even though he kinda has stalker tenancies with him flying up to her window and ogling her from a distance, then floating off like a feather in the wind.

Nice to see that Matt finally made detective (although he got a divorce) and Mohinder still fighting the good fight. Molly’s dreams are freaking me out though. I wonder what the writers are gonna do with that storyline.

The elders Ms. Petrelli and Mr. Nakamura have a long history behind them. It sucks that it doesn’t look like George Takei is going to be in any more episodes. Maya (Dania Ramierez) is a nice addition to the show. I like the dichotomy in her character as it pertains to her personality and her dark power.

Can’t wait until next week!

I also PVR-ed Journeyman. Looks like a decent show from the previews, but I’m too tired to watch it right now, so maybe tomorrow.

Leave it to me to sleep in the one day that I take off from work in order to see some of the cast from one of my favourites shows.

I was aiming to be down at Yonge-Dundas Square, where the Toronto Heroes World Tour was taking place, by 11am… you know, so I could line up and possibly get a shot of getting an autograph.

As usual, I turned off my alarm clock when it beeped at 9am and went back to sleep. Next thing you know it’s 11:30. I decide to check my email just in case I get any important requests for my graphic design clients, and lo and behold I have 3 separate emails to make corrections. I managed to finish fairly quickly and got downtown a little after 1pm.

Of course by the time I got down there the autograph line-up was closed, but I did manage to see 4 of the cast members up close signing autographs for the fans who DID wake up on time this morning.  On the big screen behind the stage they were showing the unaired 73-minute premiere episode that’s currently available on the Season 1 DVD.

The good thing was that all four cast members came down to the gate and shook hands with all the fans (including myself) who were watching. Damn… Zachary Quinto (Sylar) has a really strong grip, and he has a nice sense of style. He might give Milo Ventimiglia a run for his money on my “hottest male Hero list”. Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah) is sooo adorable (don’t you just wanna pinch his cheeks in that photo?)! Dania Ramierez (Maya) is hot, and James Kyson Lee (Ando) is a cutie who seems to really care about his fans.

So, even though I didn’t get my Season 1 DVD set autographed, I did get some handshakes and got my photo taken at the Global TV-sponsored booth that will be digitally altered to look as if I’m part of the cast poster (I’ll post it when it becomes available next week. ) Click on any of the images at the top of this post to see a larger version.

Tune in September 17th on Fox for the start of the third season. I love me some Wentworth Miller!