The archive · Content & Film · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
Old Spice's 'Aidakhar' makes smelling good the coolest way to be a Kazakh man
Old Spice's satirical music video with Irina Kairatovna went viral — 80M+ views in three months, 125% sales lift, and Kazakhstan's first Spikes Grand Prix.
Old Spice (Procter & Gamble)
What it had to solve
In Kazakhstan, conventional masculinity prizes boxing skills, wealth and connections to win elders' approval, while caring about how you smell is seen as unmanly — many men do not even shower regularly. Almost no influencer or artist dares to mock these values, so Old Spice needed a voice that could break the taboo.
How it works
In Kazakhstan, conventional masculinity prizes boxing skills, wealth and important connections to win the approval of elders — while caring about how you smell is seen as unmanly, and many men do not even shower regularly. These values are imposed by society and hard for young men to change, yet almost no influencer or artist dares to mock them. Old Spice wanted to sell shower gel and needed a voice that could break the taboo.
Old Spice and agency NOTO collaborated with Irina Kairatovna, Kazakhstan's most influential music group and its trendsetter, on the satirical music video 'Aidakhar'. Its hero Beka rolls into a village on a bathtub and shows the men how to be cool: he helps an old lady, graduates with high marks, turns down a fight and smells great — with the Old Spice product woven organically into the plot. Director Malik Zenger had already created the duo's viral 2023 predecessor 'China'.
Released June 2024, the video gained more than 80 million views in under three months and entered YouTube's top-20 trending music videos worldwide. By November 2024 it had 166 million views and had ranked #12 among the world's best music videos in August 2024, while the track became Kazakhstan's most-streamed song. Fans produced more than 2.7 million UGC parodies about modern masculinity; per WARC, views passed 200 million with 5 million UGC videos and Old Spice shower-gel sales rose 125%.
At Spikes Asia 2025 the campaign won the Music: Influencer & Co-creation Grand Prix — the first Grand Prix ever for Kazakhstan and Central Asia — plus two Bronzes in Entertainment and Creative Strategy. It is now cited across the region as proof that organic product placement inside genuinely loved local culture outperforms advertising that interrupts.
Why it lands
- It used the culture's own beloved humor: Irina Kairatovna could mock toxic masculinity because the audience already laughs with the group, not at the brand.
- The product was placed inside the story rather than around it — Beka's fresh scent drives the plot, so the ad is the entertainment.
- It turned the debate into participation: 2.7M+ fans made their own parodies, multiplying the campaign beyond paid media.
- Challenging a real social norm — 'smelling nice is unmanly' — gave the brand a reason to exist in the conversation, not just airtime.
What it did
The video drew 80M+ views within three months and entered YouTube's top-20 trending music videos worldwide; by November 2024 it had 166M views and ranked #12 among the world's most-watched clips in August 2024. Fans made 2.7M UGC parodies; WARC reports 200M+ views, 5M UGC videos and a 125% sales lift for Old Spice shower gel. In April 2025 it won the Spikes Asia Music Grand Prix — Kazakhstan's first — plus two Bronzes.
What you can take
Challenge a taboo with the culture's own most-loved humor: hand the brand to the artist the audience already trusts, put the product inside the story, and let the idea travel as entertainment.
Since then
Aidakhar ran through 2024–2025: the track topped Kazakh streaming charts, views passed 200 million per WARC, and Old Spice reported record-high sales as the campaign reset what 'cool' means for young Kazakh men. It was the sequel to Irina Kairatovna's 2023 'China' video for the same brand, which had already passed 140 million views, and it made the band-and-brand music video a repeatable format in Central Asia. At Spikes Asia 2025 it delivered Kazakhstan's first-ever Grand Prix.
Sources
- OLD SPICE BEKA — Creative Strategy entry, Jolbors Festival Awards 2024
- «Айдахар» набрал 166 миллионов просмотров
- 老香料：Aidakhar
- Казахстан впервые завоевал Гран-при на Spikes Asia
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