One of the most recognisable and successful US ad campaigns – for Old Spice – features a guy with a towel wrapped round his waist stepping out of the shower with a bottle of body wash (you know the one ladies ?). Now, Papa John’s have reinvented the famous ad for their new spicy pizza flavours.

“Hello ladies,” he says to us. “Look at your man. Now back to me. Now back at your man. Now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me. But if he stopped using lady-scented body wash and switched to Old Spice, he could smell like he’s me.”

This is actor and former pro football player Isaiah Mustafa, exhorting guys to swap their girlie smelling body wash for Old Spice so they can “smell like a man, man.” Later we see him on a white stallion and shirtless. “I’m on a horse,” he tells us enigmatically.

Which brings us to the pizza connection.

It’s all in the word ‘spice’. Papa John’s pizza have spoofed those famous Old Spice ads to launch their new range of spicy pizzas. Only instead of Isaiah and his Old Spice body wash, we have Love Island winner Luke Trotman launching the pizza campaign to his 1.5m Instagram followers.

As the ‘New Spice Guy’ in a tongue-in-cheek approach that loosely parodies the Old Spice campaign, we see Luke on a very minimal set. There’s a manky looking pizza on a plinth beside him. “Hello ladies,” he says. “Hello gentlemen. Look at your pizza. Now look at this. (The manky pizza) “Woah!” he says. “That spice is old. Time to turn up the heat.”

Papa John’s tongue in cheek reinvention of this old classic has been brought into the modern era by using an ‘Instagram Famous’ reality star, tapping into Luke’s connections and fans to promote their new range of pizzas to their target demographic – with a little bit of humour thrown in for good measure of course.

After a few important messages about the meat or veggie options, we then see Luke, cocktail in one hand, pizza in the other, seated not on a white stallion but a dopey looking fake camel. Luke bites into the pizza. ‘Spicy’ says the caption.

Marketing Director at Papa John’s, Giles Codd, said: “From the long-awaited return of our Bee Sting pizza to the new Chilli Freak, we’ve really hiked up the heat this summer and we can’t wait for our customers to try these new flavours!

“With everything that’s going on in the world right now we wanted to add some light-hearted, make you smile moments to the launch and we’re sure this will do just that.”

It just goes to show sometimes an oldie but a goldie is exactly what you need.

Get in touch with the team to inject some creativity into your campaigns.