Tricia Romano profiles the post-racial sex appeal of the Old Spice Guy:
Interestingly, Old Spice had another black spokesman before [ex-wide receiver Isaiah] Mustafa: Terry Crews. The hyperactive ad series featured the ex-NFL linebacker topless and yelling in an intense (and funny) way. Chideya says of Crews: "He's not as handsome as Isaiah, but he's also really funny in a way that's more within the black vernacular." Of Mustafa, she says, "This guy is no doubt black, but he's someone who is the modern, urbane, living-in-a-post-racial-Fort Greene kind of a guy."
While Obama braves the fast-moving political tide (we love him, we are irritated and disappointed with him, we loathe him, we love him again), here is this other stunningly handsome, funny black man on our TV, transcending color lines, withit should be noteda Muslim name.
The gays love him too:
He's not “hot for a black guy,” he’s just hot. He's hot enough to make celebrity lesbian Ellen DeGeneres giggle like a school girl when he visited her set, causing her to beg him to recite his Old Spice lines. Ellen isn’t alonegay men love the Old Spice Man, as much as straight women apparently do. An AfterElton.com staffer picked Mustafa as one of his 10 hottest men, writing, that Mustafa "almost makes me want to buy some Old Spice. Almost."
Joe Berkowitz chronicles Mustafa's rise after watching all 180 of his spin-off ads. Mashable rounds up the ten funniest. The actor has already signed a talent deal with NBC, so a sitcom could be in the works.