Old Spice Guy

There are only a handful of commercials that feature memorable characters. There's the Geico gecko, the Aflac duck and the Energizer bunny. Yet they all have one thing in common — all of them are toy animals.

Recently, television commercials have started using memorable human characters, such as Isaiah Mustafa.

Isaiah Mustafa is the "Old Spice Guy," best known for his commercial "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like." It's a quick, eye-catching commercial with a monologue about how manly a man is if he uses Old Spice. It has been propelled by YouTube and even garnered an Emmy for the advertising firm that came up with the idea. 

In the case of Mustafa, he is an ex-football player who turned to acting and made a name for himself by becoming the Old Spice Guy. The real turnaround came when he started responding to fans questions via Facebook and Twitter. That, in conjunction with YouTube, has made him a cultural phenomenon.

So why do we care about people like Mustafa? What makes him so interesting?  After all, he's just another guy in a commercial on TV. There lies the interest. He's a real human being (not a computerized animal) on TV that we see on a regular basis. He's become like an old friend that we can recognize and respond to with the click of a button.

The legion of real people on TV who represent various companies is growing. There's Flo from Progressive, The Fiber One guy and The Free Credit Report band, just to name a few. They are propelled to stardom through these commercials and go on to act in other things. For example, Mustafa was just cast in the upcoming film Horrible Bosses, starring Jennifer Aniston.

The commercial is just the beginning for these personalities; they may turn out to be as big as Drew Barrymore or as sad and lonely as Kathy Griffin . The only thing we know for sure is they will be back with another great commercial that has you wanting to try whatever they are selling.