By Norrel Hemphill
Special to The State News
It was hard to miss the three men walking around in white Old Spice bathrobes, camera crew in tow, during Saturday's tailgating festivities at the tennis courts.
Representatives from Old Spice were filming a commercial with three MSU students as leads in search of America's Cleanest Comic. Tailgaters served as extras.
The commercial is part of a nationwide comic contest in which the winner will be sent on an all-expense paid trip for two to Las Vegas.
Viewers will be able to vote for their favorite commercial online once they begin airing.
"College kids are a great market," finance senior Paul Michon said. "That was a good idea on their part."
Tailgaters were chosen as extras either by approaching producers or catching the eye of the crew. All extras had to sign a release form to be part of the filming.
In one scene, a crowd of tailgaters yelled, "Go Green," and the comedian responded by yelling, "Go Spice."
In another scene, three girls with the Spartan "S" on the backs of their shirts stood in a line with one of the comedians, journalism junior Erik Adams. Adams stood at the end of the line in his robe with Old Spice on the back. The cameraman panned down the line of Spartan "S"s and ended on the Old Spice robe.
The shower scene, which has yet to be filmed because of a missing part crucial to operating the shower, will be the main focus of the commercial. The comedians will lather up while delivering their best clean joke - jokes without profanity or sexual connotations.
Open auditions for the commercial were held last week in the International Center. Adams, 2000 graduate Brandon Bautista and general management sophomore Andrew Valitutti were chosen as the comedic leads.
"They just walked up to me and asked if I wanted to be in a commercial, and I said, 'Yeah,'" Valitutti said.
There were no set boundaries for the commercial. Comedians had no script - the only rule was to be funny.
MSU was selected for the commercial because of past interactions with the company, said Emily Shanoff, manager of programming and development with TeamWorks Media, who produced the commercial.
The commercial, which will begin airing Oct. 22 on ESPN, will feature comedians from 17 colleges across the country. MSU was the only college selected in Michigan, Shanoff said.
This will be the third year that a commercial of this sort has been done. Last year's commercials were presidential election spoofs. This year's commercial idea promotes Old Spice High Endurance Body Wash, Shanoff said.
"My father used Old Spice, so I loved (the commercial shoot)," said Marcia Bell, a 1978 graduate. "I have fond memories of it."
Not everyone was in agreement with the shooting of a commercial on campus.
Jeff Bazzi, a mechanical engineering senior, said he was trying "to be a voice for campus" and was against the commercial.
"Corporations should not invade our campus," Bazzi said.
The three comedians also were interviewed for "On Demand with Comcast Digital Cable," where extra footage and bloopers will be shown.
Students will be able to vote for their favorite America's Cleanest Comic in late October at www.oldspice.com.
