The wildly popular Old Spice Man ad campaign is proving that boomers aren't the only ones reinventing themselves.
Like Old Spice, other brands that boomers grew up with also are retooling themselves with new products, new looks and marketing campaigns on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to appeal to a younger, hipper demographic.
Here are some other brands that have already shown old dogs can learn new tricks:
- Cadillac. When General Motors' Cadillac division rolled out the Escalade in 1999, it went from your grandfather's car company to a hip-hop status symbol faster than you can say Flavor Flav. With its "chromed-out nose" and other opulent virtues extolled in songs like Big Tymers' "Still Fly," the Escalade rolled into urban and suburban driveways.
- Top-Sider. Deck shoes were the epitome of coastal cool in the Gordon Gecko 80s, just the right accessory for Levis and candy-colored Izods. This spring, the nautical-inspired shoes returned to fashion magazines such as InStyle and People StyleWatch, which showed them in bold colors like orchid and raspberry. P.S. Levis and Izods are back, too.
- Clairol. First famous in the 1950s for its revolutionary home hair color formula and "Does she or doesn't she?" ad slogan, Clairol was reborn in the late 1990s as maker of the organic Herbal Essence shampoo line, which continues to capitalize on the popularity of plant-based products.
- Bonne Bell. No self-respecting teenage girl of the mid-1970s left home without a Lip Smacker lip gloss in her jeans pocket, maybe the original strawberry or one flavored with Dr. Pepper or Coke. After years of relative obscurity, the family-owned Ohio company is back making deals for its rebranded Smackers line. Partnerships with au courant brands such as Vitamin Water and Paul Frank Industries--of Julius the monkey fame--could once again see the balms on the lips of teens and tweens everywhere.
- Pabst Blue Ribbon. All it took to update the image of this once-blue-collar beer was shortening the name to "PBR." Who knows what else is in store now that its parent, Pabst Brewing Co., has been sold to investor C. Dean Metropoulos, known for revitalizing brands such as Chef Boyardee, Duncan Hines, Vlasic and Bumble Bee Tuna.
- Westinghouse. The brand's avocado green and harvest gold appliances were staples of American kitchens in the 1970s. Now, the distinctive W logo could grace another part of the house--the roof. Earlier this summer, CBS, which merged with Westinghouse in the 1990s, struck a licensing agreement with a manufacturer of solar panels to sell them under the Westinghouse Solar label.
Catalogs like Vermont Country Store and Wireless are chock full of boomer brands. Vermont Country Store devotes an entire section to Brands from the Past with products such as Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific and Beemans Chewing Gum, a pack of which my grandfather was never without.
Other beloved brands have become the Norma Desmonds of their generation, largely forgotten but still alive and waiting for their chance at a comeback.
For a further walk down consumer memory lane, here's a list of 17 favorite boomer brands that CNBC compiled last spring for a Tom Brokaw special on the boomer generation.
What favorite boomer brands would you like to see brought back again?