"You could see it in their faces," he said. "It was kind of like that Old Spice ad where the guy smacked himself on the cheeks and said, 'Wow, that feels good!' It was like they smacked themselves on the cheeks and said, 'You are a member of Congress and now you can start doing things. Wow, that feels good!' " —Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, March 23, 2010

White House aides know healthcare, not ad campaigns—at least not for packaged goods. The self-motivating slap attributed in Maureen Dowd's Tuesday column to Old Spice actually belongs to Mennen's Skin Bracer campaign from Case & Krone (a forerunner of Jordan, McGrath, Case & Taylor) in early '70s. You would think either Dowd or President Obama's aide might also have recalled the actual famous tagline: "Thanks, I needed that." I don't think there was a major healthcare initiative during that President Nixon's first term. But the slap is clearly remembered, if misattributed, at the White House almost 40 years later. A cold slap in the face, perhaps, to the Democratically controlled Congress of that era.

—Posted by Jim English