Dollar Shave Club is reinforcing its disruptor mindset for the launch of a new line of women’s razors and shave products. The move, accompanied by a marketing campaign that includes both a traditional filmed video and a more whimsical AI-produced ad, is meant to help it gain share in an industry estimated to be worth $1.8 billion, per Numerator data shared by the brand.
A national ad campaign includes two 30-second ads. A traditionally filmed spot sees a spokesperson take aim at competitors who have sold women’s razors with “slippery handles and dull blades wrapped in pastels and glitter.” An artificial intelligence-driven spot animates women’s bath products as “Clean Girls” that are trashed in favor of the new Dollar Shave Club offerings.
“It's the anti-Venus, anti-Billie, anti-Flamingo,” CEO Larry Bodner said of the new line, calling out competitors owned by Procter & Gamble, Edgewell and Mammoth Brands, respectively. “It's no B.S… We're gonna give you what you always wanted. And by the way, we know a lot of you use [the men’s product], and now this one's geared for you.”
Along with a six-blade razor with a no-slip, wavy grip handle, Dollar Shave Club’s line of women’s shaving products includes scrubs, balms, oils and butters — without the “pink, sparkly, frilly” stuff that often defines the category, Bodner said. The launch follows a recent campaign by Billie that imagined a surreal, playful world where women’s grooming products are crafted.
The campaign beings rolling out today, April 6, across connected TV, YouTube, Spotify, podcasts and owned digital channels. The effort is from Dollar Shave Club’s internal creative team with a crew including director Diane Villadsen and producers Annabelle Casanova and Sage Price.
No B.S. but more AI
For the campaign, Dollar Shave Club is embracing both its traditional marketing tone and a new approach that toys with AI-generated creative. The traditionally filmed ad mimics the direct-to-camera approach of Dollar Shave Club’s groundbreaking debut ad, while the other spot follows a December campaign that took shots at legacy razor brands with AI-generated absurdity. The company will test which performs better in which channels.
“My intuition is [the AI spot] will do better on TikTok with Gen Z, so I think we'll heavy up in that channel. The traditional one [we’ll do] a little bit of a heavier dose in Meta and Google,” Bodner predicted. “They’ll make real-time adjustments based on what we see in terms of the level of effectiveness.”
Both ads fit Dollar Shave Club’s irreverent brand voice, with the filmed ad featuring a wall of boxes containing a “pink bullshit special” and the AI-generated ad seeing a sparkly razor thrown into a trash can alongside “AI videos with Sora,” a nod to OpenAI’s recently scrapped video generator.
The campaign follows a January effort for the men’s line that ran across CTV, social and targeted digital properties after being rejected as a possible Super Bowl spot due to its use of profanity.
“We just call it the way we see it. Let's keep it straightforward, and then we go through with a strong, feminine voice and character,” Bodner said of the new campaign. “We're not going for that perfect, skinny model; we're going for real people that just want a great shave and then they want the other products with it at a great price.”
