Dive Brief:
- Dollar Shave Club is again taking shots at legacy razor brands, this time with the aid of generative artificial intelligence, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
- A new 60-second spot shows the boardroom of a fictional rival, Razor Corp, as leadership scrambles to cut costs in the wake of Dollar Shave Club introducing its “best razor ever.” Ideas for boosting efficiency, such as selling a private jet and getting rid of an in-office DJ, are shot down before the CEO suggests replacing employees with AI.
- “We Put Our Money Where It Matters” was developed with Too Short For Modeling, a creative boutique led by comedians Noam Sharon and Tal Rosenthal. It follows Dollar Shave Club launching its largest product and campaign to date earlier this year.
Dive Insight:
Dollar Shave Club, a pioneer in the direct-to-consumer space, is extending its mission of taking down “corporate B.S.” in the razor category with an ad that heavily relies on generative AI but also makes technology the butt of the joke. The brand and partner Too Short for Modeling leveraged AI to animate complex visuals, like a towering skyscraper shaped like a razor and “animal testing” that shows a gorilla shaving, while keeping to a development timeline of just a few weeks.
“We Put Our Money Where It Matters” is meant to shore up a positioning around irreverence while needling legacy CPG rivals that Dollar Shave Club has long painted as stodgy. Dollar Shave Club first gained notice in the early 2010s with edgy viral ads that were made on the cheap and slammed competitors like Gillette, an approach it is now trying to adapt for the AI era. Its latest campaign arrives as consumers continue to express divided feelings toward AI-generated creative.
McDonald’s Netherlands earlier this week pulled an online video that used AI to illustrate holiday stresses following intense backlash, Ad Age reported. Coke’s AI-fueled seasonal campaigns also continue to spark heated discussion, with critics seeing the soft drink marketer’s execution as lacking human warmth that once felt like a holiday signature. Vodka maker Svedka in February will further test viewer appetites for generative AI with a Super Bowl commercial mostly made with the technology.
Dollar Shave Club is providing itself a bit of cover by having the punchline of its spot be that the tone-deaf CEO of Razor Corp sees AI replacing humans as the most cost-efficient move for his flailing company versus more practical decisions like ditching a private jet. The brand is striving for the effort to be “meme-worthy,” arguing that capturing attention is of chief importance in the current consumer environment.
Dollar Shave Club has been stepping up its marketing this year to cut through a crowded category where it is not only fending off traditional razor marketers like Gillette and Schick, but a fleet of fellow DTC disruptors. The brand in September launched its largest campaign to date to promote two new razor offerings. Counter to the AI concept, that effort focused on real Dollar Shave Club members, who were brought together to form the Order of the Blade, an atypical take on an in-house agency. The group of 23 customers met to workshop ideas that manifested in real billboards and TV commercials.
The history of Dollar Shave Club maps to the ups-and-downs DTC brands have experienced over the past decade-plus. After a quick rise fueled by the early e-commerce and subscription booms, Dollar Shave Club was acquired by CPG giant Unilever for $1 billion in 2016. The deal at the time was seen as a potential sea change moment for legacy CPGs, but Unilever sold the grooming brand to private equity in 2023.
