Dollar Shave Club Takes On Perfectionism With an Ice Bath, a Shake Weight, and a Six-Finger Gag

Dollar Shave Club has spent the last few years rediscovering its irreverent voice, and its newest campaign picks a fresh target: the pursuit of perfection. "Perfectly Good Is Perfect" launched October 20 with a 30-second hero film that opens on a spokesperson surrounded by self-optimization props, including an ice bath, a Shake Weight, a green smoothie, and an infrared mask, a lineup that winks at the looksmaxxing trend.

The spokesperson then strolls through a bathroom set to show off a razor lineup built for different shaving needs. Chief Brand and Innovation Officer Laura Higgins said recent campaigns have centered on individual products, including AI-powered work around America's 250th anniversary and the viral Ball Spray, and this idea is meant to tie them together. It runs across connected TV, YouTube, Meta, and TikTok, with stunts like a "Red-ish Carpet" effort that gave regular people celebrity-style interviews in "perfectly good" cities including Cincinnati and Knoxville, Tennessee.

The pitch is value without sounding cheap. Higgins pointed to research on rising perfectionism among young adults and to shoppers who have traded down to disposable razors, which she said hurt. Her answer is fit: a two-blade for a comfortable, low-cost shave, a four-blade for people who shave every couple of days, and a six-blade for daily shavers. The brand, which Nexus Capital Management acquired in 2023, also wants to avoid being seen only as the value option, given a dip in perceptions of its quality.

AI plays a role, with limits. The campaign was created in-house with agency partner Humanaut, features real people on both sides of the camera, and used AI for quick visual gags like the six-finger gesture, which helped trim production to about two and a half months. Higgins said the brand is now more choosy about where it uses the technology and avoids using it to depict shaving, because it still gets that wrong. Every campaign ships with a tool kit for each channel.

Phase two is being shot now. It folds in the women's line and extends the "Hairbernation" social campaign, and the brand is stepping up its AI use at Truly Beauty, the body care brand it acquired last month.

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Source: Marketing Dive

Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →