World’s best ads ever #19: Dollar Shave Club cuts through all the hype
We asked our readers to vote for their favorite commercials of all time. Top creatives from the World Creative Rankings and The Drum’s Judges’ Club then ranked the ads. Now, we bring you the definitive 100 best TV and video ads of all time.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to what you’re selling. Flashy ads with multimillion-dollar production values can attract a lot of eyeballs, but they won’t be worth much if you’re not offering a high-quality product or service.
And the reverse is equally true: if you’re selling a genuinely good idea, you don’t need Martin Scorcese to direct your marketing campaigns — you just need a warehouse, an employee or two, and some inexpensive camera equipment. A machete and a giant bear costume can also come in handy.
This principle was delightfully proven back in 2012 when the newly conceived Dollar Shave Club (DSC) debuted ‘Our Blades are F***ing Great’, its pilot marketing video. It‘s the antithesis of the typical TV ad from a major men’s razor brand, the ones that market their razors as if they’re some kind of artifact recovered from an advanced alien civilization.
DSC’s core message in its inaugural marketing video is clear-cut and simple: we’re talking about razors here — stop overpaying for overpriced products and start subscribing to an affordable service that actually makes sense. Our guide through the video is Michael Dubin, the company’s founder, whose background as an improv actor was put to very good use in this ad.
Dubin asks us at one point: “Do you think your razor needs a vibrating handle, a flashlight, a back-scratcher and 10 blades?” A rhetorical question, to which he quickly adds: “Your handsome-ass grandfather had one blade. And polio.”
The video was a huge hit online — 10 years later, it has amassed nearly 28m views. And it started Dollar Shave Club down the path to becoming massively successful — the company was purchased for $1bn by Unilever in 2016. It all goes to show: you don’t need flash, you just need a solid idea, and clear communication.