Male grooming brand Manscaped is coming to the Super Bowl for its first year ever with a :30 spot that addresses a taboo subject: men’s body hair removal.
The teaser shows a shower getting clogged with hair and hints: “something hairy is coming.”
For Marcelo Kertesz, chief marketing officer at Manscaped, it’s a little nerve wracking.
“Maybe after the Superbowl I can share a different sentiment, but right now it’s nerve-wracking. Every decision you have to make –picking the story, a piece of wardrobe, the lighting, the color tone – everything gets amplified,” he explains. “This is such a big stage. That’s why nerve-wracking is my best description right now. I’m not going to lie. But of course with a ton of excitement behind those nerves.”
A Super Bowl ad is a big move for the DTC brand. CEO and founder Paul Tran launched the company 10 years ago when he saw an opportunity to be a male grooming brand that talked distinctively about male anatomy. They got some attention on Shark Tank and has made a name for itself from a grass roots digital marketing and ecommerce direct-to-consumer approach. Nowadays you can find the brand at major retailers like Walmart, Target, Best Buy and even at Harrod’s in the UK. The Super Bowl offers the brand the largest stage in the country to establish itself as a household name.
The brand is sticking with its commitment to an irreverent tone and ability to tackle uncomfortable conversations with humor and care. The company decided to use the spot to launch its new brand platform Mancare Your Everywhere at the big game.
“Since that beginning, we have wanted to serve men in all grooming needs. This is a moment in our history where we are ready to tell the world, ‘Hey, it’s way more than just groin grooming,’” said Kertesz. “It is a very strong inflection point for Manscaped as a brand. The Super Bowl allows us to fast track that idea at a massive scale.”
The brand created the spot, which will run between the National Anthem and the kickoff, with agency Quality Meats. The spot came from the insight that after a hair leaves the body, it’s considered a little gross.
“That is already a sentiment that triggers attention and then what happens with that gross clump of hair, I think is what we are making special and calling a bit more attention to that relationship,” said Kertesz without giving too much away. “Our company has a lot of tools to remove and tame and style your hair. So I thought it was fair to have this relationship with what’s left and see what kind of feeling that this evokes in our consumers. It’s funny and heartwarming at the same time, which is always something that we try to target, because it’s very powerful when you achieve that combination.”
