Dollar Shave Club is a California-based company that delivers razors and other personal grooming products by mail. They position themselves as a cost-effective and convenient alternative to retail chains.
As Fox New wrote, “It’s not good news for the big guys at Proctor & Gamble, whose $20 billion Gillette brand controls 70 percent of the global razor market” (2015).
“A new wave of start-ups that deliver fresh, inexpensive razors to your doorsteps is revolutionizing the $13 billion dollar shave industry.” Dollar Shave Club is part of that wave.
I came across this Dollar Shave Club.com video ad again, years after it first went viral.
It’s an oldy but goody.
And the reason it still works so well has very little to do with razors.
As one YouTube commenter wrote:
“This is how you get people to not click ‘skip Ad’ on Youtube.”
Another commenter wrote:
“I passionately hate advertisements, especially all the stupid shit Youtube puts up. This is probably the only one I’ve ever seen, outside of movie advertisements, that I didn’t skip because it actually was entertaining. It’s amazing how un-creative companies are these days, and they try so hard to make their boring commercials unique.”
Another commenter wrote:
“I was skeptical of this company at first, given how ridiculous, (but funny), this commercial was. But I went against my better judgment and bought them. To quote this guy, ‘They are fucking great.'”
And this one might be the best of all:
“I watched the whole ad. It was amazing. I don’t shave nor do i have a beard and mustache but I’m still buying this.”
Another wrote:
“I could watch this a hundred times and it would never get old.”
That’s the real lesson.
This ad works because it does the one thing most marketing is afraid to do: it entertains first, sells second.
It doesn’t try to impress you with features right off the bat.
It doesn’t drown you in technical specs.
It doesn’t talk down to you.
Instead, it lets you laugh.
It lets you relax.
It lets you feel like you’re in on the joke.
Once you’re emotionally engaged, the sale feels effortless.
This is why irreverent, slightly risky, personality-driven marketing almost always outperforms “safe” corporate advertising. Safe ads are easy to ignore. Safe ads train people to hit “Skip.” Safe ads disappear into the abyss of ineffective marketing, flushing your hard-earned money down the toilet.
This one doesn’t. If you look at the vid, it’s still getting comments 10 years later.
Even people who don’t shave felt compelled to buy.
That’s buying psychology at its finest.
What You Can Steal From This Ad (Without Swearing in a Warehouse)
Before you publish your next piece of marketing, try this simple test.
Ask yourself: Would someone watch this, read this, or listen to this if there was no product attached to it?
If the answer is no, your copy probably isn’t entertaining or engaging enough yet.
You don’t need a huge marketing budget.
You don’t need explosions, gimmicks, or hype.
You don’t need to be outrageous.
You just need to be human, interesting, and willing to take a small creative risk.
Your Action Step:
Pick one piece of your current marketing (a sales page, an email, or a video script) and rewrite the opening so that it aims to entertain or hook, not explain. Make it more surprising. More honest. More you.
Work With Me
If you want help creating marketing that people actually want to watch instead of skip, I can help.
I teach business owners how to write personality-driven, high-converting copy that stands out in saturated (or even boring) markets.
Reach out, send me a message, or explore my work — and let’s make your marketing impossible to ignore.
Michelle Lopez Boggs is a copywriter and author of "The Anti-Marketing Manifesto: How to Sell Without Being a Sellout." She's helped her clients sell millions of dollars' worth of products and services online by using the MEI(S) principle — motivate, educate, and inspire, and sell. 