If you liked the Old Spice ads of yore, you’ll probably love the ad for DollarShaveClub.com, a clever descendant of those spots that got so many views on YouTube it temporarily collapsed the company’s website.
While the Old Spice campaign had the suave Man-Your-Man-Could-Smell-Like, Isaiah Mustafah, Dollar Shave introduces us to the everyman’s Isaiah Mustafa: Mike. Instead of the smooth-talking ladies’ man who produced tickets “to that thing you wanted,” then turned those tickets into diamonds and said things like, “Do you want a man who can bake you a cake in a dream kitchen he built for you with his own hands? Of course you do,” Mike has a more pragmatic approach. He plays up the simpler things: “Do you think your razor needs a vibrating handle a flashlight a backscratcher and 10 blades? Your handsome-ass grandfather had one blade, and polio,” he says, before cutting packaging tape with a machete.
While their spokesmen have different approaches, they share an absurdist spirit, and the quick scene-shifts that follow Mike around echo the fast-moving, unpredictable Old Spice commercials.
Considering the success of these ads and how inexpensive they are to produce, it’s surprising that we haven’t seen more imitations. In any case, now that Old Spice has resorted to some angry man yelling at you, you should be sure to swan dive into the best razor ad of your life.
Here’s hoping that Mike starts making personalized ones soon. Although he may be too busy: According to VentureBeat, Mike is Michael Durbin, the company’s actual founder, who just raised a million dollars to get his startup off the ground. Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.
