Dollar Shave Club Returns to Disruptive Roots After Unilever Split

Dollar Shave Club is striving to return to its humorous roots as it launches its first national campaign since Unilever sold a majority stake in the business to private equity firm Nexus Capital Management in 2023.

The campaign’s goal is to put the grooming brand “back on the map” after it effectively ended its seven-year partnership with Unilever, Dollar Shave Club CEO Larry Bodner told ADWEEK. Nexus Capital acquired a 65% stake in the company in October 2023, while Unilever retains 35%.

As a pioneering direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand of the 2010s, Dollar Shave Club was known for its quirky marketing that promoted cheap razors. Like many DTC brands of that era, it was eventually acquired by a legacy consumer packaged goods (CPG) competitor when Unilever bought the brand for $1 billion in 2016.

However, Unilever reportedly struggled to grow the business and fit it into the multinational conglomerate. Dollar Shave Club now faces increased competition from rival DTC grooming brands like Harry’s. 

“After years of growing quickly and at all costs under Unilever, we lost our way and our brand identity lay dormant for many years,” Bodner said. “However, Dollar Shave Club remains united and completely focused on returning to our disruptive and irreverent brand personality. This campaign is truly a big step to getting our brand humor and awareness back, while continuing to drive revenue.”

Directed by Zack Seckler through Good Times Production, “The Club” has a similar deadpan and absurdist humor found in the brand’s viral launch video. The new ad imagines the shaving brand’s subscription service as a physical space, showing a man being admitted to the club after speaking the password “shave money.”

Welcomed with a plush robe, he’s taken into a locker room where men of all ages and body types do their grooming, from shaving shoulders and chests to trimming nose hair. The concierge welcomes the new member by showing off the brand’s range of products and giving him a surprise slap on the butt as he prepares to lather up.

The campaign aims to reconnect with Dollar Shave Club’s core audience of men ages 25 to 45, while attracting new users through its own platform and many major retailers. It will run across CTV, YouTube, Spotify, podcasts, and owned digital properties.

Dollar Shave Club will also be offering subscribers the chance to connect in the real world with exclusive events, ticket giveaways, and merchandise.

“Since Dollar Shave Club’s inception, the ‘Club’ has always been an implied part of our brand,” Bodner added. “We wanted to bring it to life and redefine what it means to be a part of Dollar Shave Club in a physical manifestation, and we think now is the perfect time to introduce this.”