Grooming brand personifies ‘plums’ to prompt men to preen their pubes 

Manscaped imagines testicles as men's diminutive doppelgangers to encourage men to buy its groin-shaving equipment

In a TV spot by New York agency Pereira O’Dell, male grooming tools maker Manscaped personifies men’s unshaved testicles as hairy little men.

The 45-second ad, called The Boys, depicts a man going about his life – exercising, relaxing in a hot tub, scratching his nether regions at a wedding — accompanied by two mini versions of himself with grown-out hair.

When he finally grooms his groin using Manscaped’s Lawn Mower 5.0 Ultra groin and body hair trimmer, the ‘boys’ admire their bald heads in the bathroom mirror. The ad ends with a call to action to ‘Give your boys the love they deserve’. 

The campaign was also supported by an AR filter on TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram, which enabled users to see what their own ‘boys’ would look like, in various trims. Comedian, actor and Manscaped partner Pete Davidson tried out the lens in a video called ‘Pete Meets His Boys’. According to the agency, further dynamic digital and social activations, brand partner collaborations, OOH installations and limited edition offerings will roll out throughout the year.

‘The Boys is all about embracing this brand and performance marketing re-balance,’ said Marcelo Kertész, CMO of Manscaped, in a press release. ‘This came naturally to us as we were able to lean into one of our brand’s most distinctive strengths – our use of humour to break conversation barriers – to develop a concept that truly sticks with people, all while producing world-class content that continues to perform across channels and platforms.’

Contagious Insight 

Have a ball / Manscaped isn’t the first to find humour in male anatomy, but the lesson here isn’t to make a funny ad — it’s how the brand used levity and comedy to broach a seldom-discussed topic. While male grooming doesn’t carry the most serious of taboos, depicting testicles and pubic hair on TV is a challenge for several reasons, which presents a potential barrier to consumers discovering and seeking out Manscaped’s products. Not only does the brand’s deft use of humour circumvent nudity restrictions, it also lightheartedly illustrates the benefits of male grooming, such as comfort and convenience. The overall tone of the ad — relatable, self-deprecating, playful — is a welcome change from the category tropes of rippled torsos, manufactured masculinity, and fawning female models. 

Male models / From its punny brand name to the language it uses to describe its products (‘Lawn Mower 5.0 Ultra’), Manscaped has cultivated a distinctive brand personality that reflects the modern man it caters to. The copy is chatty, unpretentious, and rooted in humour — the ultimate tool for navigating potentially embarrassing or touchy subjects. The Boys ad takes male grooming out of hiding and neutralises any awkwardness about discussing it; in this ad, it’s not vain or unmasculine — you’re just showing ‘the boys’ some love.

Back in 2017, we explored how brands were embracing more inclusive notions of masculinity in their advertising, amid the cultural conversation about toxic masculinity. More recent campaigns that reflect this trend include Viagra’s Love Story campaign, and A Man Like You by Harry’s. Talking about the context for the Viagra work, Josh Taylor-Dadds, then-strategy director at VMLY&R, said: ‘Masculinity isn’t in crisis, it’s in flux… When we talked to men, they spoke about lots of positivity in modern masculinity. They told us about how they see themselves as a more central part of their families than their fathers’ generation was able to be, how men today can show more emotion, that vulnerability is not necessarily a weakness… While there are lots of issues in masculinity, there is also so much light and positivity that is less trendy to talk about in the media.’

While male grooming doesn’t suffer from the same stigma as erectile dysfunction, The Boys similarly uses light and positivity to depict modern masculinity. If you want to learn more about this topic, watch this talk from Most Contagious 2019, about how questioning modern masculinity put Gillette back on the global stage.

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