Our Blades Are F***ing Great: the founder film

Read the campaign story

Dollar Shave Club introduced its public-facing subscription proposition in March 2012 with a warehouse film starring founder Michael Dubin. In Our Blades Are F***ing Great, he explains a razor-delivery service while moving through a succession of comic interruptions. Fast Company’s launch coverage confirms that Dubin wrote the spot and worked with Lucia Aniello to make it. The service offer remains present throughout the humour.

In a later AdExchanger interview, Dubin dates this version of the business launch to 6 March 2012 and distinguishes it from an earlier beta site. His Inc. account also describes comedy training and investor conversations before the public release. Those details matter: the film was not simply an unprepared founder improvising into a camera. This case does not attribute later company valuation, subscriber totals or acquisition outcomes to the launch video alone.

Editorial reading: The film combines an explainer and a performance. The viewer receives the basic commercial argument while getting a reason to continue watching. Each interruption can reset attention without forcing the pitch to begin again. The founder supplies a consistent guide, so the eccentric events do not require the audience to decode a new character or premise every few moments.

The production setting helps make the offer tangible. A subscription business is otherwise mostly a promise about what will happen after payment. Showing a place associated with fulfilment gives that promise a physical backdrop, although the setting itself does not prove service quality. The personality of the guide also becomes a sample of the brand’s tone. That tone needs to remain compatible with the actual customer experience after the joke is over.

For a small team, the useful adaptation is a clear offer delivered by a credible person with a rehearsed script. Answer what arrives, who it helps, why the buying process is better and what the commitment involves. Add humour only where it improves attention or comprehension. Then test the entire path from film to order, including transparent recurring terms and support capacity. A memorable video can create demand faster than a business can serve it, so fulfilment readiness belongs in the creative plan.

Write the offer before the jokes

Make the service, audience and commitment understandable without relying on the performance.

Use a credible guide

Choose someone who can carry the explanation naturally and rehearse the transitions.

Prepare the path after attention

Check subscription disclosures, ordering, fulfilment and support before driving traffic.

A small test for another brief

Film a rehearsed walkthrough of a service with a credible guide and one useful comic interruption.

Track offer comprehension, qualified conversion and early cancellation or support problems separately from views.

Stop if customers misunderstand the commitment or fulfilment cannot meet the promise.

• Write a plain-language offer including recurring commitments where applicable.
• Rehearse a short script in a real operational setting without exposing private customer data.
• Test the landing page, order path and support capacity before a small release.