Barbasol is a brand of old-timey shaving cream that I can only assume is mostly used by old school leather strap-wielding barbers named Tony who know all the local cops by their first name and do a nice side business in taking bets. This is not the brand of choice for the guy who wears mantyhose. Barbasol is for guys who aren’t quite sold yet on that new-fangled shave gel shit!
So over the past few weeks I’ve seen this new Barbasol spot in heavy rotation on Comedy Central. (Sorry, but the joker who uploaded it won’t allow embedding so you’ll have to click over.)
This ad is so awesomely bad that I felt it deserved a deeper examination.
- It opens with some decent shots of snowboard trickery. Interesting choice considering that most Barbasol users probably still wear those garters to hold up their dress socks.
- The white-boy rap could be straight out of the Insane Clown Posse catalog. I keep expecting the MC to say something about magnets.
- A pro snowboarder named Louie Vito (whose name sounds like a club dj from Long Island and who resembles an oompa-loompa) appears on screen and half-heartedly endorses the product, then tops it off with “boom” and some sort of half-assed flailing hand gesture. BOOM, LOUIE.
- Then you see Louie shaving in front of the mirror. He looks like he’s 15. Boom!
- The rapper delivers a line about “now you take the can and shake it.” Boom!
- Then you see Louie taking his
snowboard groupiegirlfriend out on the town. Louie is dressed up in his finest ski cap and flannel shirt. Boom! - Slam can into the snow! AND CUT!
Marketing gold, people. Marketing fucking gold.
BOOM!
