JUST HOW GREAT ARE THOSE BLADES OF YOURS MIKE?

Look at this commercial or whatever you want to call it.

It’s more of a stand-up turn than an ad and it simply commands attention through its chutzpah. And currently everyone seems to be talking about it as a case history on how to launch a new business. Its zany combination of Police Squad (the Larry Nielsen classic) and Will-it-blend? fills me with joy. I love the dig at big brand celebrity ads – poor old Roger Federer. I love its sense of being with the flow of today’s thinking – hell, this guy Mike Dubin, the founder of DollarShaveClub.com would leave Mitt Romney floundering if he turned to politics.

After Old Spice and Isaiah Mustafa, Geico and the Blendtec people,  advertising will not be the same again.
And all the good guys I know in the business are saying “and about time too….this is the sort of stuff we always wanted to do but the suits stopped us…”

And as importantly in a world where start-ups are going to fuel economic growth it’s communication like this which will reach the new consumer – their hearts, minds and wallets. What’s notable is the internet allows cheap direct marketing like this to be delivered with cool humour in launching pirate brands.

A guy called Peter Pham, from Science Inc., is a “business-accelerator” who's been working with Dollar Shave Club. He’s apparently also been working on other similar ideas for an underwear company and a children's clothing company. But it could be for anything where there’s an economic edge and an old fashioned market leader.

What he’s trying to do is build new consumer brands. Brands like those Virgin should have launched but never quite did. Brands which write new rules and break old ones. The web makes viral and rapid brand growth possible in a way that traditional media, and companies, can't touch. It’s a way of punishing slow thinkers.

And cost of entry is very low if you get the creative right…this ad for Dollar Shave Club cost $4,500.

And yes, I also thought it was a joke when I first saw it.

But that, I guess, is the point.

I wonder if the guys at Gillette think it’s a joke….or how much they’ll pay Mike and Peter to go away.