Project Body Hair is a celebration of female body hair, wherever it is or isn’t.

For the past 100 years, women’s razor brands haven’t acknowledged female body hair. Commercials show women "shaving" perfectly smooth, airbrushed legs. But everyone has short stubble, long strands, or something in between. What you do with yours is up to you - grow it, get rid of it, or comb it. It's your hair.

By reminding women that shaving is a choice we received 3.3+ billion earned media impressions across 23 countries, 21+ million views (60% organic) and over 1.3 million shares & comments.

Situation:

In 1915, for the first time in mass media, women were told by Harper's Bazaar to remove their "objectionable (body) hair." That same year, the first female razor was launched.

Since then, not much has changed. Women are still shamed for their body hair. In fact, women's body hair has been deemed so un-feminine that razor brands have refused to acknowledge it exists. Commercials show women "shaving" perfectly smooth, airbrushed legs.

Brief:

The brief was to create a realistic portrayal of women's bodies in a razor commercial for the first time in a century. And to reinforce that shaving was a choice, not an expectation.

Objectives:

Create a piece of content that got the world to reevaluate how they think about female grooming and to empower women to do whatever they want with their bodies. No one should be telling them what they can do, especially a razor company.

The idea was to showcase real women's body hair being shaved - and not shaved - in a razor commercial for the first time in the category's history.

It's the exact opposite of what the competition shows women in their razor ads. Their commercials show women 'shaving' already shaved and airbrushed legs.

We showed beautifully shot leg hair, underarm hair, toe hair, happy trails, arm hair, being shaved or not. Which earned us a lot of attention, reinforcing shaving is a choice, not an expectation.

Insight:

For too long, women have been made to feel about ashamed about their “un-feminine” body hair. Project Body Hair simply acknowledges that women have body hair (something razor brands have refused to do for the last 100 years) and celebrates their choice to be able to do whatever they want with it.

Key Message:

Shaving is a personal choice. And however, whenever, if ever, you want to shave, Billie will be here.

Target Audience:

We targeted modern, confident and savvy women who want to look and feel great, on their own terms. They do not appreciate being pandered to or told how they should look – they demand respect and transparency.

Creation & Distribution:

The campaign launched at Times Square with a teaser 15-second digital billboard.

This film was distributed online via social media.

And the campaign photography was uploaded to Unsplash for anyone to use for free.

We launched this body hair discussion on one of the most prominent digital billboards in New York's Time Square.

Our film was released 4 days later and was the first razor commercial in the history of razor commercials to show actual hair being shaved (or not) and it garnered over 3.3 billion earned media impressions in 23 countries. We also donated all of the beautiful photography of women with body hair we took during the campaign to the internet.

We encouraged everyone (media outlets, bloggers, the general public) to use these images for free and post them far and wide on the internet - this is our way of making the internet a little fuzzier. It's our hope that, together, we can start to talk honestly about body hair.

We are a young startup, so we haven't done any of these purchase intent surveys or reputation scores, but we what we can tell you in terms of results, is the following:

Tier 1:

3.3+ billion earned media impressions across 23 countries.

21+ million views (60% organic).

Tier 2:

1.3+ million shares and comments.

Instagram followers increased from 30k to 127k since launch.

Tier 3:

-We sold out of razors in under 2 weeks.

-This campaign directly impacted our Series A fundraising. Helping us secure a $25 million dollar round.