Behind MANSCAPED's Super Bowl Debut with Singing Hairball Monsters
Men’s grooming company MANSCAPED has launched ‘Hair Ballad’, its first-ever national Super Bowl ad.
Created by Chicago indie agency Quality Meats and directed by The Perlorian Brothers via MJZ, the musical film stars singing hairball creatures who want you to know that while you probably don’t miss the clumps of discarded matter circling your drain after shaving, they definitely miss you.
The chorus of melodramatic, puppet monsters belt out an emotional power ballad as they mourn their untimely demise at the hands of MANSCAPED. Airing on NBC just before kick-off on February 8th, the spot launches the brand’s new platform, ‘Mancare Your Everywhere’, and signals a shift from category disruptor to true mass-market contender.
“We’re at a real inflection point for Manscaped. We built our name by owning groin grooming, but today we’re evolving into something much bigger: a full-body men’s care brand,” MANSCAPED CMO Marcelo Kertész tells LBB.
Today, MANSCAPED is more than just the ‘Lawn Mower’ product it rose to fame with, instead having hundreds of SKUs across manscaped.com, Amazon, and retailers like Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and Harrod’s. As the brand has expanded to cover men’s full-body grooming needs, its marketing strategy has evolved with it.
“Early on, we leaned heavily into performance marketing because it made sense for where the business was at,” says Marcelo. “Now, the focus is more balanced. We’re still performance-minded, but we’re also investing in long-term brand building to help people understand the full scope of what Manscaped offers - and to ensure that wherever someone encounters the brand, whether on TV, online, or in-store, it feels connected and intentional.”
Humour has been baked into the marketing from the start, whether with off-kilter campaigns like ‘The Boys’ from Pereira O'Dell, or this latest hairball musical. The trick, says Marcelo, is to be brand-safe without becoming bland.
“That’s why working with an amazing agency like Quality Meats feels like such a natural fit,” he explains. “From the very beginning, they just got it. One of their co-founders, Brian [Siedband], literally sang the song in the pitch. By the way, he did it alone, on a Zoom call, from his car. That’s the kind of energy (or balls) you can’t fake, and honestly, I believe it’s exactly the kind of attitude that makes great work.”
For Brian and his Quality Meats co-CCO, Gordy Sang, the pressure was on to deliver a successful debut Big Game ad for the brand. “In some ways it’s a large challenge to navigate, and not easy to get 1000% approval ratings,” they tell LBB. “But in other ways it’s a good test on what a broader audience (like those watching the game) will spark with. Ultimately it’s finding the right balance. Not necessarily making something that makes everyone ‘comfortable’ but making everyone feel something.”
They add, “We know there’s a certain audience who’s ready and engaged to be entertained. So the fear of not succeeding in that, first and foremost, keeps us sharp every step of the way. Frankly, we try to approach every campaign the rest of the year the same way, but here we’re given a bit more leeway, and because of that, the bar is higher. But we still try to stick with our instincts and not make it something that feels like it was dumbed down for the broader audience. Obviously we want it to resonate with everyone, but still want to push the envelope to find the edge with something that makes it a bit more distinct from the rest of the batch that’s screaming for the same attention.”
Fortunately, MANSCAPED’s recently expanded products granted Quality Meats a chance to take the brand beyond ‘where the sun don’t shine’, and into a new creative light – albeit with a similar sense of humour. “Plus any commercial going on TV – especially during the Super Bowl – can’t even infer a man’s nether regions,” the CCOs explain. “So the brief of trying to breakthrough on this stage while avoiding the ‘ball’-related landmines and/or lowbrow tropes was a really fun and interesting challenge.”
“Creatively, it’s exactly what we do best,” says Marcelo of the work. “Bold, a little absurd, and built to spark conversation - brought to life through the now-infamous hair clump character that’s already turning heads.
“In a category dominated by legacy brands with massive budgets, we’re not here to outspend anyone, we’re here to out-remember them. We have a very objective filter for our creative: it has to feel unmistakably MANSCAPED. If it’s something another grooming brand could easily pull off, it’s probably not right for us.”
The idea was brought to life with the help of directors The Perlorian Brothers, another duo that Brian and Gordy describe as “brothers from our Canadian mothers”, saying, “They were super passionate about the idea from the onset. They’re longtime partners, much like us, and we found a familiar kinship. It was an incredibly collaborative and healthy push/pull partnership every step of the way. At least that’s how we felt… They might hate us.”
In production, there was a lot of debate around how the puppets would come to life, with arguments for in-camera effects and VFX use being made. “Ultimately the best stuff came from keeping as much in-camera as possible,” say the CCOs. “And a balance of designing them to look somewhat ‘realistic’ and grotesque but also lovable and empathetic.
“The contrast between the sincere dramatic cinematography with the low-fi-ness of the puppets seemed to strike the best balance. We also learned that hairball monsters are pretentious prima donas.”
Beyond this Big Game spot, MANSCAPED is extending the momentum into a broader omnichannel, upper-funnel push. “The Super Bowl is the launchpad, not the finish line,” says Marcelo, sharing that NBC’s full calendar of live sports programming “lines up perfectly” with the core audience for ‘Mancare Your Everywhere’.
The campaign will keep showing up across culture also through social-first activations, meme-driven content, new cuts, behind-the-scenes footage, bloopers and creator partnerships, including an activation with comedian Stavros Halkias and a creator-led spin on the campaign song from TikTok star @pokemonmasterzo. “All of it is supported by paid media, retail moments, and PR to give the idea a long tail throughout the year,” says Marcelo.
“As for 2026, the goal is simple: make our first Super Bowl campaign a breakout success, then keep building mindshare in face shaving and full-body grooming with the right balance of brand and performance marketing. We want MANSCAPED to be impossible to ignore everywhere men groom.”
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