HERE<\/a>, but it’s not nearly as useful as studying the structure of what he did.<\/p>\nThe Core Strategy of His Pitch:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Hook fast<\/li>\n
- Agitate pain<\/li>\n
- Discard fluff<\/li>\n
- Prove value with humor<\/li>\n
- Direct CTA<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
<\/p>\n
Storytelling Lessons<\/strong><\/h1>\n <\/p>\n
\n- Hook Immediately with Clarity:<\/strong> Within the first four seconds, Dubin answers the core question: “What is this company?” combined with a memorable, explicit punchline (“Our blades are f***ing great”). There is no long buildup; the viewer knows the value proposition instantly.<\/li>\n
- Agitate a Universal Pain Point:<\/strong> Instead of boring viewers with technical razor blade specs (e.g., number of blades or pivot angles), Dubin targets the real customer pain point: paying $20 at the store for overpriced brand-name razors locked behind plastic security display cases.<\/li>\n
- Embrace Deadpan Absurdity:<\/strong> The video relies on contrast: Dubin delivers absurd visual gags (a bear costume, a leaf blower, a toddler shaving a man’s head) with complete serious, deadpan composure. This subverts expectations and keeps the viewer watching to see what happens next.<\/li>\n
- Make the Founder the Hero:<\/strong> By walking through his own messy warehouse rather than hiring polished actors, Dubin humanized the startup. It framed the story as an underdog David taking on a bloated corporate Goliath (Gillette).<\/li>\n
- Anchor Content to a Strong Call to Action (CTA):<\/strong> The video doesn’t just entertain; it constantly directs the energy back to the core business model. The tagline “Save Time. Save Money.” is repeated, and the low-friction offer ($1 a month) is reinforced as the obvious logical choice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
The “Dubin” Viral Ad Script Template<\/strong><\/h1>\n <\/p>\n
Video Target Duration:<\/strong> 60\u201390 seconds<\/p>\nTone:<\/strong> Unflinching, deadpan, high-energy<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Section 1: The Hook & Core Value Prop (0:00 – 0:10)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n- Visual:<\/strong> Close-up on the speaker sitting\/standing in a mundane setting, staring directly into the camera with zero expression.<\/li>\n
- Action:<\/strong> Speaker moves briskly toward the camera, pushing past the frame into a dynamic environment (office, warehouse, outdoors).<\/li>\n
- Script Pattern:<\/strong>\n
\n- “Is [Target Pain Point] completely [Frustrating Adjective]? Yes. Yes, it is.”<\/em><\/li>\n
- “Hi, I\u2019m [Name], founder of [Product\/Company]. And [Product] [Primary Benefit in Bold Words].”<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/h3>\nSection 2: Agitate the Industry Pain Point (0:10 – 0:30)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n- Visual:<\/strong> Speaker walks through a scene showing someone actively suffering from the status quo.<\/li>\n
- Action:<\/strong> Speaker interacts with a prop or points out an absurdity, keeping a completely straight face while chaotic activity happens in the background.<\/li>\n
- Script Pattern:<\/strong>\n
\n- “Look at [Current Solution]. It\u2019s a mess. Why are you paying [High Price\/High Effort] for [Competitor\/Old Method]?”<\/em><\/li>\n
- “Do you really need [Useless Feature 1] or [Useless Feature 2]? No. You just need [Core Solution].”<\/em><\/li>\n
- “Is [Current Market Option] even good? No. Ours is [Swear\/Expletive]-ing great.”<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/h3>\nSection 3: Surreal Humor & Simple Demo (0:30 – 0:55)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n- Visual:<\/strong> Enter a completely absurd visual gag that has little-to-nothing to do with the product (e.g., a mascot, odd machinery, a bizarre character).<\/li>\n
- Action:<\/strong> Deliver the core features\/pricing mechanics while doing a physical action (slapping a button, using a leaf blower, throwing an object).<\/li>\n
- Script Pattern:<\/strong>\n
\n- “For just [Low Price \/ Easy Commitment], [Product] delivers [Primary Mechanism] directly to your [Door\/Screen\/Life].”<\/em><\/li>\n
- “[Action\/Feature 1]. [Action\/Feature 2]. Boom. Done. You just saved [Time\/Money\/Sanity].”<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/h3>\nSection 4: Underdog Story \/ Humanize the Brand (0:55 – 1:15)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n- Visual:<\/strong> Group shot of the small team, real employees, or an improbable character staring blankly.<\/li>\n
- Action:<\/strong> Contrast your small, authentic setup against “Big Corporate” competitors.<\/li>\n
- Script Pattern:<\/strong>\n
\n- “Do you think [Monopolistic Competitor] cares about your [Pain Point]? They care about [Corporate Metric].”<\/em><\/li>\n
- “We built [Product] because we were sick of [Industry Nuisance]. Even [Absurd Character\/Pet\/Baby] knows that [Common Belief] is ridiculous. Right, [Name]?”<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/h3>\nSection 5: Call to Action & Repetition (1:15 – 1:30)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n- Visual:<\/strong> Speaker reaches their final destination, facing the lens directly. On-screen text displays the URL\/Offer clearly.<\/li>\n
- Action:<\/strong> Deliver a punchy 3-word slogan, put on glasses\/walk away while chaotic audio\/visual continues as the frame cuts to black.<\/li>\n
- Script Pattern:<\/strong>\n
\n- “Stop [Negative Behavior]. Go to [Website\/URL] right now.”<\/em><\/li>\n
- “[Tagline: Verb 1] [Noun 1]. [Verb 2] [Noun 2].”<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dollar Shave Club peaked a decade ago, but it’s still useful to examine its marketing strategy. When Michael Dubin was pitching the Club, investors raised an obvious objection: People could already buy razors online. Dubin’s promised differentiation was the brand. Then they saw the rough cut of the launch video. The $4,500 video had Dubin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copywriting","category-strategy"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions\/493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}