Razor brand Billie enlists Jameela Jamil as it challenges toxic brand messaging

As women’s razor brand Billie expands into new categories such as body wash, body lotion and deodorant, it’s putting a new twist on the classic 1999 teen comedy “10 Things I Hate About You.” A new ad from the Edgewell-owned company reimagines the film’s most memorable monologue. The in-house effort stars actress Jameela Jamil, depicting her volunteering to read a poem in front of a high school classroom based off of the movie scene that originally featured Julia Stiles. But instead of a poem about young love like the one from “10 Things I Hate About You,” Jamil’s poem is an ode to how the marketing around personal care products can cause self-confidence issues. It marks the first time Billie has used a celebrity and signifies a marketing and product approach similar to that of Dove, the Unilever-owned brand that has long emphasized body positivity in its marketing, including with a 2024 Super Bowl ad. “I hate how you made me compare myself to every woman I saw,” Jamil recites as the classroom around her fades into the personal care aisle in a dimly lit grocery store. Jamil, who has been outspoken about body positivity throughout her career, continues reading the poem—which contains lines such as “I hate how I had to change, yet somehow never age”—as anti-aging retail ads pop up in the aisle. At the end of the ad, Billie plugs its new products as “a new era in body care” —deodorant, lotion and body wash that will be available in a total of 15 varieties. The media buy includes Roku TV, paid social channels and influencer partnerships. The brand declined to disclose the ad spend for the campaign. Also read: How razor brand Billie is normalizing body hair While brainstorming about how to best inform consumers about Billie’s expansion, someone on the Billie team came across a quote that stated, “The most defiant thing you can do as a woman is to love yourself and your body,” Billie Co-Founder Georgina Gooley said in a recent interview. The team loved the sentiment, she said, and decided to launch the new body care collection with “that sort of feeling behind it,” because they felt that they’d created products that “really sort of listen to your body and meet the needs of your body, and that’s what drives all the benefits that we're providing,” Gooley said. The team opted to rewrite Stiles’s famous poem monologue as though it was about how the personal care category contributes to body shaming rather than Patrick Verona, the character in the movie played by Heath Ledger. “Even if you aren’t as familiar with the movie or the poem, I think the messaging hits the point that we wanted to make as a brand as we launch in this new category,” said Gooley, who is a fan of the movie. Body-positive messaging from brands in the personal care category isn’t new. Dove is most known for such messaging through its long-running Campaign for Real Beauty platform. Dove’s Super Bowl campaign includes a partnership with the Body Confident Sport program to create a first-of-its-kind scientifically backed set of coaching tools to build body confidence in girls ages 11 to 17. Billie’s new products will be available in Walmart stores as well as direct-to-consumer on Billie’s website, Gooley said. Billie, which was acquired by Edgewell Personal Care in 2021, has historically focused its marketing on removing stigma about women’s body hair, with campaigns such as “Movember” and “Project Body Hair” among its efforts to normalize the topic. Billie released a board game called “No Worries If Not!” this past summer that highlighted the “impossible task” of being a woman in today’s world. Jamil is the first celebrity Billie has partnered with for an ad campaign, Gooley confirmed. Founded in 2017, she said the brand wanted to build its “own brand voice, brand vision and ethos from the ground up” before aligning itself with a celebrity. “Partnering with a celebrity, obviously, there’s an investment there—it’s an investment that you probably could make into media,” Gooley said, noting that you have to ask yourself honestly if that investment would make more sense elsewhere in your brand’s marketing efforts. “In the past, we’ve not done a big celebrity partnership, [but] this time around, we felt like Jameela was just a great person to relay this message,” she said. “Given her background and what she's advocated for” over the years, such as rights and awareness for and around marginalized communities, “she was just the perfect partner for us to be able to garner some attention in this moment when we're launching this big collection.” The brand has also made product-focused spots that talk more about the individual benefits of its body lotion and body wash products. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs

Razor brand Billie enlists Jameela Jamil as it challenges toxic marketing messaging

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