Dale Backus, Ohsnap’s founder and CEO, said the brand was inspired by the funny infomercial style made famous years ago by Dollar Shave Club, which first went viral in 2012 with a spot by founder and former comedian Michael Dubin.
Cary, North Carolina-based Ohsnap, which was founded in 2019, has “always had the capability of making an ad like that, but we just kind of stuck to more traditional, pitch-style videos and things like that because we felt like that sort of style or template was a little bit played out.” But Ohsap reconsidered after Backus had a conversation with a founder of another brand who maintained the style still worked for that person’s brand.
Ohsnap’s ad, which got some paid support on Meta platforms, enjoyed plenty of positive feedback, including from one Instagram commenter who quipped, “This ad sold me immediately.”
Ward is a local North Carolina talent who the brand found using an online casting platform, Backus said. While she carries the ad on the screen, Backus credits the production to Ohsnap Creative Director Tim Cheek, whom Backus worked with at his previous company, SmallHD, which made video production equipment.
Backus says he took a limited role in the ad. But he has good comedic instincts. In 2007, when he was 21, he co-created a Super Bowl ad for Doritos called “Live the Flavor” that was the first winner of the brand’s long-running Crash the Super Bowl user-generated ad contest.
As for Ohsnap, it is leaning into Ward’s talents. She has starred in subsequent ads, and Backus said the brand has placed her on retainer.