Procter & Gamble Co.’s Gillette will be back in the Super Bowl for the first time in 16 years with a 30-second spot in the second quarter of the NBC broadcast Feb. 13 to back the launch of the GilletteLabs with Exfoliating Bar razor system.

Gillette’s last Super Bowl commercial, in 2006, backed the launch of its last completely new system, Fusion—a razor with five blades on the front and one on the back. The Super Bowl campaign for GilletteLabs marks Gillette’s biggest brand launch since Fusion, according to a brand spokesman. The new GilletteLabs system refill blades resemble Fusion blades, but are not interchangeable. 

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“The GilletteLabs with Exfoliating Bar launch is a big one for us that deserves this national stage,” said Mariana McQuattie, senior VP of P&G Grooming, North America, in a statement. “Men who’ve tried it love it and say they would never go back to an ordinary razor.”

P&G backed the launch with ads earlier during the NFL season, and also showcased the GilletteLabs product at CES last month.

Directing the spot from Grey Advertising was Czech-born direct Martin Krejci. It will focus on the theme of the razor providing “a quick and easy shave” and be product focused. “We’re going the non-celebrity, non-athlete” route with the commercial to help keep the focus on the product, the spokesman said.

He said this is P&G’s only Super Bowl spot this year, though last-minute entries such as last year’s spot for the company’s Microban 24 anti-bacterial, anti-viral cleaner do sometimes pop up.

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Gillette has been a long-time NFL sponsor, and has had naming rights for the New England Patriots stadium since before the shaving brand was acquired by P&G in 2005. Gillette's last big activity around Super Bowl time was a controversial #MeToo-inspired ad in 2019 that took on toxic masculinity.

Miles from the site of the Super Bowl, Gillette will host a GilletteLabs Roller Skating experience in Santa Monica, based on the idea that roller skating is a metaphor for how the razor provides shaving and exfoliating in one efficient stroke.