How MANSCAPED used behavioral insight to reframe modern masculinity

Challenge

Known globally as the brand “for below-the-waist grooming,” MANSCAPED wanted to expand their reputation and product range with a new line of face and beard tools. But with a brand so synonymous with groin care, making the leap wasn’t straightforward. The team needed a campaign that built on their cultural equity, but also signalled a meaningful shift.

Internally, the concept of a “ball trampoline” emerged: using their groin grooming heritage as a launchpad to go up and outwards. This inspired their campaign idea: “Send Face Pics Instead.” The concept was bold and provocative, reframing the digital habit of sending explicit images by encouraging men to lead with their face instead.

But before putting serious media spend behind the campaign, they needed to validate whether the idea had cultural resonance – and prove that it worked. 

Our challenge was moving beyond the perception of MANSCAPED as “the ball trimmer brand.” The opportunity was to establish ourselves as a holistic men’s grooming company and cement our mission to “redefine masculinity” by helping men put their best face forward using our products.

Tori Herman, Senior Manager, Consumer Insights, MANSCAPED

Solution

Working with creative agency The Special Group and academic researchers from the ORGASM Lab at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, MANSCAPED designed a research study to explore the motivations behind sending explicit images – and whether “face pics” might be more effective. To run the quantitative research at scale and with anonymity, they turned to Attest.

Attest gave us a way to test a sensitive topic in a rigorous, anonymous, and scalable way. With a nationally representative US sample of 1,000 men and women, we could explore motivations, reactions, and emotions safely. This allowed us to validate the concept with consumers before putting major dollars behind it – confirming that the message would resonate.

The study revealed that while men often send unsolicited explicit images hoping for a positive reaction, recipients typically respond with disgust. In contrast, face pics were 9x more likely to provoke a positive reaction across all genders.

This insight didn’t just validate the creative; it gave the campaign cultural and emotional weight. With the data in hand, MANSCAPED launched a tongue-in-cheek yet science-backed campaign across social, YouTube, Netflix, and Tinder.