Pat Cummins & Julian Dennison Front Gillette’s New Aussie Campaign ‘The Facetime Call’ Campaign

Late February and early March saw an Australian cricketing hero and a Hollywood movie star front a set of shaving commercial commercials promoting a pair of new razors for Gillette ANZ.

The campaign, created in harness with Havas Sports & Entertainment, emerged from a brief to promote the new Gillette ProGlide as a razor offering an even closer shave due to its unique flex-ball technology which follows the contours of the face and the Gillette SkinGuard razor as being uniquely designed to reduce skin irritation and flare-ups.

The resulting campaign led to new spots rolling out across commercial television networks and owned and paid online platforms throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Shot across different countries at different times, a trio of 30- and 15-second spots position actor Dennison as Gillette’s self-proclaimed ‘new supermodel’ who incessantly bugs cricketer Cummins in comically ill-timed Facetime calls. Dennison initially calls Cummins to ask for shaving tips, then to show-off his own shaving skills and then to direct Cummins in how he should shave.

“The rationale was that with two different razors, we needed two equally different stars. It was, in many ways, a tough brief for HSE,” said Gillette ANZ Brand Director Mat Robinson. “We had a cricketer and a comedian, each representing two different Gillette products, and we needed it to work across a 30-second and two 15-second spots. Pat was to be the face of the Gillette ProGlide razor, while Julian was to represent Gillette SkinGuard. Importantly, we had to dial up each razor’s differing product benefits while still utilising humour and connecting to the brand’s target audience. “We’re confident Gillette consumers are going to love the chemistry that was captured between Pat and Julian.”

“Our ECD & team decided to riff on a common comedic trope,” explained Havas S&E Chief Marketing Officer Francis Coady. “Namely, the over-eager student versus the reluctant mentor; and while it’s all very ‘meta’, all three TVCs came out very funny in the end.”

The campaign was created for and briefed in by Gillette’s APAC marketing team including Category Head Karthik Srivatsan, Gillette Brand Director Mathew Robinson, Gillette & Venus Senior Brand Manager Rachel Morota Chu and Gillette Production Director: Syamin Arif.

It was conceived and created by a group at creative agency Havas Sports & Entertainment which was led by Chief Marketing Officer/Executive Producer Francis Coady, Executive Creative Director & Scriptwriter Nick Snelling, Head of Content Belinda Miller, Senior Account Director & Producer Patrick Millington Buck.

The production company was Chisel with Director Zak Kaczmarek and line production in New Zealand handled by Reel Factory.