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Women only want two things, and they’re disgusting: guys’ boxers and lots and lots of stuffed animals—at least according to underwear company Culprit’s tongue-in-cheek social video ad for its “LadyBoxers,” aka boxers made for women so they can stop stealing from their significant others’.
Throughout the ad, its star and narrator, Paige Elkington, tries to pour herself (and all of her stuffed animals) rosé, tells the audience not to take her word for it because, in her words, she’s drunk and plays tennis in her underwear.
As you could probably guess, there’s an interesting backstory behind many of these scenes. Marketing Brew chatted with Culprit underwear co-founders David Dinetz and Dylan Trussell (who directed and wrote the ad together), as well as Elkington, about how a cacophony of messy gal references came together into an ad that’s more than two minutes long.
The stuffed animals: Apparently, these little guys make appearances in other Culprit ads. “If you watch our bathing-suit commercial with Paige, she’s got a bunch of stuffed animals around her that she pulls into a hot tub with her,” Dinetz explained. But the reason why is more practical than whimsical. “We were shooting in this beautiful house that we got to use for free, but it was completely empty,” Dinetz continued. “We needed to fill it with something, and stuffed animals were super cheap to get, so that’s why we did that.”
The boyfriend: Turns out, the actor playing him started as Culprit’s head of customer service. “We found out he was a really talented actor. He has since worked his way up to COO of our company,” Trussell said.
The scene behind the scenes: No creative agencies were involved in the making of this ad…well, kind of. “Before we started our underwear brand, we ran a creative agency,” Trussell told us. “So all the creative was done in-house.”—PB