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Talk about perfect timing. Just as America
Ferrara’s “The system is rigged” monologue
from “Barbie” is going viral, Women's razor and bodycare brand Billie is introducing a board game that no one woman can ever win.
Called “No Worries If Not,” the game
highlights the absurd double standards women struggle with every day as they make their way through “Smile More Street,” “Judgment Junction,” and “The Wage Gap.”
The eventual goal never achieved in the history of womanhood? “No one is mad, and everyone is happy.”
Billie chose “No worries if not” as the title because the phrase
has become symbolic for a whole generation of women “who don’t want to appear to be too demanding or too burdensome when asking for something,” says Georgina Gooley, co-founder of
the brand. “The game exemplifies this idea that society expects women always to be likable. And it sums up everything that we're trying to say about the double standards that women are held
to.”
Gooley tells Marketing Daily the team is thrilled by the serendipity coinciding Barbie’s viral moment. “We’ve been working on this game since the
beginning of the year and couldn't have timed the launch better. It’s almost like we said, 'Hey Mattel, make our game a movie!’”
And while unplanned, launching into the
middle of “Barbie”-mania “proves how relevant the topic is right now.”
No one can win, of course. Whatever women do, someone will always be mad, and someone else will
be unhappy. “We’re trying to say that the whole game is pointless, and women can just say, 'I unsubscribe. I'm not going to play anymore.’”
Since launching in 2016, the
company’s marketing has focused on ways women can play by their own rules regarding armpit or pubic hair, earning a loyal following among Gen Z and millennial shavers.
“We want the
game to keep that going, encouraging people to make the best choices for themselves, no matter what society thinks. Hair should be a choice, not an expectation.”
The goal is to get the
brand out of people’s bathrooms and into their game night rotation.
Billie is selling the game on its website. And a fun infomercial-style spot, created in-house, is scheduled to run on digital and social media channels.
And while the game won’t be sold in stores, it
launches just as Billie keeps expanding its retail presence. Since 2020, it’s been owned by Edgewell Personal Care, which also owns Schick and Wilkinson Sword. And in 2022, Billie began rolling
into retail, starting with 4,000 Walmart stores. It then moved into Amazon, Target and drug and grocery chains in the U.S. and Canada. “Without that Edgewell expertise, we wouldn’t have
been able to expand so quickly," says Gooley.
Along with that expansion, the company's shifted marketing strategies from the pure performance model preferred by many D2C brands to “the
entire funnel, driving awareness. We’ve grown up into an omnichannel brand.”