• by Danielle Oster , November 11, 2024

What does a beverage brand have to do with soap?

Liquid Death and Dr. Squatch -- two brands from divergent categories both known for an irreverent approach to brand building and viral marketing -- collaborated on a new release, Dirt Murderer, which they’re billing as “Soap for Psychos.”

Dirt Murderer is being released as individual bars and  in packages of three for a limited time, available on Dr. Squatch’s website. The soap is made with Liquid Death Mountain Water, dead sea salt, and features scents of  eucalyptus, juniper, and cedarwood. In case the product name and hyper-masculine packaging leaves any doubt, the product is clearly marketed as a “men’s natural soap,” clearly targeting younger generations of men.  

Centered around a 30-second video ad.on both brands’ digital and social channels, the “Soap for Psychos” campaign tracks in a style of humor  familiar to consumers of either brand. “Soap For Psychos” promises the product will “wash away all the day’s dirt, sweat, and blood,” while leaving those who use it smelling “fresher than [a] mountain stream.” It opens on an apparent murderer, wearing a Hannibal Lecter-style mask, hanging up his axe and pulling out a bar of the soap to wash his crimes away “for a fresh clean day,” in the parlance of the ad. The lines are delivered in an homage to, or parody of  (or somewhere in-between)  the classic, catchy jingles of a bygone advertising era.

That bloody approach appears to be a popular approach among advertisers lately. Blizzard Entertainment’s “SlayPals” campaign promoting a recent “Diablo IV” expansion went “all in on blood,” pairing cartoonish violence with a nod to classic toy advertising of the '80s and '90s.

For Liquid Death, the “Dirt Murderer” launch follows the brand kicking off its “Misfortune Cookies” campaign greeting diners at select restaurants in Los Angeles and New York with messages like: “You will live a long, happy life. No wait. Sorry. That was actually for the person across from you. Things are not looking good for you.”