Life

When Beards Jump the Shark

by Viet VoPham

Despite recent claims that we have reached "peak beard," the burly facial hair trend shows no signs of slowing down — but Schick New Zealand is looking to do something about that, threatening to tame hipster beards everywhere with their “Free Your Skin” ad campaign.

We've all lived through the mustache and beard bonanza known as "Movember," and can all likely vouch for the fact that sometimes adventures in ambitious facial hair go awry. Schick is attempting to protect men everywhere from their own bad beard-growing instincts with their new campaign. The company teamed up with ad creatives from Y&R New Zealand to bring you a series of promotional photos of men growing beards in the shape of animals — consider this your "When Facial Hair Goes Wrong" PSA. Each of the photos were taken by photographers Troy Goodall and Stephen Stewart and then touched up by Electric Art.

Shick's hilarious photos are meant to demonstrate that shaving is necessary, and that men should do it, and that they should do it using Schick products, of course. But it may be backfiring...I know at least one person in the pro-beard camp who couldn't help but look at these lumberjack-esque specimens and think "Damn, they look gooood!"

Images: Schick