Milind Soman turns intimate grooming professor for Zlade Ballistic

A year ago, supermodel and actor Milind Soman deemed us savages for not giving our balls the respect they deserve. People most likely didn’t listen, compelling him to catch ‘em young—no, not that way—Soman is now a professor of intimate grooming dedicated to spreading the art of ball grooming to impressionable college kids.

Unfortunately, these students have set themselves up for disturbingly poor hygiene and odour, as the poor professor found out through a first-hand experience when checking a student’s homework.

Nauseated, he orders the student to leave the class and then goes on to tell the truth: “In class and in life, there is no room for men who do not groom.” It’s all part of the Zlade Ballistic School of Grooming’s curriculum, a intimate grooming sub-brand under Zlade, a personal grooming brand. 

But it is not all about odours and smells in this class. There’s a bit of cheek from Professor Soman; he instructs the dismissed student to only return with his girlfriend a la call your parents if you want to return to this classroom.

“If your pre-date prep ain't good enough, let's make it. Watch and learn what it takes for an average Joe to up his grooming game,” reads the YouTube description of the ad. We (afaqs!) are told this is only the first of three ads planned for this campaign.

Soman, who’s been the face of Zlade Ballistic since October 2022, is not new to the grooming ritual. If one recalls, he was part of a series of fun ads for Old Spice showing us what we were missing out on in life because we did not spray Old Spice deodorant.

Cheeky ads are part of Zlade’s strategy when it comes to keeping the balls clean. A couple of months ago, it showed us the banter between those sensitive appendages in public places—all in the mood for a good trim.

"We believe that good content will always shine through, whether it's on social media or billboards. We aim to create content that entertains and captures mind space without being intrusive,” said Zlade’s creative head and brand director Nikhil Narayanan to afaqs! speaking about the brand’s ‘Below-The-Belt’ campaign.

As per consulting and marketing research company IMARC Group, the Indian male grooming products market size reached $2.1 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $4.1 billion by 2032. Zlade, in this market, battles the likes of Philips, Braun, Xiaomi, Vega, and Beardo.