Tony Cavalero Helps Dudes Find 'Ball-ance' in Ads for Hanes

“When you cradle your nethers, life is as light as a feather.”
“Less wrestling, more nestling”
“Let thy dangle be tranquil.”

Hanes’ new self-help-guru type spokes-character offers such timeless words of wisdom in ads from The Martin Agency extolling the virtues of men’s underwear that feature a Total Support Pouch to help guys achieve … ball-ance.

Tony Cavalero from HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones plays Hans—pronounced “Hanes”—and delivers his loopy lines in an accent of no fixed latitude, even while straddling a mechanical yak or hanging from a cliff in the half-minute spot below.

Dude sounds a bit like Ahh-nold Schwarzenegger on an obnoxiously comfortable day. And speaking of bits, Hans also struts his, um, stuff, in a series of social, er, shorts:

Working through Tool, Paul Briganti of SNL fame directs with his self-consciously stupid style. It’s all sight gags and nutty wordplay—but it works. So don’t get your rocks in a twist. Just roll with it.

“This is the first new men’s product that Hanes has launched in a while, so we wanted a memorable and unexpected way to do get a lot of information across,” Martin Agency creative director John Szalay tells Muse. “The main benefit of the product is separation support. We spun that into ‘Ball-ance,’ a tongue-in-cheek vibe helping guys approach the outside world with calm and confidence. We then leaned into the slightly metaphysical quasi self-help aspects, and out of that the Hans character was born.”

Wow, that team sure knows how to handle creative briefs!

During the casting session, “Tony’s presence and energy as Hans was so arresting,” recalls senior agency art director Rushil Nadkarni. “The improv skills he brought to the table were undeniable. Cavalero probably wasn’t even aware that maybe there is a real Hans inside of him.”

Another plus: “He’s a very recognizable TV personality, and he’s got a solid fanbase on social media,” Nadkarni says.

As part of the campaign, the brand launched an #OvershareInYourUnderwear challenge on TikTok. Its focus on getting comfortable while stripping down—please, not all the way!—has generated more than 4.4 ball-ion views so far.

CREDITS

Client: Hanes

Client Credits:
Chief Consumer Officer: Greg Hall
President: Nadine Hall
VP, President of Marketing at Hanesbrands: Jaye Powell
Chief Brand Officer: Sidney Falken
Director of Brand Marketing: Heather Hough
Senior Marketing Manager: Jamie Wallis

Topic: Product Launch          
Medium(s): National TV  / Social     
Ad Name(s):  “Balance” :30 / :15
“Wheelhouse” Social :12
“Cradle” Social :10
“Bits” Social :12
“Rock Extended” Social :09
“Waterfall Extended” Social :10
“Truffles” Social :06
“Dangle” Social :06
“Wrestling” Social :06

Agency Credits | The Martin Agency
Chief Executive Officer: Danny Robinson     
Creative Director:  John Szalay
Copywriter:  Jacob Pankey
Senior Art Director: Rushil Nadkarni
SVP, Executive Producer: Brett Alexander
Producer: Arielle Blais
Senior Business Affairs Supervisor: Suzanne Wieringo
Financial Affairs Manager: Kevin Llewellyn 
VP, Director, Account Leadership Operations: Sandra Snead   
VP, Account Director: Elizabeth Jones   
Account Supervisor: Liesl Lipford         
Account Executive: Abbey Reddington
Strategic Planner: Emily Mattice      

Production Company: TOOL   
Director: Paul Briganti       
Executive Producer: Rob Sexton
Producer: Taylor Bro

Editorial Company: Cut + Run
Editor: Frank Effron
Senior Producer: Jared Thomas
Assistant Editor:Tim Sekiguchi

Post Production/VFX: The Mill – NY
Executive Producer: Rochelle Brown 
Senior Producer: Luis Martin 
2D Lead Artist and VFX Supervisor: Jade Kim 
3D Lead Artist: Tom Bardwell
Colorist: Fergus McCall
2D Artists: Kieran Hanrahan, Luke Midgely, Vi Nguyen, Marcelo Pasqualino
3D Artists: Todd Dufour, Cedric Menard, Greg Mawicke, Navdeep Singh 

Audio Post Facility: Rainmaker
Engineer/Mixer: Michael O’Connor
Producer: Isaac Whalen