DUDE Wipes vs. Toilet Paper: The Smear Strike Heard ’Round The Category
Have you been harmed by toilet paper?
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Dear Friend, Subscriber, and Category Pirate,
On August 26, DUDE Wipes declared war on toilet paper.
In five cities—Chicago, Atlanta, Fort Worth, Cincinnati, and Bentonville—700 digital billboards lit up for 24 hours. Each one smeared the toilet paper category with cheeky lines like:
“Toilet paper is for quitters.”
“Friends don’t let friends dry wipe.”
“TP accident? Reader end defenders.”
Lightning Strikes like this are what DUDE Wipes does best.
Let’s break it down:
Why "TP Day" Is A Legendary Lighting Strike
The Timing: National Toilet Paper Day (August 26th) is a manufactured cultural moment. For most companies, it’s a throwaway PR hook. For DUDE Wipes, it was the perfect time to throw a punch at the existing category. They turned a “holiday” nobody cares about into a word-of-mouth marketing event.
The Geography: The target cities were not ordinary markets. The Dudes zeroed in on competitor HQs, where toilet paper executives drive to work, and retail power centers. It’s one thing to run an ad online. It’s an entirely different thing to put a billboard outside the Procter & Gamble headquarters.
The Message: Commercial toilet paper has been around for 168 years. Everyone uses it, but few questioned—until DUDE Wipes. They framed TP not as the default, but as the enemy. That’s the core of Category Design: Make the old way look outdated so the new way looks inevitable.
The Cost: Ryan Meegan, the CMO of DUDE Wipes, is a master of doing more with less. This wasn’t a seven-figure Super Bowl play. It was a one-day, six-figure strike with an outsized cultural impact. The DUDE playbook is to take advantage of underpriced attention, move faster than incumbents, and turn strikes into word-of-mouth drivers.
How DUDE Wipes Leverages Lightning Strikes
DUDE Wipes can’t outspend Charmin’s bear butt commercials.
But they don’t need to.
Lightning Strikes don’t reward the biggest checkbooks—they reward category leaders with a different point of view.
When Tyron Woodley wore DUDE Wipes on his UFC trunks, the company went viral off a $10K gamble.
When Isaiah Crowell wiped his butt with a football, DUDE Wipes turned it into a national news cycle for $3,500.
Now, with the National Toilet Paper Day strike, they’ve once again proven that word-of-mouth beats mass media.
The goal of this strike was to make toilet paper executives squirm in their chairs. To force emergency meetings. To plant the thought that toilet paper’s monopoly on the bathroom might not be safe.
That’s what Lightning Strikes do.
They change perception in the market and behavior inside companies.
DUDE Wipes has become the master of the modern Lightning Strike.
A few weeks ago, we sat down with Ryan Meegan to get his strike playbook.
We’re sharing his perspective, frameworks, and stories in upcoming mini-books, so you understand not only why to plan a strike but how to make it work for your category. We’ll cover how to think about budget, how to spot strike opportunities, and how to turn a little momentum into a massive WOM event.
You don’t need a billion-dollar budget to win.
You need the guts to pick your moment, launch the strike, and build momentum.
Arrrrrr,
Category Pirates 🏴☠️
P.S. - Have questions or thoughts on the DUDE’s strike? Add them in the comment below.
This Lightning Strike just happened, so we’re sharing what we know in real time. We’ll dive deeper into the results and practical frameworks in upcoming mini-books.
I LOVE the digital billboard idea. Use a centuries old medium with a modern twist for a single bolt of lightning. Brilliant!