- Salt & Stone named singer-songwriter Role Model (Tucker Pillsbury) the face of a character-driven campaign built around the tagline "Reliable, so you don't have to be."
- The rollout is timed to his third album, Chuck Timely & The Hourglass, out August 7, 2026.
- Photographer Chloe Chippendale shot the campaign stills (and the album cover), while Daniel Sachon directed the film.
- The deal lands four months after private equity firm Advent International agreed to acquire a majority stake in Salt & Stone, which closed 2025 with $165 million in revenue.
Salt & Stone has a new face, and he says the internet basically talked him into it. The Los Angeles body care brand has tapped Role Model, the stage name of Tucker Pillsbury, for a campaign landing just ahead of his third album.
Rather than shoot Pillsbury as himself, the concept casts him as a fictionalized, flawed leading-man type pulled from classic cinema. “Since the internet likes to tell me I stink, working with Salt & Stone felt pretty natural,” Pillsbury said, adding he helped build the character and creative from scratch rather than just showing up to a shoot.
Salt & Stone’s CMO said signing Pillsbury, whose recent headlines have leaned as much on his relationship with Dakota Johnson as his music, reflects a broader talent-led strategy that still nods to the brand’s athletic roots.
The timing matters. The campaign arrives four months after Advent International signed for a majority stake in Salt & Stone, which posted double-digit growth across Amazon, Sephora and its own site last year.
It also continues a pattern of body care and beauty brands leaning on music talent for campaigns tied to release cycles: Garnier recently tapped Young Miko for its skincare line, NYX Professional Makeup put Megan Thee Stallion behind its Caramelt Mami Body Oil, and Dove Men+Care just tapped Nic Vansteenberghe for a grooming residency campaign.
Takeaways
This is Role Model’s first major beauty deal, and Salt & Stone built the concept around him instead of slotting him into an off-the-shelf campaign, a sign the brand is investing in cultural relevance, not just reach.
The Dakota Johnson factor is doing real marketing work here, whether Salt & Stone says so outright or not. Pairing a rising musician with fresh tabloid visibility is a low-cost amplifier most beauty brands would love to have.
Timing a grooming campaign to an album release turns the deodorant ad into part of the album rollout and vice versa, a two-for-one media moment that keeps showing up across categories.
Does this campaign move the needle for Salt & Stone beyond its already-dominant Amazon and Sephora deodorant rankings? Could Role Model become a recurring Salt & Stone face, or is this tied strictly to the album cycle?
