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Gillette: The Best a Questioning, Cishet, Non-Binary Ally Can Get
Gillette has had a rough few years. The former shaving hegemon has seen its market share plummet due to a resurgence in classic “wet shaving,” online razor subscription services, and the popularity of beards. Gillette’s obvious options are to lower their artificially high price or drastically improve their quality. Instead, they’ve decided to make their remaining customers feel bad about themselves through an expensive new ad campaign.
“You’re a very bad person, give us money” is an odd marketing pitch, especially from a company that’s used sex to sell its product for decades. (Every time I shave, I’m disappointed no scantily-clad supermodel steps up behind me to rub my smooth face.) The Wall Street Journal attempts to explain Gillette’s campaign:
The ad puts a new spin on the brand’s 30-year tagline, “The Best A Man Can Get,” challenging men to take positive actions, such as stopping other men, and the next generation, from harassing women.
“This is an important conversation happening, and as a company that encourages men to be their best, we feel compelled to both address it and take action of our own,” said Pankaj Bhalla, Gillette brand director for North America in an emailed statement. “We are taking a realistic look at what’s happening today, and aiming to inspire change by acknowledging that the old saying ‘Boys Will Be Boys’ is not an excuse. We want to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and hope all the men we serve will come along on that journey to find our ‘best’ together.”
“It’s a risky move,” said Dean Crutchfield, CEO of branding firm Crutchfield + Partners. On one hand, it “creates a credible, believable, and upfront conversation that takes brutal honesty and tough decisions,” he said.
Customers don’t want brutal honesty and tough decisions, especially when they already get those every hour of the day. Gillette’s target market wants a smooth face for a low price.
Of course, Gillette refuses to provide that; it would destroy its business model. A century ago, King Gillette revolutionized marketing by offering a dirt-cheap (or free) razor handle. He then sold replacement razors at a high markup, locking consumers into a lifetime of expensive refills. Many imitators followed his model, something you notice every time you replace ink cartridges in your printer.
By the 2000s, Gillette was offering 38 blades with lawn-trimmer attachment for about $20 a month; men had enough. Some guys (like me), bought shaving brushes and simple safety razors that provided a better shave for pennies a blade.
A few years later, Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s offered multi-blade razors online which performed better than Gillette at a fraction of the price. The shaving giant attempted a club of their own, but it was an overpriced scam like the rest of their product line. Watching their market share continue to decline, Gillette has now declared war on its customer base. Back to WSJ:
Gillette parent Procter & Gamble Co. is among companies that in recent years have used advertising as a platform to promote their stance on social issues such as gender equality, and polarizing political topics such as immigration and gun control. P&G is perhaps best known for its lauded “Like a Girl” ad campaign for feminine-care brand Always and “Stress test” for deodorant brand Secret.
Promoting social issues can be effective marketing, but notice the difference. P&G’s female-directed ads make women feel better about themselves. The company tells women “you’re great just as you are” and tells men “you’re bad and need to change.” I’ve yet to complete my Marketing Ph.D., but I don’t think a message of “Women are revolting, buy Secret” would spike profits.
What do you think about Woke Gillette? Will it change your buying decisions?
Published in General
This reminds me.
Some people say the war of 1861-1865 was about slavery. Others say it was about states’ rights. Both are wrong.
That war was about shaving, pure and simple. The men of this fine nation left their homes and families for the sake of growing beards. And they won. It’s a sad fact that facial hair went back out of style only after all the veterans of that war died off.
Perhaps we need to wrest the beard away from the millenials and skinny jeans boys, and return to the ways of our much harder great great grandfathers, and stop shaving.
I’m kind of partial to Robert E. Lee’s beard. Barely trimmed, full neck hair. U.S. Grant had a good one too, but then again, General Thomas tops them all.
None of that cultivated sissy waxed nonsense of the faux lumberjacks with full body pajamas. It’s high time we demonstrate to the women folk of this nation what men are, and we are not toxic, but we damn sure don’t give a damn what they think if they want to emasculate us.
Their products are overpriced, overpriced, overpriced. This insipid campaign smacks of desperation, and I’m glad that I don’t own any P&G.
The first half of the ad is stupid – all these guys staring in the mirror, wondering “Am I a straw man who actually laughed at that ‘Married with Children’ episode in 1999?”
Big mistake: the clueless, fatal association of grilling with indifferent lunkhead men. It’s the sort of detail that could only come from men who write long essays for Medium about how they feel alienated from grilling and always get nervous sweat when they have to go to a backyard party, because there are like, these dudes, standing over the fire? And it’s so, like, primal? god none of these people ever listen to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me you can just tell but I guess I can stand here and joke while I drink this beer because airquotes it’s what guys do airquotes
Jon wrote:
Yes and no. Here’s a recent ad for Gillette’s Female Razor. “With Venus, you’re in charge. So when the world expects you to follow their rules, do what you want because you are awesome and no one can tell you what to do!”
https://ispot.tv/a/dz0m
You see an entirely different set of social pressures at work. “You’re an awesome powerful individual who has tats and a nose ring, but you still want to shave? That’s your choice!” Or, more likely, you are not tattooed or pierced, but want to think you could be one of those heedless new moderns, so by shaving you’re not giving into the patriarchy, you are expressing solidarity with these non-conforming non-traditional women who do shave, dammit, despite someone telling them they shouldn’t! Because no one gets an opinion on how you live your life.
They’re talking about pressure from other woke-scold women.
Twenty years ago: use this razor and you will be a tanned, long-limbed, smooth-legged sex goddess.
A whole different set of pressures and messages. In the old ad: you’d better use this razor, because there are a lot of women out there who have great legs. The new ad: you should really use this razor to show you’re an individual and you’re doing this for you and you only. From competition and vanity to insecurity dressed up as assertion.
Those “guys” need to go to an Aussie restaurant where they guys grill* the steaks and jacket potatoes while the girls drink wine.
* Much beer is consumed, trust me.
The bottom line: the Gillette ad fails because ads play to our insecurities, and the vast majority of men are not insecure about the issues raised in the ad.
With a heavy beard, I found mega-blade razors clogged too fast. For the past decade plus, I’ve used generic brand two-blade disposable razors, purchased 10 for $1.00 at Dollar Tree. Soap and water. That 10 cent razor lasts several days since I reduced the acreage needing daily clearing.
I wasn’t aware of these ads. I shave with a disposable razor and lather with a brush and Williams shaving soap in a mug. The brush is a bit of a nuisance when traveling, but I’ve got a system worked out. And I use a little plastic shaving soap container with a screw top for traveling.
A few years ago the local stores quit carrying Williams shaving soap, but I found a source online and stocked up.
Usually one razor lasts quite a while, so long as I wash with hot, soapy water before lathering, but lately I found they were going dull quickly. I don’t know if it’s due to my skin getting drier as I get older, or due to winter dryness, or what, but I ended up needing more razors and got a cheap package of Bic razors. I found they are a huge improvement over those from the old days, which I never liked. So for now, that’s my choice.
Several decades ago I used to use shaving soap in a can, and a safety razor. There was a time when I used an electric razor, too. Maybe 20 years ago I tried going back to a portable, battery-operated razor for traveling as it made for a compact kit, but somehow just couldn’t get used to it again. Before settling on my current kit I would do strange things when bicycle camping, such as lathering with a bar of regular soap, all in the interest of keeping my toiletries kit light and compact. It could be made to work, sort of, usually with some re-lathering before I was done.
Their youtube video of the ad is getting bombarded with negative votes. Good.
Lets hope this turns into another example of “get woke, go broke”.
Edit: And as one youtuber said, “comments getting deleted faster than Hillary’s emails”.
Join me in going full-Todd against the hated Gillette hegemo –
*aaaack*
It’s worse even than that. The majority of men are not only “not insecure about the issues raised”, they are innocent of them, and will not appreciate being indicted via guilt by association, especially by people who simply want to out-woke each other.
Great point.
OK, but stop wearing your Gillette t-shirts.
Please.
What’s jarring about the commercial is that it treats the subject matter, that “something has changed”, where any of the stuff occurring before was bad (and maybe it was), and now Gillette is poised, through sheer sharpness of blade, to fix what ails American consumers, through the sheer force of shaving will.
A blade? How about you just make razors. Instead, Gillette now jumps to the side of….whoever…and figures chivalry is the new way best a man can get? And Gillette is just the company to advise men how to behave?
Why is that new? And why should a razor blade be a part of it? And why should a pitch to buy something be part of this noble exercise?
Lastly. Did I mention it’s a razor blade? It’s a cheap way to jump on the moment to try to push more blades. Might as well have had men shaving with pink hats on.
I’ve been shaving my legs for years and I don’t look that good in a bikini.
#sadface
#truth
Wisdom passed on by my Dad…
If you aren’t shaving out of steel helmet with cold water and bar soap…you got it pretty good.
That’s not wet shaving. What I do is wet shaving: shave in the shower with no soap. Cartridges last a month.
I think, when I started shaving, I used a single blade cartridge. Every time Gilette increased the number of blades, I was pleased with the result, until the five blade cartridge. It was too much. So I use the Mach 3.
A couple of years ago, one of my brothers gave me a disposable to try out. It’s what he used. I tried it once, cut myself to ribbons, and went back the the Mach 3.
Many years ago, I built a Ruby Tuesday’s in Tallahassee. Across the corridor from our site was a barber shop. I got pretty grubby, and decided to get a haircut and a shave, as much because the barber was a pretty woman as for any other reason. We were talking about licensing, and she said the reason barbers had to be licensed was because of the straight razor.
They don’t call them that any longer.
That story – how that got approved is a story in itself . I would really like to get an idea if there were deliberations or push-back on this? An P&L analysis of what customers they anticipated alienating, customers they anticipated to gain and if the campaign was worth that. The advertising world is just as America hating as Hollywood and academia.
Corporate America stinks.
Yep. You can buy exactly what you want from Harry’s when you want it. Just avoid the auto-ship shaving plans and spend at least $10 to get free shipping.
Another product line I will never buy.
They still use focus groups to test this stuff, don’t they? One can only imagine where they drew from.
Thanks for the insightful commentary Mr. Gabriel. As for my thoughts having just seen the ad, all I can say is, the message isn’t that bad. It condemns pretty awful behavior–or at least behavior that should NOT be condoned, but the heavy handed use of ‘me too’ reportage is over the top. There’s also an irony here in the incorporation of Terry Crews–a notable and vocal exception to the ‘me too victim’ narrative.
Did I mention that the ad ultimately fails to persuade me to buy their product??
The Best a Man Can Be . . . is a woman. Gillette, gives you a shave so close you could pass for a girl.
You could buy a straight razor once and use it forever, but I hear it takes some getting used to
I don’ t see a thing wrong with this ad. It’s done well and is on board with a message that is more Christian than “woke”. As a female, I think it’s long overdue – I didn’t even realize the extent of the sexual harassment across all industries and how rampant it’s been. Then throw in the bullying on line and in schools of younger, weaker or less popular kids (and women are guilty here too). Men don’t have good role models anymore – rap and the culture – even some in the sports world fail to convey a healthy message to boys and men.
The ad is positive, not negative. The dumping on men to become more feminized is not what is being shown here – I deplore that. Men are men and this is just a push to become better.
One more thing – when I worked for a large consulting firm, Gillette was a client. This was back in early 2000 before all this “sensitivity stuff” we see now – where men can’t be men and all this gender fluidity stuff is being pushed. We did fundraisers on a regular basis at work and one was to a large women’s shelter for battered women in Boston. Gillette donated tons of free products for this fundraiser. They do good things on behalf of women.
I too am a Mach3 user. Three blades really was an upgrade from two. Four and five blades were just silly — and ridiculously more expensive. And as @drusus notes, you can make them last. I get three or four weeks out of mine.
I haven’t even tried Harry’s, or any of the other safety razors. This ad makes me want to, but I’m not super motivated. Maybe.
Once you’ve paid for the sunk costs of the Mach 3 razor, it’s been around long enough that lots of companies now make knock-off blades (Walmart’s been selling their own brand for years at about 40 percent off the price Gillette does, and if Walmart’s got their own brand, Walgreen’s, CVS and all the the other stores probably have their own house brands).
Brand marketing as a group and how the represent themselves are far far left. Its the weirdest thing. Brand Marketing is trying to appeal to 8% of the population.
It makes no sense. Major brands are very poorly served.
This is what a lack of diversity looks like. Its practically a textbook example from any MBA program in America.
addendum:
This commercial could be targeting the single women who disproportionately make up the far far left (and brand marketers). That would make sense, because Razors are an undifferentiated product whose primary source of value is advertising (in fact international tax compliance law is created because Gillette argued that they were a beer company, whose source of value is advertising which is based in switzerland so neener neener neener tax man), and women’s razors are sold at a higher price than men’s. So attracting single women who are far left, to buy a product at a higher margin from an advertising company selling an undifferentiated consumer product, does make sense.
There is a reason that women’s product advertising trash men, because women respond to men being trashed.
So in that light it makes sense.