"The Best a Man Can Be" or not?

"The Best a Man Can Be" or not?

Shot from the #WeBelieve ad campaign by Gillette.

By Marit Kootwijk
Friday, September 27, 2019

In the recent years Gillette, as one of the most established razor brands, has come under fierce competition from cheaper razors. It already made them drop the prices of their razors and in Januari they came with a new campaign. By introducing this new campaign they were hoping to regain their trust as master brand in the razor industry. Unfortunately this didn't really go as they had hoped..

#Believe

During the Super Bowl of 1989 Gillette made a big impression with their new slogan "The Best a Man Can Get" and for the last 30 years they were able to use this line in every campaign they presented. 30 years? Yes! And on January 13, after 30 years, they released their new ad campaign with the slogan "The Best a Man Can Be" with the tagline #WeBelieve. The ad campaign consists of a 2-minute video that shows images of bullying, sexual harassment and most of all toxic masculinity by men with the repeating of the slogan; is this the best a man can get? The new advertisement bears the title #WeBelieve and makes a direct connection with the stories that women shared under the hashtag #MeToo. 

The commercial calls on men to get rid masculinity of sexism and violence. But since when is that a bad thing? Well, not every man received this message as positively and felt seriously offended by the video. They felt every man was the same in the eyes of this ad and got associated with the MeToo movement. As a response the video received 803,000 likes, but 1,5 million (!!) dislikes on YouTube. Cu stomers posted images of throwing away their razors and posting tweets that they would never use a product from Procter and Gamble ever again. The campaign aimed at upgrading the selling of Gillette, but backfired and turned into a online crises for Gillette. Normally a company would try to counter argue the accusations but Gillette didn't.

Crisis?

By releasing this campaign they expected there to be some discussion, which they initially wanted, but with the late modernity social media issues such as risk, uncertainty, trust and holistic reflexivity the speed of the online discussion was not something they expected. Consumers have a strong opinion and are forced to make individual choices all the time. Gillette had several options to react to this discussion. Post-crisis communication can be used to repair the reputation and/or prevent reputational damage, but instead of applying one of the methods of the SCCT for the repetitional protection Gillette never apologized. They did not apologize to all the men that felt offended or even attacked by the campaign, they stood behind their campaign. Pankaj Bhalla, Gillette's North American brand director, explained:

So instead of apologizing, they tried to affect the perceptions and issues by explaining the human-interest of their campaign. This brings an emotional, personal angle to the campaign, which normally might even stimulate forming negative attitudes towards the organization. On the one hand it did form negative attitudes, but also many positive attitudes. 

Gillette states on their website that the ad campaign is part of a larger initiative of the company. "We want to promote a positive, reachable, inclusive and healthy version of what it means to be a man. Starting today, we will actively challenge the expectations and the stereotypical image of the man. In the advertisements we make, the words we choose and the images we share on social media." And they literally put money where the mouth was by creating a positive initiative by donating $1 Million per year for the next three years to non-profit organizations executing the most interesting and impactful programs designed to help men of all ages achieve their personal best.

Be smart, be like Gillette

So there are mixed feelings about the "Best a Man Can Be" campaign by Gillette. Some praised them for being progressive and use their reach to accomplish something, as others started boycotting the brand for attacking masculinity. Either way Gillette got a lot of media attention by introducing this campaign, and with this being the first video of a bigger branding campaign it definitely received the attention it wanted in the first place.

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About the author: Marit is a 25 year old student based in Amsterdam. She is combining getting a masters degree with all other aspects that come with being a typical student in Amsterdam. Finding out which aspects of communication she likes most, for now she sticks to the interactive aspect.  

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