Last week, the global social media scene was in a frenzy. Social feeds were not anxious about the likely disaster that Brexit might create but over a TV ad for a shaving brand.
It turned out that Gillete changed its slogan from ‘the best a man can get’ to something more controversial territory ‘The best men can be’. By default, in the world of advertising, the buzz and the loud talks about a campaign is a good thing. Well, it is good until your customers start revolting and cursing your brand for stepping its bound.
For those who have not seen the commercial, Gillete said the commercial was a message to make men better by standing up to negative behaviours that affect women which ends up influencing the men of tomorrow. But to most of its target audience, the commercial is a mish-mash of negative images of how many have been perpetrating ‘toxic masculinity’ mostly against women who are the innocent and victims of the malaise.
While Gillete wants its customers and the general public (who are just men) to believe it was not an overgeneralization that men are evil and toxic, most of its target audience think otherwise. As a matter of fact, many of them have started a revolt against the brand calling for a general boycott of Gillete. On the YouTube video which already has about 24 million views, about 600k likes and whopping 1.1 million dislikes. Several videos have been uploaded showing Gillete users trashing their sticks. Does this mean a brand can’t get more creative by becoming relevant within socio-cultural boundaries? Should brands keep quiet on ‘touchy’ social issues? When can a brand cross the line and how thick or thin is the fault-line?
The answer is in research. From the clips of the commercial, it is obvious that Gillete got its sampling wrong. For a brand that is 117 years old, Gillete must have spent more time making shaving sticks than learning what ‘toxic masculinity’ really means and also what it means to an average ‘Gillete man’.
Instead of making this obvious gaffe, what if Gillete ran a call to action campaign asking men #WhatDoThinkAboutToxicMasculinity?
The lesson is – we can’t be too sure about what the target audience think unless we ask them.
© SBI Media. This article was published by SBI media in their Nextgen newsletter of January 21, 2019.