One of the most controversial, talked about, and effective advertising campaign in January 2019 is the Gillette Toxic Masculinity advert. The advert was designed to market one of the most successful brands of razors and men’s grooming products, which are manufactured and marketed by Procter & Gamble. However, the advert does not focus on the products themselves but on the subject of men and the modern concept of masculinity (Johnson, 2019). The primary motivation for the advert seems to be the #me too movement that has gotten a lot of traction in the USA. #me too movement is mainly about toxic masculinity, a concept that has traditionally been associated with masculinity signs such as the beard (Business Radio, 2019). By creating an advertisement that focuses on eliminating toxic masculinity, Gillette brand was seeking to establish itself as a social justice conscious brand, an identity that could endear it more to the modern market.
Historical Context
Razors and shavers are unisex products but they have traditionally been associated with men and the shaving of beards. Most advertising for shaving kits has generally celebrated manly activities such as violent sports like boxing and football, muscular figures that portray male machismo and such themes (Business Radio, 2019). The marketers would thus seek to attract customers by showing that their products are preferred by alpha males. In the modern times, however, the concept of the dominant alpha male has been under siege more so in popular culture. Concepts such as manspreading and mansplaining have been developed reflecting the dominant alpha male as a societal problem. The #me too movement, based on the incidences of sexual discrimination and violence reflected more light on the toxicity of the dominant alpha male. It is based on the above background that the referenced advertisement was created.
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The Organization
The referenced marketing campaign was run by the Gillette Company. Gillette is a wholly owned subsidiary of Procter & Gamble (Cheung, 2017). The company makes razors and allied products which it sells to a unisex market although it generally markets to an almost exclusively male audience. For example, about three decades now, the company’s advertising has been based on the slogan, "Best a Man Can Get". Gillette is multinational if not a global brand, recognize easily by all Americans and also almost all over the world. The advertisement is thus not just for a specific product but also for the Gillette brand which is worth tens of billions of dollars. Its parent company, The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational of British origin which deals mainly in household products.
The target of the Ad Campaign
From an analytical perspective, the target of the referenced advertisement can be divided into two main categories. The first target is the actual target and the second is the referenced target. The referenced target is the target that the advert seems to be targeting which is men while the actual target is who the company was logically making the advert for, which is women (Business Radio, 2019). Based on the advert, the referenced target was men and boys as the direct message from the advert is designed for them. The message in the advert is against traditional elements of male machismo such as violence and skirt-chasing. It includes boys being cautioned against bullying and fighting and men being cautioned inter alia against cat-calling or harassing women on the streets (Johnson, 2019). The actual message, however, seems to be towards the women who are a major segment of the Gillette brand target. From a careful analysis of the marketing drive, it seems that Gillette is seeking to communicate to women that it cares, more so in the aftermath of the #me too movement.
How the Organization Conformed
Whether the company was able to adapt to their norm through the campaign has been the subject of debate but in a balance of probabilities, they seem to have conformed. Gillette is a powerful brand in a company that cannot escape credible accusations of male chauvinism. For example, the USA has had 45 presidents, all of which have been male. In the history of the USA, women had no voting right for longer than they have had voting rights. Finally, women still get lower wages for the same amount of work than men (McNride & Parry, 2016). It is in such an environment that unisex brand can have "Best a Man Can Get" as their marketing slogan. It has been argued that the instant marketing drive antagonized Gillette’s market base but a careful evaluation will show that the advert only reached out to a market base that Gillette has been ignoring.
Reflection: Lessons to Other Marketers
Gillette is a traditional brand that has taken over a century to build into what it was as at January 2019 when the instant campaign began. A wrong marketing decision can ruin the multimillion dollar brand but this did not stop Gillette from seeking to do the right thing. Gillette is not the first company to risk its brand so as to take a social justice stand. Another major American brand Nike on 2018 run campaign spearheaded by Colin Kaepernick indirectly based on racial justice (Wertz, 2018). Whereas it is still too early to judge the impact of the Gillette marketing campaign, Nike got worse backlash for their campaign but available commentary shows that from a marketing perspective, the campaign benefited the brand. Based on the same history, it is highly probable that Gillette will also benefit from their social justice-based marketing campaign. Other companies should learn that the modern market place is dominated by social justice theme, and it is high time that their marketing campaigns conformed to social justice. If a razor company can successfully campaign against toxic masculinity, other companies can follow suit and teach their customers how to be better human beings. The campaigns may get a little backlash but from a commercial perspective, it will still succeed.
References
Business Radio. (2019). Did Gillette miss the mark with its toxic masculinity ad? Retrieved from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/gillette-toxic-masculinity-ad/
Cheung, L. (2017). Divestiture as conglomerate merger remedy, with case study of 2005 P&G-Gillette Merger. Retrieved from https://www.nzae.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Lydia-Cheung.pdf
Johnson, D. (2019, January 23). Gillette's Ad on toxic masculinity made men mad - and that's the problem. Retrieved from https://www.teenvogue.com/story/gillette-ad-toxic-masculinity-made-men-mad
McBride, D. E., & Parry, J. A. (2016). Women's Rights in the USA: Policy Debates and Gender Roles . New York: Routledge
Wertz, J. (2018, October 01). Taking risks can benefit your brand - Nike's Kaepernick campaign is a perfect example. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jiawertz/2018/09/30/taking-risks-can-benefit-your-brand-nikes-kaepernick-campaign-is-a-perfect-example/#2867eead45aa
