Gillette, under the P&G group, apparently lost 8 Billion dollars due to their controversial ad campaign targeting toxic masculinity.
Things changed rapidly when Gillette went from “The best a man can get” to “The best a man can be”. Last year, when the world had other problems to worry about, Gillette released this gem of a campaign, raising voice against “Toxic Masculinity” and how it can and should be stopped at a very young age.
Before jumping onto anything, let me briefly describe to you what the whole advertisement was about. The campaign showcased a series of various events, from little boys bullying someone in school, to men making fun of sexual harassment, to a male boss suppressing the voice of a female subordinate to various other issues, which gets termed as “Boys will be boys” in the end.
The campaign was inspired by the #metoo movement and wanted to make an impact on people, especially men, by educating them how their everyday actions have a much bigger negative impact than they can even imagine.
But what caused the outrage?
Well, it turns out that some men didn’t like the idea of a brand, which they’ve been a loyal customer of, telling them how they should behave and that’s all it took for them to act in a way they did. They threw away all the Gillette products they had and protested online by pledging they’ll never buy from the brand again, causing P&G, the parent company of Gillette, to face a loss of $8 billion. Adding to the misery, this whole facade gave Gillette’s competitors like Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s a big boost in their operations as a sign of revolt by its consumers.
However, while these e-protests were going on, some people started to point out how this reaction is what Gillette was trying to address in hindsight. How a majority of men getting so offended when shown how they actually behave was exactly what needed to be changed and the people on social media proved this point while trying to negate the idea itself.
What all has happened since then?
After the anger got cooled down and people started thinking straight, many people were invited to a lot of surveys by many websites, and on average, above 60% of the participants found the campaign leaving a positive impact on them. According to a business insider article, 56% of people who were existing consumers of the competitors, said that now they will shift to Gillette only because of this campaign as it made them realize that the brand is very much aware of its corporate social responsibilities.
My 2 cents!
Gillette did an amazing job with this campaign by raising a very important issue in a manner that teaches a lesson and also shows that how much a brand is concerned about its direct consumer. As men being the first and foremost consumer of the brand, and the brand being so renowned globally, it holds the power to influence people and thus it was a duty well done and I hope men can look at it in an eye-opening manner and how serious toxic masculinity is and how important it is to stop it.
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