GILLETTE: WE BELIEVE CAMPAIGN

INTRODUCTION OF THE CAMPAIGN

“The Best Men Can Be" is a corporate social responsibility advertising campaign
from the Procter and Gamble safety razor and personal care brand Gillette. They
released a short film for the campaign on January 13, 2019 entitled We Believe: The
Best Men Can Be, which was a take upon the then existing slogan ("The Best a Man
Can Get") to address negative conduct among men, including harassing, sexism,
sexual wrongdoing, and poisonous manliness with a focus on #MeToo movement.
Gillette also made a three-year commitment to make donations of $1 million to the
organizations that help men achieve their personal goals.

The short movie starts by summoning the brand's motto since 1989, "The Best a
Man Can Get", by asking "Is this the best a man can get?". The ad highlights Terry
Crews' congressional speech in which he asks men to stand up and hold other men
accountable for their actions. This is trailed by scenes showing negative conduct
among guys, including tormenting, sexism, sexual offense, and harmful manliness,
affirmation of social developments, for example, #MeToo.  The advertisement
proceeds to clarify that the society trusts the best in men. Hence, they need to act
right. Thus, the first motto is re-attempted to strengthen this message, turning into
"The Best Men Can Be".

Gillette considers themselves to be a company that encourages men to be their best

and hence, considers it their responsibility to ensure that they are advancing
positive, feasible, comprehensive and healthy versions of being a man.
GILLETTE: WE BELIEVE SHORT FILM

COMPANY BACKGROUND

Gillette, introduced on September 28, 1901, is an American brand of safety razors

and other personal care products including shaving supplies, possessed by the
global corporation Procter and Gamble (P&G). Situated in Boston, Massachusetts,
United States, it was claimed by The Gillette Company, a provider of items under
different brands until that organization converged into P&G in 2005.

Gillette is a 117-year-old brand that was made by King C. Gillette. King's patent was
allowed for the 'safety razor' in 1904. He opened The Gillette Safety Razor Company
in South Boston, and in spite of the fact that his deals began consistent, they topped
in WWI after the US Government requested 3.5 million razors to issue to fighters.
After the soldiers got back, the ex-administration men became steadfast clients and
kept on purchasing Gillette items. The brand experienced significantly after the death
of King Gillette in 1932, incorporating differentiating items in 1936 with the
presentation of Gillette shaving cream, buying Paper Mate Co. in 1955, having a
competition with Bic, paying $188.5 million for Oral-B Laboratories in 1984, and
considerably more history. Gillette stayed serious by developing their items as buyer
request changed. Despite the fact that their past monetary choices considered
fruitful, their intuition with regards to notices have not generally been the most
reformist.

Gillette's set of experiences is the zenith of promoting manliness to the majority. In

America, numerous items are made to target either men or ladies. Such becomes
dangerous on the grounds that this restricted portrayal at that point saturates
mainstream society, and turns into the standard. At the point when Gillette, a male-
spoke to mark, came out with a video uncovering that negative cliché male ascribes
are being engrained inside us, shoppers contended false reverence. Gillette speaks
to the strength of men inside sexual orientation relations over the two ladies and
'other' men. Whether media remembers it or not, they make mainstream society that
is burned-through at that point disgorged as an accepted practice. Sponsors utilize
social qualities as a factor to help advance items what's more, administrations to
build deals Gillette's motto, "the best a man can get" is incidentally making what the
meaning of a man is. By asserting male qualities as a goodness of their image, foes
guarantee inconsistency.

Male purchasers related to Gillette since it focused itself as a male item. Grohmann
(2009) discovered that shopper's sex job character emphatically impacts conduct
brand-related reactions. Discoveries identified with that decision are consistent in an
investigation about ads highlighting same-sex couples. Hetero respondents favoured
the 'in-gathering' advertisements, those highlighting a hetero couple, to the
promotion including an equivalent sex couple. For instance, a hetero male is bound
to react emphatically to an ad highlighting a hetero couple, since he can relate to
him. 
INDUSTRY AND COMPETITORS

The global razor market was valued at 18 Billion USD in 2019 and is expected to
grow to 22.5 Billion USD in 2030. The low growth projection is attributed to change in
consumer trends and behaviour. P&G’s grooming division holds over 60% of global
market share.

Gillette, a brand of P&G has been a trusted brand in the market since its inception in
1901. Contribution of P&G’s grooming division to total net sales and net earnings is
given in Exhibit 1. Major competitors to Gillette are Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s.
Dollar Shave Club was introduced in 2011 and acquired by Unilever in 2016 while
Harry’s was introduced in 2012.

Dollar Shave Club started with a subscription-based business model, in which one
becomes a member and receives a specific number of razors and blades every
month for usage. Gillette adopted the same subscription model and came up with
Gillette Shave Club. Both Gillette and Dollar Shave Club offers three subscription
models, while Harry’s offers customisable subscription models based on frequency
of shaving.

While Gillette still charged a premium price, both the competitors started selling
razors and blades at a cost lower than Gillette and hence Gillette’s market share
began to decline. This forced Gillette to reduce its price drastically in 2018.

P&G’s segment wise percentage net change in sales in 2019 compared to 2018, is
given in Exhibit 2. In 2019, P&G wrote down the value of Gillette by 8 Billion USD to
adjust the carrying values of Gillette’s goodwill and intangible assets.

THE ADVERTISEMENT IN DETAIL

With new age competitors, Gillette had to improve its reach and widen its customer
base. The millennials, who form a major part of the customer base are price
sensitive and less loyal. Hence, to communicate value to its customer segment,
Gillette in 2019 introduced marketing campaigns promoting stories of men who are
inspirational to millennials.

In 2019, Gillette leveraged the popularity of ongoing #MeToo campaign and created
the “We Believe” advertisement. The ad was released on Gillette’s YouTube and
P&G’s Facebook and Twitter account.

The ad began with audio introduction of #MeToo movement, followed by some news
clippings about the movement and depiction of toxic masculinity. It showed series of
visuals of men bullying women and other men. The bullying situations in the ad
ranged from little boys fighting and harassing one another, with older men shunning
it saying “boys will be boys” to a man harassing a female colleague in an office
meeting. After illustrating the issue, the ad introduced the concept of men holding
other men accountable for their toxic masculinity behaviour and concluded with the
brand requesting men to be role models of boys who will be men of tomorrow. It
displayed the message “It’s only by challenging ourselves to do more, that we can
get closer to our best”.

The ad received more criticism than praise. Some analysts attributed the criticism
received to the visuals; which appeared as if men aren’t good enough while others
opined that the backlash for the gender equality cause was again a depiction of
existing toxicity masculinity in the society. From P&G’s perspective, some analysts
felt that the ad was an intelligent marketing stunt.

The Exhibit 3 shows the views, likes and dislikes for the ad on YouTube as of
February 2019 and November 2020.

However according to P&G, the sales of the brand’s razors and blades were stable;
same as that before the ad was launched but the subscription business grew after
the controversial ad.

RESPONSE TO THE ADVERTISEMENT

The We Believe TV advertisement was delivered on January 13, 2019, and got far
and wide consideration in the press and via web-based media. Responses to the
promotion have been mixed and, three days after it was first posted on YouTube the
advertisement had been seen in excess of 11 million times, with 262,000 Likes and
641,000 Dislikes.

Gillette was commended by some for tending to current social issues and advancing
positive qualities among men. For instance, Bernice King, little girl of Martin Luther
King Jr., portrayed the "We Believe" film as being "favourable to humankind" and
illustrating "that character can venture up to change conditions".

Nonetheless, the promotion confronted analysis and dangers of blacklists from

pundits who said that it castrated men and who couldn't help contradicting its
message. English writer and TV character Piers Morgan depicted the mission as "an
immediate outcome of revolutionary women's activists" who are "driving a battle
against masculinity”. It likewise confronted a negative reaction from conservative
pundits 61-being called left-wing publicity, accusatory towards its clients, and
misandrist and there were calls for blacklists of Gillette.

As to grasp of "woke culture" and corporate obligation, Josh Barro of New York
magazine contrasted the promotion horribly with an ongoing Nike crusade including
Colin Kaepernick, contending that Nike's advertisement was fruitful since it was
"inspiring instead of accusatory", and predictable with Nike's qualities as speaking to
"strong activity - here and there the field", yet that concerning Gillette's promotion,
"the watcher is probably going to ask: Who is Gillette to reveal to me this? I just
came here for razors. What's more, razors scarcely even component in Gillette's new
mission." In 2019 the Gillette business lost $8 billion in esteem, evidently because of
the notice. In spite of the backfire, it merits calling attention to that Gillette has made
something that has become a global argument, and it has unmistakably exhibited a
big motivator for it.

While corporate social obligation bids can be compelling, organizations must be

delicate to the capability of buyers being suspicious of their intentions, or not having
any desire to be advised how to act by a benefit inspired organization.
PROBLEM STATEMENT

Gillette's campaign was controversial for some reasons: its motivation was to prod
discussion with a message of provoking yourself as well as other people to do better.
The reaction was blended and the question that remains in minds of everyone is
whether Gillette did this as a demonstration of Corporate Social Responsibility, or to
join to temporary fad on feel-good messages for profit. Further, Gillette is unsure
about the impact of the campaign on its business and brand image.
EXHIBITS

EXHIBIT 1

Grooming Contribution to net sales Contribution to net earnings

2018 10% 14%
2019 9% 13%

EXHIBIT 2

EXHIBIT 3
Views, Likes and dislikes on YouTube

DATE VIEWS LIKES DISLIKES

February 2019 28 Million 0.7 Million 1.4 Million
November 2019 35 Million 0.8 Million 1.6 Million
EXHIBIT 4
P&G’s GILLETTE WRITES OFF $8 BILLION AS MEN STOP SHAVING

EXHIBIT 5
P&G GLOBAL MARKET SHARE % IN GROOMING
REFERENCES

1.https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/gillette-toxic-masculinity-ad/
2.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/15/gillette-metoo-ad-on-toxic-masculinity-
cuts-deep-with-mens-rights-activists
3.https://www.firstpost.com/living/gillettes-latest-ad-campaign-is-a-relevant-take-on-toxic-
masculinity-metoo-and-boys-will-be-boys-5898691.html
4.https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/04/08/7-the-most-controversial-ads-our-time
5.https://wap.business-standard.com/company/gillette-india-288/information/company-
history
6.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_Men_Can_Be

GROUP 8
Ishika Arya – PGP/24/149
Kavyashree S – PGP/24/152
Mohammed Ishaan K B – PGP/24/161
Mayank – PGP/24/159