Links - 7th June 2019 (2) (Gillette)

Gillette responds to backlash against Venus post featuring plus-size model - "Gillette is pushing back against critics who are attacking a post shared by one of their Twitter accounts last week that features a plus-size model wearing a bikini."

Gillette Venus slammed for advert showing woman shaving her arms - "People have been using social media to slam the commercial, arguing women already feel pressured enough to remove body hair, without the idea of them needing to remove more."
Next Gillette ad: "Don't buy our products!"

Gillette Is Feeling the Financial Burn Thanks to Their "Toxic Masculinity" Ad - "Proctor & Gamble are experiencing better than expected profits in every area…except the male grooming products section of Gillette, and few people should be surprised.Before the Super Bowl, Gillette released an ad that insulted men with social justice/feminist based narratives about toxic masculinity. Even things such as wanting to talk to a pretty girl or boys wrestling in the yard were considered negative things that needed to be dealt with. Gillette finished the commercial by indicating that “some men” don’t do this and that we should all be like these “some.”Needless to say, it didn’t go over well. Gillette received a well-deserved societal spanking for its sexism.Now the numbers have come out, and Gillette seems to be the weakest link in P&G’s chain... Gillette must have felt the burn before the earnings reports. It attempted a quiet, yet blatant, and very lazy walk-back of its toxic masculinity stance by attempting to make a United States soldier out to be a hero. The ad could have been considered even more insulting than the first... the old saying “get woke, go broke” has repeatedly been shown to be an adage that businesses should pay attention to. Very few brands succeed after venturing into social justice territory, with one notable exception being Nike.ESPN, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and the NFL itself did not fare well. At all."

Mark Ritson: Gillette's new ad will be the year's worst marketing move - "Nike used the authenticity of Kaepernick, the pathos in his voice and the positivity of his message to inspire customers with an aspirational message that attracted them and then propelled them to purchase. Gillette’s ad feels like a tedious, politically correct public health video – the kind of film we were forced to watch in school about road safety before they invented the internet. Never mind making me hate Gillette, it makes me feel bad about pretty much everything. This could have been a win for Gillette. A less heavy hand. A less preachy tone. A more inspirational message that real men, the kind who use Gillette, behave better and stand for change... Rather than a work of inspiration and aspiration she delivers a short film that feels vindictive and accusatory. We are not being shown the better path, we are being told we are all on the wrong one and must change course immediately. Men are to blame. You, yes you. It’s a poor way to sell razors. Hell, it’s a poor way to sell anything... Thus far the like to dislike ratio is running 10 to one against the campaign. More worryingly, the sheer number of dislikes – one in every 10 people who have seen the ad went to the trouble of clicking the thumbs-down button at the time of writing – suggests a vehement dislike unusual for such a big brand with this kind of major campaign. I’ve never seen that kind of negative engagement before. “It’s crucial to make the customer feel bad from the outset and then throughout the ad if you intend to sell to them effectively,” as David Ogilvy never wrote... despite its enormous cultural impact, divisive message and four months of air time, Nike’s campaign has only managed to generate a 10th of the dislikes on YouTube that Gillette has achieved in just 24 hours... Nike had nowhere near a 50% share of any of the categories it competed in. From t-shirts to jogging bottoms to running shoes, there was much more to be gained than lost from its risky Kaepernick ad. Gillette, conversely, was sailing a big 50% boat and suddenly decided to rock it, badly. “All you had to do was be quiet and sell razors. RIP Gillette”... Of course, that’s the one thing you won’t see much of in Gillette’s new ad: razors. Among all the sanctimonious hectoring and evil masculinity on display in the ad there is very little room for any reference to shaving or Gillette. Nike’s campaign was not just aspirational, it actually showed Nike products in action throughout the two-minute spot."

Gillette 'Toxic Masculinity' Commercial Set to Break into Most Disliked YouTube Videos List - "Gillette’s recent commercial against “toxic masculinity” has reached 700,000 dislikes on YouTube and is quickly approaching the top 50 most disliked YouTube videos of all time after just several days on the platform."
Too bad I'm not a woman, so when a colleague helpfully rephrases my point in a meeting so it can be better understood I can't pretend I'm a victim. And I can't talk to random strangers of the opposite gender without being accused of catcalling

KA Houchen - Can we admit that the women didn’t come across all... - "Can we admit that the women didn’t come across all that great in the Gillette ad either? Where were the strong independent women who’d slap away a man’s wandering hand? Where was the image of the confident woman who didn’t need a man to intercede for her to reject unwanted advances?... The women in the Gillette ad showed less spunk and less personal agency than Annette Funicello in a 1960’s “Beach, Blanket, Bingo” movie. Joan Crawford would roll in her grave. So why there’s no outcry from feminists groups about Gillette’s portrayal of passive, hapless femininity?Because the commercial is targeted at belittling men. Feminists seem willing to sacrifice their image if it’s to take pot shots at the so called “male patriarchy”.Is their silence a sign that feminists hate men more than they like women?"

#MeToo Boomerang: Gillette Lectures US Men on Sexism -- Then Objectifies Hot Women in Provocative Clothing at Their Sponsored Events - "The company decided the best way to promote their product was to attack their customer base... Gillette is NOTORIOUS for showcasing smokin’ hot women in skintight jumpsuits!"

Peter Lloyd on Twitter - "According to insiders, a (female) vice president of Procter & Gamble recently told a 100-strong meeting: "I will never promote a straight, white man again."...
The source is a reliable one. I’ve heard similar stories from inside @HSBC @HSBC_UK."

Wojciech Pawelczyk 🇵🇱 on Twitter - "Gillette Spokeswoman Ana Kasparian in 2016: "I have no respect for women who voted for Trump. I think so poorly of them... I think you're dumb. I think you're fu*king dumb..."
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Does Gillette endorse toxic femininity"

The Screen - Posts - "Gillette: Men are violent, bullying rapists.
Men: If you want to say that, we won't buy your products.
Feminists: Haha, the menz, conservatives & MRAs are triggered. #LOL!
Also Feminists: How dare #ProteinWorld show an attractive woman and suggest I should be physically healthy, this is literal oppression!
THE HYPOCRISY KNOWS NO BOUNDS!!!"

Being Classically Liberal - Posts - "For the people who can't understand why the Gillette 'toxic masculinity' ad rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
Imagine if a company ran an ad about 'toxic Islamism' that told Muslims not to blow people up or beat their wives.
It's insulting because 1) you are treating the group in question like children who don't that already know right from wrong and 2) you are presenting the anti-social behavior as if it were unique to the group at hand."

Melissa Chen - I can get behind the message that we all can be... - "it ended up painting an entire demographic with a negative stereotype perpetuated by a few. Imagine the uproar if it was an ad about an ethnic group with higher say, obesity or crime rates, touting the message that "you can be better." Would we consider it somewhat bigoted to apply negative stereotypes to a whole group? If it's unacceptable when directed at any other group, it should be unacceptable here."

Cheryl Marie Tay - "I found myself annoyed (though not personally offended) by the Gillette commercial, and I did wonder why that was the case. Turns out it wasn't just its preachy, pandering tone that grated on my nerves. It was also the possibility that women, not men, were actually the target audience. I've seen ads targeted at women that have made me cringe and / or laugh (not because they were funny, but because they were simply terrible), and I guess this was no exception. But hey, kudos to Gillette if this marketing tactic works in its favour... Bonus irony points: The women who are now whooping and cheering for Gillette as if it just scored the winning goal in a penalty shootout between #metoo and "toxic masculinity" are likely the same women who have also complained about the brand's "sexist" pricing of razors. I love it."

Surprise: Genius behind man-hating Gillette ad is a radical feminist - ""The guy at the ad agency" is actually philosophically unpleasant feminist Kim Gehrig. Hiring her to court the male market is like expecting to accrue impressive rainbow flag sale numbers with spiels from Farrakhan... Fox News host Greg Gutfeld tweeted: "the only ones lauding the Gillette ad work in media/advertising. everyone else sees it for what it is: a smarmy, condescending virtue signal aimed at the hardworking decent men they have been price-gouging for years."... The greatest ultimate harm caused by Gehrig's Gillette advertising maliciousness may be this: irresponsible,"woke" parents bludgeoning their young sons with her message that just being a boy is unhealthy, a wrong for which they should forever hang their heads."

WALSH: 3 Reasons Why Gillette's 'Toxic Masculinity' Ad Is Incredibly Stupid And Degrading - "It is implied that we men have excused these behaviors by shrugging and muttering "boys will be boys." The ad makes this point very subtly, by showing a line of men saying "boys will be boys" in unison as they watch two other boys fight... There is not a single man on Earth who watched a news report about Weinstein, slapped his forehead, and said, "Oh! So we're not supposed to do that? Alright then! My mistake!"... the vast majority of men are not rapists or harassers and were, prior to this past year, already staunchly opposed to both activities. There was nothing epiphanic or revolutionary about Me Too for us... "Boys will be boys" is not a rationale for bad behavior. In my entire life I have never once heard anyone, ever, offer "boys will be boys" as an excuse for rape or bullying. I have never seen a bunch of men standing around watching a kid pummel another kid while they all nod in approval and say "boys will be boys" to one another, like programed automatons. Have the people at Gillette ever even met an actual human man before? Perhaps not. Maybe that's why they think we need a razor with 14 blades to shave in the morning, as if our beards are made from the steel bristles of a wire brush. In any case, "boys will be boys" does not generally function as an excuse. It is a cliche but, like many cliches, it contains great wisdom. Boys will indeed be boys, and should be boys, and should be allowed to be boys without their natural boy-ness being constantly suppressed. Boys are energetic, aggressive, creative, competitive. They need safe and accepting outlets for these impulses. Incidentally, rolling around and roughhousing is one such outlet. The ad shows an enlightened man swooping in to stop a couple of young boys from wrestling around in the grass, which is exactly the wrong approach... There are only, in the end, two options. Either we let boys act like boys or we force them to act like girls. But the latter option makes as much sense as forcing girls to act like boys. You wouldn't demand that your daughter stop playing with dolls and go out and wrestle in the grass instead. Why should we demand the reverse of boys? That's the point of "boys will be boys," and God help the boys cursed with parents who don't understand this point... Imagine an ad for Dove body wash that shows women doing stereotypically negative things like gossiping and nagging and shopping too much, and then the narrator comes on: "Sure, some women act the right way." Feminists would be rioting in the street. They'd storm Dove headquarters and stone the head of marketing to death with loofahs dipped in cement.But no such ad would or could ever exist. Women are not lectured and scolded this way. This sort of treatment is reserved for men. And men are tired of it."

The Screen - Posts - "l have an idea for a Gillette Venus commercial.
A line of women sit in chairs fretting about their nails. lecturing their daughters that if they don't lose weight they won't be marriagable. Then pan to a group of women fighting Jersey Shore style over a man calling eachother sexually derisive terms.
Next show to a woman marrying a much older man for his money. Cut to a high school girl gossiping about her former best friend and what a slut she is now. Then show a woman happily getting married to a soldier then splash to that
same woman cheating on her deployed husband.
Fade in a wife nagging her husband for not contributing around the house as he seals an envelope with a check for the mortgage payment, then fade in a sequence of a judge awarding that wife the home in a divorce settlement.
Next show an HR rep pressuring a manager to hire a less qualified woman over a well-qualified man specifically because the company has a "diversity problem" .
Finally. close with a panel informing a young man that he has been found responsible for an allegation of sexual assault by a female student, while being denied an opportunity to confront his accuser.
Then splash "Gillette Venus" across the screen with a narrator's voice imploring women to stop being so difficult.
If we're gonna be "woke". lets go full red pill shit woke""

Gillette - Toxic Femininity Ad (Parody) - YouTube

ROTHMAN: Woke Brands And The Sorry Fad Of Entry-Level Politics - "66 percent of respondents said it was important for brands to take a stand on issues of political and social relevance. That figure includes eight-in-ten self-identified liberals and a majority—52 percent—of self-described conservatives. This new reality has been years in the making. According to a 2014 Horizon Media study, a staggering 81 percent of Millennials believe socio-political values should be a major part of a corporation’s public identity. Of course, these firms only participate in “politics” if we define the term as loosely as possible. These firms almost always devote their energies to agitating around cultural issues and identity politics, not the conduct of legislative affairs. The satisfaction consumers derive from patronizing “socially responsible” brands is the feeling they get from appearing to participate in politics... On March 8, 2017, New Yorkers awoke to the sight of a new monument in Manhattan: a bronze statue of an elementary school-age girl standing defiant, arms akimbo, directly across from Wall Street’s iconic Charging Bull... The statue’s sponsor, the investment firm State Street Global Advisors, said it was designed to communicate to the financial services industry that women were woefully represented in its upper echelons. State Street would know. At the time, women occupied only 17 percent of its leadership positions. No woman had ever held the role occupied by Fearless Girl’s chief spokesperson, State Street President Ronald O’Hanley. But the diversionary purpose of this public relations campaign was soon revealed by the courts. In October 2017, State Street agreed to settle the lawsuit that followed a Department of Labor audit, which found that the firm had systematically discriminated against its female and black employs in favor of white men. The fact that the Left fell for a commercial for a bunch of unenlightened Wall Street bankers is a cautionary tale about the true purpose of corporate political identities. Consumers think they’re advancing social justice by patronizing “woke” brands, but they’re almost always being taken in by firms who want to cater to their customers’ well-meaning desire to appear informed without doing the requisite homework. Entry-level politics has become a lucrative enterprise for the unscrupulous, and it is deeply troubling that the product the public is unwittingly consuming is civic illiteracy."

82% of Liberals Like Brands With Their Politics - "Far fewer conservatives want the same... 58 percent of consumers surveyed said they dislike it when marketers talk politics.” (The full article, titled “Trump Boycotts Turn 25% of Consumers Off,” gets into how 80 million Americans say they change their spending habits due to these boycotts. But marketers can benefit, if the political stands they take align with their brands’ DNA.)"