|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Earlier this year, Gillette embarked on a bold new advertising campaign. For decades, the company had celebrated masculinity, telling us that being a man is good. But what this new campaign presupposes is: Maybe it isn’t?
OUT: The Best a Man Can Get
IN: Aren’t Men Just the Worst?
It’s a bold idea, expressly shaming the very market for your product. As I noted at the time:
Gillette has learned that in [current year], it’s not enough for a company to make a product that people want. It’s not enough to make them feel inadequate about themselves, and then sell them the supposed cure for that inadequacy. Consumers, men in particular, must be made to feel worthless. They have to be reminded that their needs and desires are wrong under any circumstances, that their instincts are loathsome, that their very existence is a malignancy, and that they’re responsible for all the world’s ills whether they want to admit it or not.
Now give them your money, you piece of garbage.
But hey, maybe I was wrong. Maybe this was a good idea. How is it working out for Gillette?
[…]
See Also:
(1) Nonshavers, rivals bleeding Gillette as P&G takes $8B writedown
