Marketing and advertising is hard. There’s no two ways about it. No matter how much time, effort and thought you put into a campaign, you always run the risk that it could backfire and have the opposite of your intended effect, actually putting consumers off instead of attracting them to your latest product range.
And it seems that even big-name brands, with their huge marketing budgets behind them, can still make seriously ill-judged decisions when it comes to PR and advertising… which may well be heartening for smaller businesses to hear!
Global razor company Gillette has just come under some serious fire for its latest advert, which riffs on its renowned slogan The Best A Man Can Get and replaces it with The Best Men Can Be, with the brand saying that it’s keen to see men holding each other to account.
The actual concept of the campaign itself isn’t necessarily a bad one and it’s a fun take on its 30-year-old tagline – but is it wise for the brand to take what seems like an especially judgemental tone in its latest campaign?
At face value, the ad looks like a success. According to the BBC, it was watched over two million times on YouTube in just 48 hours – but delve a little deeper and it’s something of a different story. At the time of writing, the ad had received 23,000 likes on the video sharing site – and an impressive 214,000 dislikes, with that number only climbing with each second that passes.
If you’ve yet to see the ad, give it a watch and you’ll see that the brand asks, “is this the best a man can be?”, before showing examples of sexual harassment, bullying, and aggressive and sexist male behaviour. This is then followed by examples of more positive behaviour… but the ad hasn’t been especially well received, with people taking to Twitter to express their views.
Piers Morgan, for example, tweeted: “I’ve used Gillette razors my entire adult life but this absurd virtue-signalling PC guff may drive me away to a company less eager to fuel the current pathetic global assault on masculinity.”
But Gillette president Gary Coombe said: “By holding each other accountable, eliminating excuses for bad behaviour and supporting a new generation working toward their personal ‘best, we can help create positive changes that will matter for years to come.”
It’s also perhaps worth noting some people’s opinions that the ad itself is rather devaluing of the MeToo movement, reducing its power as a campaign for women and feminism, and turning it into a “fashionable slogan they can offer men to make them feel better about themselves”.
It’s always worth doing as much research as possible and seeking as much feedback as possible before launching your next campaign… as you can see! If you need any help, call High Wycombe marketing agency Met One today.