The Best a Man Can Get?

If you follow popular culture, you know the conventional wisdom that “boys will be boys” has evolved into “toxic masculinity.” The Gillette ad braintrust apparently thought that “we need to do something about this! Let’s make a YouTube ad completely derailing our message and alienating our primarily male customer base.” Gillette somehow concluded that it made sense to pander to the cohort that will likely never use their products. Now after an $8 billion dollar loss, the company is switching gears.

It seems that Gillette customers dislike feminist preaching about toxic masculinity.

You may recall the traditional Gillette jingle. Images of prior commercials may have flashed through your mind, i.e., images of all-American men who needed a shave. Of course, they would use a Gillette shaving substance, lather it all up on their faces, reach for a Gillette shaving blade, and then joyfully go about gliding the razor over their lathered visage. A pretty woman then typically greeted the clean-shaven man. After this 15-30 second commercial, it’s back to your regularly scheduled program.

Any marketing major knows the philosophy behind this commercial. The message is “Shave with our stuff, and you’ll get the hottie” No surprise: it worked. Gillette became a trusted brand. It was the symbol of masculinity and the epitome of how to be a man’s man.

Social Justice Nonsense

Then for whatever reason, something changed. Out of the woodwork, voices started toxifying the airwaves. These voices belonged to feminists, soyboys, and the social justice weaklings on the fringes of society. But these folks are also the loudest and most obnoxious. With their man buns, purple hair, and unshaven armpits they came, smelling like soy lattes, to attack the normal way of life.

Phrases such as toxic masculinity, male privilege, and “believe all women” started assaulting average people’s ears. Then these activists began tagging ordinary Americans with these phrases. Any man who tries to approach a woman at a bar, for instance, might get accused of being a rapist for even asking if he could buy her a drink. A drunk woman who goes home with a man and has a one-night stand can get him jailed for years because “regret is rape.”

When President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, women came forward to accuse the judge of rape. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh, in high school at the time (about 35 years ago) of sexually assaulting her at a party. She claimed Kavanaugh was drunk while hanging out with friends. She also said that the laughter he exhibited was “indelible in the hippocampus,” meaning she clearly knew it was him. Forget that she couldn’t recall the house or how she got there, or when it happened.

None of her friends remembered the incident, but she definitely knew it was Brett Kavanaugh. Don’t even get me started about Julie Swetnick, who accused Kavanaugh of involvement of some kind in a rape gang ring during his formative years. In the middle of all of this, Gillette released a minute long PSA-type commercial that sought to highlight the #MeToo movement. The premise of the video was that, all of a sudden, being a man needs a new definition.

Flash images of boys bullying a classmate. A guy gets stopped from approaching a pretty girl and you hear the blocker say, “Yo, no… no… not cool.” All in all, it demonizes men as sexual harassers and attempts to redefine the concept of what constitutes being a man. With the Gillette woke philosophy in play, the best a man can get morphed into the best that men can be.

Gillette followed up its social issue messaging with an ad depicting a dad teaching his transgender son how to shave for the first time.

Profit Margins Tell the Tale

The numbers and profits do not lie, however. The phrase “get woke, go broke” underscored the veracity of that statement. Gillette lost $8 billion in sales due to its socially woke campaigns. It seems customers dislike feminists preaching that being a man is toxic or that biological girls can identify as biological boys, or vice versa. Logical thinkers reject this complete denial of science.

Following the revelation of its huge loss, Gillette made a pathetic excuse as to why sales declined, attributing it to men who shave less frequently. The company has also indicated that it will turn away from socially conscious messages in order to focus more on “local heroes.” Only time will tell if Gillette will win back their customer base.

The fact that Gillette positioned itself as a man’s brand, only to turn that message on a dime is questionable. It makes no business sense to belittle, lecture, and demean your customer base. It will be a long road ahead before that trust is earned back. After an $8 billion writedown, perhaps a new management team for Gillette is in order.