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Good concept, weird execution. A little award-baity for me
Agree.
New take: Now that I’ve observed how much this ad is pissing off conservative vipers that I loathe, I have decided I love it. May not sell a lot of razors, but it’s fun to watch these guys lose their shit.
“Toxic masculinity makes men keep quiet about their emotions. Oh, and men, keep quiet about your emotions right now - we don’t care” 😂
Ummmmm. Am I the only one who sees these negative opinions as poisonous to our future? We’re trying to get brands to be brave and take positive stances. This does both, and viewing it positively opens the door for more brands to do the same. That makes this ad a 12 out of ten in my book.
CD6 I can’t find the part where I ever said I think “all men are pro bullying, harassment or cat-calling.” And I cant find the part where I said I think this spot “resembles reality.” (But if you don’t think some men step on women in meetings or mutter boys will be boys rather than discipline their kids... Idk, it must be nice on your planet.)
The ad uses metaphors. I assume you’re a reasonably smart enough person to be a CD and know what a metaphor is. And the metaphors imply that good men are good, and they are the role models for our sons and daughters.
I do absolutely think men and women should be blamed for “feeling attacked” by this ad because the message is so painfully obvious and without any nuance. The sky is blue, grass is green and good guys are better than bad guys. The utter willingness to take offense to this message is beyond me. The reflexive need to screech NOT ALL MEN is beyond me. It’s snowflakism of the highest order.
If you’re a dude and hating on the sentiment behind this Ad, the ladies want to pass along a piece of advice we’ve heard often:
So almost all the Gillette razors are out of stock at the CVS I was just at, so I suppose it’s probably working
Or CVS just sucks at restocking. From my experience, that's the most likely explanation
• Big idea on point
• Looks overproduced and fake
• Everyone is triggered
• Men are pissed
• Bitter people in advertising will find every other reason to say it is not good because they didn't work on it
• Internet shitstorm combined with a winning cliche award show formula will guarantee a few lions regardless of your opinion
Replete with the ad not helping sell razors.
Overhyped as usual
Why can’t brands make what they actually do interesting anymore??
This is the kind of ad that gets made when no one is brave enough to speak up and say “are we really doing this?” for fear of being called a sexist. Which is the problem with the ad: it presents men as either one of two types of people, either the defender or the aggressor with no nuance in between.
APD1: My issue with it is the finger waggy and approach and the promotion of a narrative that men are bad, and the only way to be a good man is to be some kind of crusader. I would love to see the reaction to a spot that called out negative female behaviors but of course no one would ever admit that there are any, right?
Depressing how people here commenting, who work in the industry, still dont understand how advertising works. I mean if this https://youtu.be/ib-Qiyklq-Q gets put in this this thread (made relevant to the zeitgeist of today), I bet it’ll get as much rage as it has now. But nooo... it’s one of the most memorable & effective work Coke has put out, rooted in brand purpose, says ppt decks in client presentations.
Hindsight, 20/20. Long-term brand building foresight and planning is a skill lost by this community it seems.
Yeah there were also only 3 tv channels that had 80+ reach when that was made SP1.
And no internet to compete with.
So that’s also why it worked for Coke, beyond just being in another league as a spot from a craft perspective.
Think about it a bit more
If you’re a dude and are offended by this ad... time for you to look at on your own behavior 🤷🏻♀️
Just going to leave this here: https://www.theonion.com/prego-marketing-new-marinara-as-the-premiere-sauce-for-1821421930
You think people choose Mcdonald’s because of Ronald McDonald House? Really? Or because they turned an M upside down and it looks like a W? It’s an easy “aw shucks” for award show judges. Which, fine, I get it. I’m complicit in the game myself. But no actual living consumer picks their detergent or razor because the giant global conglomerate entity “truly cares” about some cultural whatever. It’s a quick retail hype/PR bump. It’s a coupon dressed up as a conscience. A CMO resume builder. A Cannes ticket.
The industry has really gone overboard with this. We all know it. It’s why people are making jokes about it. Brands are desperate for attention and willing to try anything. Some of the executions are quite clever, sure, but it’s true purpose is as transparent as the day is long. Give your “target market demographic” lab rats a tiny bit of credit. They’re onto us.
Objectively awful
Yes abjectly works as well. But I meant objectively, as in it’s not an opinion but rather a statement of fact.
J U S T A N O T H E R A D . Not even a good one. So, please stop hyping it like it is THE ad. Completely agree that they are obviously trying too hard. I can imagine that strategist out there jerking of on his “masterpiece”. Yes strategist. Coz i don’t see any creative part in it. Do you? For those who have “haters gonna hate” attitude. I‘ve only one thing to say. Either you start using your brain and have an opinion or you can keep liking every piece of **** out there that says “Be like this and don’t be like that”.
Thanks for sharing this—can’t believe I missed it when it came out.
To the critics’ point, this is a better ad. It feels less rushed and its execution is pretty darn perfect. But it’s also amazing at simply and humanely taking on a zeitgeist topic that is nuanced and difficult. It’s hard enough to talk about Me Too and toxic masculinity. They resist shmaltzy, easy statements. And unfortunately for us, easy statements like “men can be better” are too easy for people to willfully misinterpret or get offended at.
I love the reflective position this spot takes. Being a man is hard. Being a woman is hard. Try to be the best you can, though.
I don’t think this ad is perfect by any stretch but it is NOT the Pepsi ad. Pepsi used its product as the solution to racism, tensions with police, and political unrest.
Gillette took a stand and put money behind it. And they certainly have more clout in the realm of masculinity than pizza has in bridging people from opposite sides of the political spectrum.
Y’all just love to rip on things and assume you could have done it better under the circumstances. The truth is none of us know what happened BTS.
Opinions on the work itself aside, I sincerely hope the community managers dealing with the backlash on social are doing okay and taking whatever time they can to protect/preserve their mental health. There are a lot of people on twitter eager to @ the brand saying toxic masculinity is a liberal conspiracy (or whatever 🙄) while tossing out rape threats in the same breath. The irony would be funny if it wasn’t so god damn vile.
I don't like this ad. I get why people like it and it's an important convo to have but as far as an ad goes I'm not a huge fan. Didn't hate it but didn't like it either. The strategy seemed great but the execution seemed cheesy and heavy handed at times. I just saw obvious storetypes but not much of an insight. The end line was solid but I still felt a little disappointed and underwhelmed in the end. WK would have done something truly special with that.
The only things that could have made this a better idea were if they decided to stop price hiking their pink razors and run this during the super bowl.
More curious if you really hate this spot from an ad industry perspective, or you’re just fatigued from so many social hot button issues.
If that’s the case... I get it, but, sorry. This is life now. People are having uncomfortable conversations about men. Status quo is not forgivable for simply being the status quo, so please get off your high horse.
Imagine being so thin skinned (ad man or otherwise) that you can’t handle an innocuous razor ad simply saying “it’d be cool if all men could be a little better.” If you can’t handle a little admonition, you couldn’t handle being a woman for five minutes.
Lighten up already.
And for the bullshit artist who’s inevitably going to ask for facts on the pink tax ->
MEN’S 3 BLADE RAZOR $7.99
https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/gillette-reg-mach3-reg-razor/3280388?skuId=13313334&&mrkgcl=609&mrkgadid=3254088494&rkg_id=0&enginename=google&mcid=PS_googlepla_nonbrand_brand_local&product_id=13313334&adtype=pla&product_channel=local&adpos=1o1&creative=233266395762&device=m&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=CjwKCAiAyfvhBRBsEiwAe2t_i8H_SyTqBweQapJtmphpeShdrMQ5paXySo85jUynDzyUSwKq9Ye7hxoCkYAQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
WOMEN’S 3 BLADE RAZOR $8.99
https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/gillette-reg-venus-reg-spa-trade-razor/3280443?skuId=16424773&&mrkgcl=609&mrkgadid=3253337281&rkg_id=0&enginename=google&mcid=PS_googlepla_nonbrand_beautywellness_local&product_id=16424773&adtype=pla&product_channel=local&adpos=1o9&creative=232742510557&device=m&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=CjwKCAiAyfvhBRBsEiwAe2t_i4JgpE-4N1OyIUzYgaYbW6P-Jix80YoCXm-WcvFasu3mtgG_xFcpPRoCOzgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Great ad. All the trolling and #notallmen responses on here are telling. Good thing you all hide your names on this platform! I bet you wouldn't say some of the things you are otherwise.
“Men should speak up about their feelings and not stay quiet because it’s toxic”
*Gillette advert released*
“Men should STFU about their feelings - they’re probably toxic anyway"
😂
😭
When purpose driven brands go wrong. It’s not even the bad PR that kills me it is where do we go from here after a ham fisted PSA on taking responsibility for being a woke male. It’s a risk I guess so I applaud that but the execution of it was preachy and made me wince. This felt like advertising for people who work in advertising , and even by that measure it didn’t really work.
Agreed but we have a record as an industry of celebrating this without any accountability for enforcing it
I kept expecting to see Kendall Jenner
Except the Pepsi shambles was different