Why Gillette’s Ad Was So Smart
Cause-marketing is here to stay
“If your business or brand doesn’t stand for a cause, consumers may turn to your competitors,” says Kim T. Gordon in her article in Entrepreneur magazine entitled Cause Marketing Matters to Consumers. “Social responsibility makes consumers take notice.”
A few days ago Gillette, the razor company, released an ad expanding on their tag-line, “The best a man can get.” It started with images of a horde of menacing boys chasing another one and then cut to another young boy being comforted by his mother after being bullied and called a freak. Next were scenes of women being belittled and harassed, both at work and on the street. The voice-over said, “It’s been going on for far too long and we can’t laugh it off-making the same old excuses, ‘boys will be boys.’ But there will be no going back because we believe in the best in men.”
What came next were images of fathers breaking up fights between boys and otherwise standing up for boys who were being bullied. It showed friends telling their pals that their entitled, harassing behavior around women wasn’t cool. The spot ended with this statement:
