The Gillette Ad Will Be Forgotten in Five Minutes Because It Takes On Too Many Ideas.
Two stories before we start. They might make you leave. If that’s the case, cool.
First off, there’s something here. Anecdotes aren’t conclusive proof, but if we can all relate, then they demand more broad investigations.
I didn’t hate 1/3 of the Gillette ad, because I saw it happen. The stuff about putting down women at work. The greatest regret of my career is not walking out on a boss who only became worse and crazier as my tenure at that position went on.
The second story comes when a girl I dated in my twenties told me her female boss threw away the resume of a qualified female candidate, simply because the candidate was more attractive than the boss.
I saw women discriminated against twice. Plus, like almost everyone, I’ve been in hotel lobbies and at conferences and seen men get pretty creepy. If not in physical action than at least in speech and double entendre. That screenshot above is probably mild compared to what you can find in any office with a decent number of employees on any given Thursday.
If Gillette would have stopped here, they might have fallen into the same catagory as Nike after the Colin Kaepernik controversy. Sure, some people hated Nike. Some yahoos on social media threw away their New Balance shoes in hilariously misguided protest beacause they thought the “N” stood for “Nike.”
Ultimately, Nike enjoyed a 31% increase in sales. This wasn’t just driven by Kaepernick himself (who, let’s be honest, is a rather bland narrator and lacks charisma on screen) but by a compelling ad that tied Kaep’s expulsion from the NFL to dreamers everywhere.
The message is clear. You are Kaep. You are the basketball in the wheelchair with a killer double dribble. You are the surfer staring at an impossible wave. You may engage in a different sport or activity, but you are clearly the hero. There’s a strong narrative here that you (the consumer) may have been knocked down, but you will get up.
I have no idea if Nike was motivated by politics, goodwill or simply a desire to swim in a vault full of cash a la Scrooge McDuck, but the latter is definitely happening right now. Again, because the message was clear and put the customer in a good story.
Now, let’s look at what went wrong.
Don’t Mix Realism and Surrealism
Imagine you go to see a comedy starring Kevin Hart. For the first 20 minutes, he’s cracking Kevin Hart style jokes. But then at minute 21, aliens land. Now it’s a fight for survival. The jokes stop. Kevin is running from aliens. He wonders where his next meal will come from. Society has collapsed.
Huh?
Yeah, that’s how this Gillette ad feels. The opening shots tell us we’re getting something like the male version of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. Then all of a sudden, a pack of feral boys straight out of Lord of the Flies busts through a video wall. They chase a boy who’s probably being bullied through the bedroom of another kid, who’s also being bullied. But the second bullied kid can’t see the pack of kids running through. Text messages pop up on screen.
Later, a surrealist line of men grill corn, clearly the most toxic and most masculine vegetable of them all.
The whole thing zips by in less than two minutes, causing a mental car wreck by the fast moving changes in tone.
When you’re creating a message, pick a tone, a brand or an idea and stick to it. Nothing kills success like the “oh, and let’s _____” additions to a project.
When you Can’t Stick to a Single Idea, You Lose Everyone
Had Gillette simply looked at how women are treated in the workplace (and done so without the surrealism schlock) this commercial might have been a home run. Especially if they could have tied it into the product.
Think what you want about the stupid Apple 1984 ad, I believe LA furniture designer Stephen Kenn created the greatest commercial ever made. Grab two full boxes of tissue and check this out.
Note that A). Like everything but the Gillette ad, it’s very easy to follow what’s going on here and B). there’s a direct tie-in to the product, although it’s subtle. (“There’s beauty in the smell of leather…”)
What’s the tie in for Gillette? Is their product men? Do they sell men, locked in a little case, at Walgreens? I’m not seeing how the protagonist ties into the product here.
The Audience Can Only Be Stretched So Far
Every video in this article pushes the envelope a bit. Nike does it. Dove does it.
Some leave, but others become more passionate brand fans.
But Gillette is all friction with no real payoff. The “women discriminated at work” stuff is eclipsed by the second half of the commercial, which features two boys pummeling each other UFC style while a half dozen dads look on.
Is this really the problem America is facing? Elementary school fight clubs which are sanctioned and sponsored by neighborhood fathers?
In the first half, many men were saying “I’ve seen that.” But then we get Conor McGregor Jr. reigning punches down on his fellow third grader as dudes in polo shirts nod along.
Is bullying an issue? Without a doubt. Is the fight between the boys a stand in for what bullying feels like? Sure.
But since the commercial started out with a realism tone, it’s not clear whether we’re supposed to take this at face value or as symbolic for all bullying.
Which is why the most natural response to the Gillette Commercial is “huh?” And nobody ever bought anything because of “huh?” Sure, Twitter mentions for the brand are in the millions and the cable news outlets wills stay on this for a few days.
But then something else will come along soon to capture the fragile attention of pop culture. Gillette’s temporary sales bubble will burst, and most of us will forget we ever saw this ad, because it’s just too confusing to hold in our minds.
Gillette experienced plenty of motion, but little action to drive sales or the value of the brand.
