Gillette’s Ad “We Believe: The Best Men Can Be” Analysis Essay Example

When most men think of Gillette brand, they think of razors. Gillette has been one of the biggest and most popular razor companies to sell towards men. There company slogan is ‘The Best Men Can Be’. Although they also sell razors products towards women, there primary audience and consumers are male. However, when Gillette had released an advertisement during the me-too movement, about toxic masculinity it stirred up a lot of opinions on the company. Some were happy that Gillette were addressing the issue with toxic masculinity in today’s society, while others were angry that Gillette was generalizing men as “all bad” and just virtue signaling. This was a dangerous move by Gillette. But it brings up the question: Was this advertisement a huge success, or a huge failure on Gillette? After looking through Aristotle’s rhetorical appeals, it can be concluded that this advertisement was a big success on Gillette’s company.

To understand why this advertisement was a success we need to know the Kairos and context of this commercial. During 2017, the me-too movement was in full effect. The me-too movement was supposed to support survivors of sexual violence in particular women. However, it wasn’t until the story of Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse on Hollywood actresses when the me-too movement received a lot of attraction by the world. Then Gillette put out the ad, starts off with the question, “Is this the best a man can get?’. This text relates to the current state of toxic masculinity, Gillett’s message is to stop the cycle of men groping and harassing women and hold them more accountable and be a better example for the next generation of men. Towards the end Gillett mentions the popular say “boys will be boys” and counter acts that statement with “There will be no going back” and “To say the right thing and act the right way”. We can assume that the intended audience is towards men, especially bosses, leaders, and fathers who are role models to younger men.

Now seeing the background of this advertisement, we can see this entire ad is solely pathos and lacks any logos. The message of the ad brings two different thoughts for people, the first is a hope, for a better generation of men, the other is denial and a sense of virtual signaling. This use of emotional appeal brought a lot of attention towards Gillette. One example they use towards the audience is the scene with the old TV box in black in white. It briefly shows a group of guys cat-calling a woman. That scene shows that this problem isn’t recent but has been happening for generations and being ignored. Then the camera pans to a TV set with a guy perving and groping a girl while the audience laughs and finds it funny like its normal. Gillette uses the emotion of guilt and shame on the audience but particularly men for allowing this to happen. The ad continues with the other toxic traits of men mansplaining a female coworker, it continues to shame and guilt men for allowing this behavior, not only for allowing this to happen in the past, but also continue today. This use of emotional appeal has been effective in getting a response for men to act now and speaking up when necessary. This message also shows that Gillette cares and speaking up against toxic masculinity today even if their main consumer base is against it. This can be a common trend on companies to virtue signal towards the younger generation who base a lot on emotion over logic. Now the question still stands, was this commercial a success on Gillette’s part? Well, most of the general public would say this was a total failure and accusing Gillette of attacking their audience would lead to loss in the company. However, looking at the annual sales report from beginning of 2019, they had a net income of 3.9 billion, but by the end of 2019 they were up to 13.03 billion, (Proctor Gamble Co, 2022). Having the company rise 234.28% in its sales. Gillette had planned on making this ad controversial, they knew full well how much this would stir up there mostly male consumer base, and yet they not profited from this advertisement greatly. This is as logical as it gets for a successful ad on the Gillette’s marketing team. This great feat shows not only shows how great they are at advertisement, but also the courage they have make an advertisement like this.