Gillette’s Commercial: Toxic Masculinity
I originally watched this commercial in my Marketing and Recruiting class in reference to our conversation about Mission-driven marketing. Our professor asked us to think about who the commercial was for. What is the target market? We came to a decision that the commercial was for mothers of teenage boys, who are doing the shopping for the men in their family. A great criticism of the commercial made by Kate was that the “heroes” in this commercial are all men. Men saving men. Which led Kate and now me to question why a woman couldn’t have stepped in as the hero in each scene? If the target market was mothers buying the Gillette products for their sons, why wouldn’t they have been the ones to intervene in the critical moments? I’m not sure we came to a conclusion other than the commercial is a product of the time in which we live. A commercial that is too “radical” might dissuade so many users of the product that it tanks the business.
Thanks for sharing this Kalina!
The content of this particular conversation lingered with me as well. I was also kind of discomforted at the fact that someone said that the target market here would be the mothers of teenage boys and their husbands… so men can’t do their own shopping anymore? I have found that in my life with men (many brothers and partners) they are perfectly capable and usually desire to choose their own razor. The sheer fact that it was concluded that women are the ones purchasing the razors urked me. You would think that we live in a time where women are no longer expected to be the “chore-doers” or the “grocery-getters”. I think moments such as these are precisely why we need feminism and humanism!
Our classmate Natalie made an even more poignant comment – this type of media is what is consumed by the masses of men and boys in our country. Men and boys aren’t doing research questioning the rationales behind these commercials or having a conversation about gender roles in American (and universal) society. Commercials like these are what they are consuming on a daily basis. So it makes me wonder, can we justify the message being sent by this commercial by simply saying, “well, they tried!” and “well, commercials won’t make everyone happy!!!”
I am glad you posted this. Thank you for doing so. I am curious to see what other people in the class have to say 🙂
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IMO, it found its target audience. You always target a larger demographic( for example, afaik Hoka (running shoes, popular amogst runners) does most of the commercials targeted at women, since this brand has a strong female following ( just look at any banner at most running shoes stores like https://rununited.com/ )