Gillette "The Best Men Can Be": When a Purpose Campaign Divided Its Own Customers
In January 2019 Gillette rewrote its 30-year-old slogan to ask men to stand up to bullying and harassment. The film was praised by some and furiously rejected by others, and it became one of the most disliked brand videos on YouTube.
For 30 years Gillette told men it offered “The Best a Man Can Get.” In January 2019 it asked them a different question: is this the best men can be?
The film, released as “We Believe: The Best Men Can Be,” showed scenes of bullying, sexual harassment and men excusing bad behaviour with “boys will be boys.” It then showed men stepping in to stop it. The message was that men should hold each other to a higher standard.
Within days it was one of the most talked-about ads in the world, and one of the most disliked videos any brand had ever posted on YouTube.
The Context
“The Best a Man Can Get” was one of the most famous slogans in advertising. It was introduced in 1989 and appeared in decades of ads showing confident, successful men, often star athletes, shaving with the latest multi-blade razor.
By 2019 Gillette’s position was less secure. Direct-to-consumer brands such as Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s were winning younger customers with lower prices and a more relaxed tone. Beards were fashionable. The shaving market was shrinking, and Gillette’s share within it was falling.
At the same time, the #MeToo movement had put questions about men’s behaviour at the centre of public conversation. Many brands were under pressure, particularly from younger consumers, to say what they stood for.
Gillette and its agency, Grey, decided to use the brand’s slogan to join that conversation. The film was directed by Kim Gehrig.
The Campaign
The film opens with a montage of men looking at themselves in mirrors, with news reports about bullying, harassment and #MeToo playing in the background. It shows a boy running from bullies, a man in a boardroom talking over a female colleague, and a row of men at barbecues repeating “boys will be boys” as two young boys fight.
The tone then shifts. Men step in to stop a friend from following a woman down the street, break up fights and tell other men that harassment is not OK. The voiceover says that some men are already doing the right thing, “but some is not enough.” The film ends with children watching, and the line “The Best Men Can Be.”
Gillette also committed $1 million a year for three years to non-profit programmes aimed at helping men become better role models.
The film was released online on January 13, 2019. There was no Super Bowl slot and little initial paid media. It spread through news coverage and social sharing.
Why It Failed
Many customers felt accused. The film opened with a long montage of men behaving badly before showing any positive role models. For many viewers, particularly in Gillette’s core audience, the message read as a lecture aimed at men in general. People who did not see themselves in the bad behaviour felt the brand was pointing at them anyway.
The brand had not earned the right. Gillette had spent decades selling an idealised image of masculinity. It had little history of speaking about social issues or acting on them. A sudden shift to moral commentary felt, to many people, more like a marketing tactic than a conviction. The $1 million commitment was modest next to the attention the film generated.
The product was missing. The film did not connect its message to anything about razors, shaving or the company’s own practices. It was a statement about society, attached to a product brand. That made it easy for critics to see it as opportunistic.
It entered a polarised debate. In 2019 almost any message about gender was going to be attacked by one side. Gillette’s film was embraced by many progressive commentators and rejected by many conservative ones. The brand became a symbol in a culture war it could not control.
The response was volume, not persuasion. The film generated huge reach, but reach is not the goal of a razor brand. Much of the conversation was people who already disagreed with each other using Gillette as a reason to argue.
The Results
The reaction was immediate. Within weeks the film had well over a million dislikes on YouTube, far more than it had likes, making it one of the most disliked brand videos on the platform. Some customers posted videos of themselves throwing away Gillette razors. Others praised the film and said they would switch to Gillette because of it.
The commercial impact is harder to measure than the online reaction. In mid-2019 Procter & Gamble took an $8 billion write-down on the value of the Gillette business. P&G attributed it mainly to currency movements and a smaller shaving market, not the campaign. But the write-down was widely reported alongside the ad, and the timing did not help Gillette’s reputation.
P&G defended the film publicly and said it had met its goals of getting people talking. Gillette’s later advertising largely stepped back from broad social commentary, returning to more product-focused and individual stories.
The Lesson for Today’s Marketers
Purpose marketing works best when the brand stands beside its customers, not above them. Gillette’s message was not unreasonable, but it was framed as a correction of the people it was selling to. That turned many of them against it.
Credibility also comes from action, not statements. A brand with a long history of acting on an issue can speak about it. A brand that has never done so needs to show what it is doing before it tells people how to behave.
Finally, measure the right thing. A campaign that everyone talks about is not necessarily a success. Ask whether the conversation made people more likely to choose your product, or just gave them another reason to argue.
Key Results
- YouTube response: Within weeks the film had well over a million dislikes on YouTube, far outnumbering likes, making it one of the most disliked brand videos on the platform
- Reach: The film was viewed tens of millions of times and covered by news outlets worldwide
- Financial context: In mid-2019 P&G took an $8 billion write-down on the Gillette business, which it attributed mainly to currency movements and a shrinking shaving market, not the campaign
- Brand line: The campaign reworked 'The Best a Man Can Get' into 'The Best Men Can Be', changing a 30-year-old slogan
SWOT Analysis
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Key Takeaway
Purpose campaigns fail when the audience feels lectured by a brand that has not earned the right to lecture. Gillette's message was not unreasonable, but it pointed at its own customers rather than standing beside them, and it had little history of action to back it up.
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