An advertisement campaign by Gillette titled We Believe (available below) has sparked up a lot of debate since it launched in January of 2019. Some people praised the ad for trying to spread a positive message, while in the eyes of others the ad unfairly attacked men.

Jack Neff weighed on this in his article (available here) entitled “The Best a Brand Can Get?” He mentions that Brand Total, a marketing intelligence firm, gathered responses on the public’s opinion through a survey. 63% of viewers had an “overwhelming negative” opinion on the ad. With 29% not taking a side, that leaves only 8% with a positive opinion on Gillette’s advertising campaign. However, a different survey by Morning Consult found that the majority (61%) of viewers thought highly of the advertisement. So, what accounts for the conflicting survey results?

The biggest factor came down to how much of the ad each person had seen. Most people who watch the entire one minute and forty-five second ad viewed the message as a positive one. But 2 minutes is a long time to watch an ad for, so many viewers who voiced their opinion had not seen the full video, whether it was due to watching a shortened version or closing the video early. After watching the video, I can definitely see why the opinions are varied, because the ad shows its message more clearly toward the end of the video. Although I agree with a lot of the messages in the video, such as stopping bullying and sexual harassment, whether or not they should be praised for it comes down to their intentions.

James Carey stated that advertising has two main functions in Advertising: An Institutional Approach (linked here). The first (and more traditional) function of advertising is to “provide information on economic goods and services.” Pretty straight forward, right? The second is a bit more abstract. Carey explains that “under the impact of modern conditions” advertising now has “broader, non-economic applications.”

So, how would Carey categorize Gillette’s advertisement? While the ad’s function certainly broader than to simply provide information about their razors, I also think that is not exactly non-economic either. This depends on what Gillette’s intentions were. Did they just make an advertisement solely to try to appeal to a new demographic to maximize sales, or are they genuinely trying to use their brand to spread positive messages. It is difficult to determine this for sure, but I am certainly interested in what future Gillette ads will look like, given the varied reactions.

Works Cited

Carey, J.W. (1960). Advertising: An Institutional Approach. In C. H. Sandage and V.
Fryburger (Eds.), The Role of Advertising in Society (pp. 3-17). Homewood, IL:
Richard D. Irwin

Neff, J. (2019 January 21). The Best a Brand Can Get? Retrieved from https://sakai.bradley.edu/portal/site/COM447S01T2020SP/tool/ca8cca48-9ad1-436b-af2a-4737c70964af