Oh boy. Public relations, campaigns, and brand messaging – all these things have lost their path thanks to the voice of the internet. Gone are the days when we’ve to sit and flesh out a brand’s values and messages. I think we’re one step ahead (or behind now) – do these brand values and messages offend people? Which group of people? Why? How can we make something appeal to everyone?
The answer is, you can’t. Gillette’s latest ad, altering/playing on their 30 year old brand message “The best a man can get” to “The best a man can be” has raised a huge voice in the world of men. The comments under the ad on YouTube have many customers opting to stop using the brand, being offended by the brand’s message. The like to dislike ratio is huge, with the latter reaching more than 620k.
The answer is, you can’t. Gilette’s latest ad, altering/playing on their 30 year old brand message “The best a man can get” to “The best a man can be” has raised a huge voice in the world of men. The comments under the ad on YouTube have many customers opting to stop using the brand, being offended by the brand’s message. The like to dislike ratio is huge, with the latter reaching more than 620k.
Toxic masculinity. It’s an issue that has been discussed at large in 2018, with the outbreak of the #MeToo movement. But there are so many branches to this tree of discussion – men were/are also affected by the #MeToo movement. Men also go through gender stereotypes. So why did a brand, with its largest target audience being men, choose to target men?
But I think to myself – are they even targeting men? Or are they talking about an issue that many people talk about? One of the key messages of the ad is “Men need to hold other men accountable.” Again, this could mean friend to friend, brother to brother, father to son, or teacher to student. Furthermore, there’s a lot of visual representation of young boys, so this could be a subtle (or not so subtle) messaging on how the kids of tomorrow need to be aware of these issues, and be taught the right way to deal with gender issues.
Gender stereotypes, sexual assault, feminism – these are all strong issues in today’s world. We’re at the peak of understanding and deconstructing these issues. Social media has not made it easier, but it has also helped open up a whole new world of understanding and deciphering these issues.
During my masters degree, the one thing that we had to outline in our campaigns without fail, is a list of detailed stakeholders and how to approach them – government, media, young adults, adults, and potential customers. Under this, we’d have the various medium through which the message is received – newspaper, magazine, television, social media, etc. These theories work well for a dissertation or a thesis.
But as Marshal McLuhan says, “The medium is the message.” – your YouTube video is instant. It sparks instant reactions. Social media has made it easy for opinions to be validated. Therefore, reactions are instant. Discussions are limited. Gone are the days when something is posted in a newspaper first, and discussions are through word of mouth.
Unfortunately, that’s the risk of brand awareness these days. As much as you can have control of messaging with certain one-on-one interviews or events, you can’t really have control on mediums like social media or video streaming sites like YouTube because as an era, we are validated through these mediums, hence, we are the message.
Read the same post on my LinkedIn.
Check out this interesting article by The Guardian: Gillette #MeToo ad on ‘toxic masculinity’ gets praise – and abuse.
THE IDLE MIND 