Suppose you are in charge of a huge world-wide brand that creates products for a rather specific target demographic, for example women. Let's say your company manufactures and sells female hygiene products, for instance.
Obviously you would want as much positive brand recognition for your product as possible. When creating an advertising campaign, you want people in general, but especially your target demographic, your potential customers, to get as much a positive feeling of the product and your brand as possible, because this will incentivize them to buy your product when they see it on the store shelf.
Thus you commission an advertisement campaign from an advertisement company, or some branch of your company that creates such things. However, what they come up with is something truly mind-boggling: It's a two-minute long video targeted at women telling them how women are vindictive backstabbers and slanderous gossipers, and how all this starts in high school, where girls will bully other girls in the most vicious ways. The advert tries to teach women that only they can stop school bullying of girls, and that only they can stop the cycle of toxicity and vindictive culture among women.
After you regain yourself after having dropped your jaw to the floor you ask the people responsible for this if this is some kind of joke. They tell you with a straight face that they are being completely serious.
Would you ever give a green light to this kind of advertisement campaign?
I don't think any sane person would. Even the biggest moron in the world would understand that you don't sell a product to a target demographic by demonizing those people, telling them how horrible people they are, and preaching to them that they need to become better people. You don't sell a product to a target demographic by giving them negative feelings and making them feel bad.
Yet, this is exactly what Gillette did, with their recent advertisement campaign selling shaving razors to men. They created an advertisement campaign where they accuse men of being sexist oppressive predators and harassers of women suffering from "toxic masculinity".
In what bizarro world do they think that they are going to sell a product by insulting their main target demographic?
In a sane world, a company would try to sell a product by making their target demographic feel good about themselves, by exalting the virtues of this demographic. For example, if the target demographic is adult men, like in this case, a normal advertisement campaign could show the hard work that firemen, rescue workers, emergency personnel, doctors and so on do every day, to save lives and better society. It would celebrate the contribution that men do to society and to other people.
In the modern world, however, a company will on the contrary attack and insult its target demographic, and preach to it that they are horrible people and that they have to become better.
The world has become absolutely insane. My only hope, and I really hope this, is that Gillette will learn their lesson by their sales plummeting. However, I fear that their sales will not plummet, in which case they will not learn any lesson, and this will only encourage them, and others, to keep doing this same thing in the future.
Obviously you would want as much positive brand recognition for your product as possible. When creating an advertising campaign, you want people in general, but especially your target demographic, your potential customers, to get as much a positive feeling of the product and your brand as possible, because this will incentivize them to buy your product when they see it on the store shelf.
Thus you commission an advertisement campaign from an advertisement company, or some branch of your company that creates such things. However, what they come up with is something truly mind-boggling: It's a two-minute long video targeted at women telling them how women are vindictive backstabbers and slanderous gossipers, and how all this starts in high school, where girls will bully other girls in the most vicious ways. The advert tries to teach women that only they can stop school bullying of girls, and that only they can stop the cycle of toxicity and vindictive culture among women.
After you regain yourself after having dropped your jaw to the floor you ask the people responsible for this if this is some kind of joke. They tell you with a straight face that they are being completely serious.
Would you ever give a green light to this kind of advertisement campaign?
I don't think any sane person would. Even the biggest moron in the world would understand that you don't sell a product to a target demographic by demonizing those people, telling them how horrible people they are, and preaching to them that they need to become better people. You don't sell a product to a target demographic by giving them negative feelings and making them feel bad.
Yet, this is exactly what Gillette did, with their recent advertisement campaign selling shaving razors to men. They created an advertisement campaign where they accuse men of being sexist oppressive predators and harassers of women suffering from "toxic masculinity".
In what bizarro world do they think that they are going to sell a product by insulting their main target demographic?
In a sane world, a company would try to sell a product by making their target demographic feel good about themselves, by exalting the virtues of this demographic. For example, if the target demographic is adult men, like in this case, a normal advertisement campaign could show the hard work that firemen, rescue workers, emergency personnel, doctors and so on do every day, to save lives and better society. It would celebrate the contribution that men do to society and to other people.
In the modern world, however, a company will on the contrary attack and insult its target demographic, and preach to it that they are horrible people and that they have to become better.
The world has become absolutely insane. My only hope, and I really hope this, is that Gillette will learn their lesson by their sales plummeting. However, I fear that their sales will not plummet, in which case they will not learn any lesson, and this will only encourage them, and others, to keep doing this same thing in the future.
Comments
Post a Comment