Parent company CEO defends Gillette as 'great business' after #MeToo campaign ends in $8 billion loss - Washington Examiner

 | August 02, 2019 05:34 PM









Gillette's parent company defended the razor company after an $8 billion loss that Gillette's CEO blamed in part on its #MeToo and toxic masculinity digital ad campaign.
"Gillette is a great business," Procter & Gamble CEO David Taylor told Cincinnati Business Courier in an interview Thursday. "We like it." P&G purchased Gillette, the largest shaving company in the world, for $57 billion in 2005.
In another Courier interview the same day, P&G spokeswoman Julia LaFeldt claimed the company's #MeToo digital ad had actually enhanced the brand.

"This is by far the most viewed ad Gillette has ever had online," LaFeldt said. "The vast majority of those views are organic/unpaid, which points to the natural interest and engagement that we were able to generate among consumers."
The ad released in January was a short film titled "We Believe" which took on the topics of #MeToo and toxic masculinity. The campaign was criticized by some for over generalizing male behavior and being corporate "virtue signaling."
P&G's claims contradict statements made this week by Gillette CEO Gary Coombe who told Marketing Week the #MeToo ad campaign had cost the company money but was a "price worth paying."
On Tuesday, P&G announced the company had taken a $5 billion loss for the quarter with Gillette, costing the company $8 billion in a noncash writedown.
Coombe admitted the backlash from consumers was more "intense" than he had foreseen, but defended the ad as "less provocative" than other iterations the company had considered.
"I don’t enjoy that some people were offended by the film and upset at the brand as a consequence. That’s not nice and goes against every ounce of training I’ve had in this industry over a third of a century," Coombe said. "But I am absolutely of the view now that for the majority of people to fall more deeply in love with today’s brands you have to risk upsetting a small minority and that’s what we’ve done."
LaFeldt said the film's impact would be felt "beyond the numbers," claiming, "This includes the many stories we hear about the film being used in school classrooms, universities, churches and youth clubs to start a conversation with young people about masculinity and gender in modern society."






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