The hook and when it ran
In January 2019, Gillette did something razor brands were not supposed to do. It took its long-running tagline, “The Best a Man Can Get,” and asked whether that standard was still enough. The short film ran under the new line “The Best Men Can Be” and landed in the middle of the #MeToo conversation. It did not show a single new blade. It showed men checking each other, stepping in and choosing better behavior. Within days, the ad was everywhere.
How the film was built
Grey built the film as a mirror, not a manifesto. It opened with scenes of bullying, harassment and toxic masculinity, then shifted to small interventions: a father stopping a fight, a man calling out catcalling, a boy being taught to respect boundaries. The creative borrowed the rhythm of the old tagline and changed one word. That was the whole trick. It kept Gillette’s heritage while telling men the standard had moved.
The production used news-style realism rather than glossy product shots. That choice made the film feel like a cultural document, not a commercial. The brand’s logo appeared only at the end. Gillette also paired the launch with a pledge to fund nonprofits working to help men become better. The goal was not to sell a razor that day. The goal was to make Gillette part of an argument men were already having.
Why it spread in its day
The film split viewers almost instantly. Supporters called it brave; critics called it preachy and organized boycotts under hashtags like #BoycottGillette. The backlash became the story. News outlets, pundits and social feeds debated whether a razor brand had the right to lecture men. The algorithm did the rest. Praise and anger both pushed the film further.
Gillette suddenly became a Rorschach test. People projected their politics, their parenting and their view of masculinity onto a two-minute spot. That is rare for a consumer brand. The film was quoted, clipped and parodied. It spread because it gave everyone a position to take.
What it did for the brand
P&G executives defended the campaign and said they were prepared for heated reactions. The new line kept showing up in later Gillette work. The ad cemented Gillette as a case study in purpose-driven marketing, both its promise and its cost. It did not settle the sales question overnight. But it made the brand culturally visible again in a category that usually only talks to men about shaving.
The real legacy is that “The Best Men Can Be” became shorthand for both sides of a marketing debate. Some brands now chase that kind of attention; others avoid it. Gillette showed them exactly what it looks like.
Steal this: three moves that still work
- Reframe, don’t replace. Keep the familiar tagline structure so the change feels like progress, not a rebrand.
- Build for debate. If you make a values ad, design it to be quoted, argued about and clipped. The conflict is the distribution.
- Make the audience the hero. Show everyday people making the choice, not the product or a celebrity. Let viewers see themselves.
Watch the original: Gillette on YouTube
