Gen Z and younger Millennials represent the future of grooming consumers and the biggest long-term business opportunity for Gillette. Yet according to brand equity data, Gillette was losing relevance in their lives. With over 2/3 of Millennials and Gen Z’s expressing a preference for brands that have a point of view on an issue and stand for something, and 72% willing to pay extra for products and services from companies dedicated to social change, it became clear Gillette needed to stand for something more meaningful.

If you turned on the news in 2018, it was hard to argue that men were at their best. Allegations of sexual harassment and assault were flooding in against some of America’s most prominent male celebrities and politicians. Men’s behavior was in the spotlight like never before. While women had brought attention to the issue with the #MeToo movement, men remained noticeably silent. So on the 30th anniversary of our tagline, The Best A Man Can Get, we wanted to give it a new meaning, one that would ultimately provoke a much needed conversation among men and force the issue to the surface. We not only wanted men to confront the issue, but help shine the way forward, instilling a sense of empowerment for each man to take positive action, while setting the tone for a new chapter, one of optimism and aspiration that’s inherent in our iconic tagline.

The only way for progress was to get all sides talking. We needed to start a conversation among men, but when we spoke to different men around the country, we realized that many felt a sense of vindication and apathy. They weren’t the Harvey Weinsteins of the world, so it wasn’t their problem. But chances are they had seen or knew of bad behavior occurring around them and chose to turn a blind eye to it, chalking it up to “boys will be boys” or writing it off as “locker room talk”. There was a huge opportunity for men to create change, to hold each other accountable and set a new standard for how a man acts. As a leading male grooming brand, we felt we had an obligation to take a stand, even if it meant upsetting some of our core consumers in the process.

We created a film designed to get guys to sit up and take notice, and to trigger a dialogue on the issue. It couldn’t just be a celebration of men; we needed to address the issue head on, to make men confront the problem first, even if it made them feel a little uncomfortable. But we also needed to present a rallying cry, one of optimism and a fresh start. We began by setting the scene of the past 2 years for men in the wake of #MeToo and the bullying epidemic, using a combination of staged and found footage. We then pivoted to real stories of men taking action against bullying and sexual harassment to demonstrate how each man had the power to make a small difference for change. We partnered with Terry Crews, a victim of sexual assault himself, to help promote our message through his social channels.

‘We Believe’ forced a very difficult but much needed conversation globally. No brand had triggered a cultural conversation of this magnitude. For the first time ever, men were engaged on the issue. It became the #1 trending topic on Twitter and generated over 15 billion impressions with only 5 hours of paid media. It was promoted by a number of celebrities and influencers, including Bernice King (MLK’s daughter), Chrissy Teigen, and Billie Jean King. ‘We Believe’ was covered by every major news outlet across the globe, debated online, on talk shows, podcasts, and even parodied on SNL. It was shown and analyzed in schools and universities around the world, and triggered an important dialogue among many parents of young boys. Gillette became the 3rd most Googled search term in the US, catapulted from a brand no one seemed to pay attention to, to the #7 most meaningful brands of 2019.