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Ruben Alcala

Professor Granillo

English 103

26 January 2019

The Gillette Commercial

It’s early 2019, Americans leave behind 2018 and look towards a new future where

rhetoric in media can evolve to be better than the year before. As the attention of media shifts

into looking at the future, new controversy arises with the release of a new commercial by

Gillette. The commercials intentions were to show that Gillette in spite of the past controversies

regarding toxic masculinity wants the audience to know that they believe men can be better than

before. Gillette’s “We Believe: Best A Man Can Be” message of the ad was misinterpreted by

the audience mainly due to its rhetoric used throughout the video; it focused too much on the use

of pathos, with its ethos not being credible and its logos being the worst part of its use of

rhetoric. A noted fallacy also used during the ad was its “appeal to popularity”. This is all

important because if the rhetorical appeals are not strong enough, then the goal and message of

the ad will not positively impact the audience and lose its credibility; thus Gillette believing in

“the best a man can be”, would need to change how they depict “the best a man can get”.

Gillette is a razor company who had always taken Pride in selling their razors for men.

The audience that is mainly advertised to in most commercials is men because men are usually

there biggest consumer of their razors. There strongest mode of rhetoric is pathos, the appeal of

pathos is described as how emotionally impactful something is. In this ad, their pathos is

combined with their claim that they believe men can be better than how they are stereotyped to

be, and they do so by depicting scenarios in which men have the choice to intervene with
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conflicts other males get themselves into or to stay out of it; in the end they show examples of

how men can be better by stepping up and confronting the conflicts they are faced with.

Depicting these scenarios that people can relate to being in and conflicted with emotions is how

they show an example of pathos being there leading use of rhetorical appeal,

Painting a scenario everyone can relate to is a great way to use of pathos to emotionally

connect an ad to the audience. However, while the multiple scenarios depicted in the ad did

evoke emotion, it was not hopeful positive emotions Gillette garnered from the audience. An

example of such a scenario depicted in the ad that sparked controversy was when the video cuts

to a scene in which a woman is in what looks like to be a professional board meeting, and

without hearing what the woman said, the audio cuts to the man standing over her and the man

says “what I actually think she’s trying to say” and the camera cuts to the women looking

somber (Gillette, We Believe: Best a man Be, 0:29). The Scene is supposed to illustrate how

Women's voices are often silenced in male dominant corporate settings. This Scenario is meant

for the audience to emotionally symphysis with the terrible actions that is taking place in the

scene. The problem viewers had with this was that there was no context to what the women

actually said therefore making that an example to show male toxic masculinity evoked pathos

from the audience that sparked controversy, this scene could have been less controversial if there

was more context behind what was happening. This is where there use of logos rhetorical appeal

starts to falter some more as there target audience is supposed to be men, but when analyzing

there use of pathos, the interpretation feels as if Gillette is saying “Men are bad and need to act

this way”.

Logos is the rhetorical appeal that has to do with the logistical aspect of there ad, and

what the video depicts and if it really makes sense to the audience. After watching the ad, many
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people were confused as to why Gillette a razor company would make an ad criticizing the

majority of their consumers and calling to action other men to make other men in the world

accountable for their actions. This is specified in a scene in the ad that shows Terry Crews, an

activist against sexual assault, telling the audience that “men need to hold other men

accountable” (Gillette, We Believe: Best a man Be, 0:58). This scene comes after the wake of the

#MeToo movement in 2018, this moment in the ad tries to give the audience hope that men can

change other men for the better. On the other hand, this moment also contradicts what the

Gillette has built up as a brand for years trying to build up men to be prideful of the masculinity.

It makes no logistical sense to depict a world where all toxic stereotypes of men are being

depicted and the call to action to fix the problem is for men to hold other men accountable in this

fictional world; Thus also making the use of ethos even less credible when the fact is that

Gillette is a razor shaving company who are trying to ultimately get the consumer to buy their

products.

The use of ethos in their rhetoric is by far the most controversial and weakest aspect of

their overall message to their consumer. Gillette is a company that has always made very well

made shaving products for men, and women, but the ad is condescending and belittling men

which is half or more of their consumers by depicting a world where it shows that men only

exhibit toxic masculinity. These examples are depicted showing throughout the video as men get

into different scenarios that show more toxic stereotypes (Gillette, We Believe: Best a man Be,

1:48). On the surface, the message of the ad is fine “treat others with respect”. But when you

analyze the ad more, you see that it really feels as if Gillette is criticizing their consumers. This,

of course, illegitimizess their credibility as a company because it hurt there target audience they

were striving to impact with a positive message. This problem also could have been prevented if
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their tone and use of stereotypes in the ad were more clear as to why it happened and how it can

be solved, rather then making it feel like a criticism of men's masculinity.

One of the rhetorical fallacies noted during the ad was the appeal to popularity. The

appeal to popularity fallacy is described as someone who tries to argue that something is right

because everyone believes in it. It is believed that in this ad Gillette exhibits this because this is

the first time they have ever been vocal about a hot-button issue such as sexual assault and

gender stereotypes. For example, they themselves depicted in the ad that toxic masculinity had

not been a very loud and vocal issue until the popular #me-too movement occurred in 2018

sparking global attention to sexual assault cases in high positions in society, (Gillette, We

Believe: Best a man Be, 0:43). While there is absolutely nothing wrong with the movement

itself, it's more of the idea that the company Gillette would ride the wave of popularity by talking

and calling to action other men to do better. This idea would have not crossed the mind of the

consumer watching the ad if it had not been for the overall rhetoric used to describe how and

why men need to do better in society.

In summary, At the beginning of the new year, Gillette sparked controversy by releasing

their add “We Believe: best a man can be” mainly due to its use of rhetoric throughout the video.

It focused too heavily on the use of pathos and not enough Logos and Ethos, it's fallacy “appeal

to popularity” was another driving factor as to why the rhetoric throughout the video is the cause

of the controversy. Gillette’s overall problem was also that it depicted too many negative toxic

masculine stereotypes and hurt its argument that it's trying to spread a positive message that men

of tomorrow to be better. On the surface, the message was thoughtful and with good intentions,

but scratch that coat of paint off And the ad can be interpreted in many different ways thought to

be unfavorable.
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Works Cited

Gillette, “We Believe: Best a man Be”, January 19 2019