Gillette

Watching this Gillette ad felt like when the teacher scolds the whole class because a few people didn’t do the homework. The ad relies purely on pathos, with the exception of Terry Crews being featured for a few seconds (Ethos). The ad definitely appeals to the need to be safe and to achieve. It tries to make the audience feel that by buying this product they will make this world a better and safer place as well as making you a better man and person. The context of the ad is heavily rooted in the news of today, especially the #metoo movement which has seen the conviction of many sexual predators and offenders. The ad tries to reflect this shift in cultural values and gender equality in their ad. The ad shows some of their own ads from the past that have sexualized women; this is done to emphasize the contrast between this new ad and the ads of the past, just like our values today contrast strongly with our values from a couple years ago. The only problem is that it comes across as very forced. Sort of like someone bragging about all their charitable acts online. Gillette is essentially screaming “Look at us! Look how not sexist and moral we are! Buy our products if you also don’t want to be sexist and moral!”.