Just a few weeks after Procter & Gamble reported a sobering $8 billion writedown, Gillette has officially called off its war on “toxic masculinity.” The embattled brand has announced that it is now “shifting the spotlight from social issues to local heroes.”
While the brand is admitting that it’s reversing course on the social issues messaging, Gillette is presenting its new focus as simply a return to what it’s always done. “We will continue to represent men at their best,” Gillette said in a statement reported by News Corp Australia. Instead of the “social issues” focus, the brand will begin to highlight positive portrayals of “heroic” masculinity, as seen in its new ad starring Ben Ziekenheiner, an Australian firefighter and personal trainer.
But as The Daily Wire reported, seven months after rolling out its “toxic” campaign, Gillette’s parent company Procter & Gamble found itself taking an $8 billion writedown for the brand. Despite positive performance overall for Procter & Gamble Co., who enjoyed better than expected profits last quarter, the company ended up reporting a net loss of over $5 billion. The reason: Gillette’s nosedive.
“Procter & Gamble Co’s (PG.N) quarterly revenue and adjusted profit beat Wall Street expectations on Tuesday, sending shares to a record-high even as the world’s No.1 personal goods company took an $8 billion charge on its Gillette shaving business,” Reuters reported in late July. Procter & Gamble “reported a net loss of about $5.24 billion, or $2.12 per share, for the quarter ended June 30, due to an $8 billion non-cash writedown of Gillette,” the news agency explained. – READ MORE