Gillette becomes the billion-dollar losing segment of parent company following its toxic masculinity commercial

Brad S. | 6:19 PM on July 31, 2019

Proctor and Gamble recently released its quarterly earnings report and things were mostly positive. Quarterly revenue was up, and the stock performed well above Wall Street estimates. Share prices rose to new highs as the company appears to be performing very strong.

Just not all of the company. Amid all of the great economic news there was one dark cloud:

P&G posts strong sales, takes $8 billion Gillette writedown https://t.co/52pvAobi29 pic.twitter.com/IGcC4ffKIh

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) July 30, 2019

So while the rest of the company is doing gangbusters the only sector seeing a massive loss was the Gillette division. The report mentioned a number of factors leading to the losses, such as foreign monetary rates and an overall slump in the grooming market.

Others sense another influence:

8bn loss what else did they expect, they sided with SJW's to be anti-men when a majority of their customer base is men. Men not only have hair to shave but self respect to uphold, there are a lot of competitors in the market, we just chose someone that doesn't push politics on us

— Charan ?? (@Charan_official) July 30, 2019

It's called failed marketing when you offend your target group because you want to show how progressive you are. If P&G wants to focus on certain female individuals identifying as males as their new target group, that's ok. I for one won't be using Gillette anymore!

— K Hime (@Needle2) July 30, 2019

Even if you wanted to cite those indicators this would still mean the commercial did not work as intended to stem the losses. It also defies the company announcing after the commercial’s release that it was widely supported. Guess calling your base customers problematic toxic individuals does not endear them to your product after all???

January: "Your stupid boycotts will never make a dent in a company like P&G."

July: https://t.co/PYaomViiv5

— Rollo Tomassi (@RationalMale) July 31, 2019

Speaking of #GetWokeGoBroke, I'm actually happy that @Gillette went woke!

I found out that the generic version of their MACH3 is a third of the cost and lasts three times as long! Their wokeness saved me money!https://t.co/kuY1OpAQic via @YouTube @Timcast

— 'Murrican Flooflesnoots (@Talliy) July 31, 2019

Looks like Gillette didn't learn anything, even after losing 8 Billion loss….. I will not be buying anything from the brand again.https://t.co/uow0M8Bezm

— ThereAreNoStringsOnMe (@are_strings) July 31, 2019

It was just days ago that the CEO of the company was still defending the ad, claiming that it may have only alienated “some” customers.

Gillette’s CEO and president, Gary Coombe, says that angering some consumers with its #metoo campaign was a “price worth paying” if it meant the brand could increase its relevance among younger consumers and turn around its falling market share.

That is some brazenly attempted spin. You are facing an isolated loss in the billions. That is quite the opposite of turning around a falling share in the market. This could be a classic case study in marketing schools in how to NOT to appeal to new customers.