GILLETTE - SCANDAL SHAVE

Creative Effectiveness Spike
TitleGILLETTE - SCANDAL SHAVE
BrandP&G CHINA
Product / ServiceGILLETTE
CategoryA01. Creative Effectiveness
EntrantBBDO CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Entrant Company BBDO CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Advertising Agency BBDO CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Advertising Agency 2 PROXIMITY CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Media Agency MEDIACOM Shanghai, CHINA
Production Company THE KEY POINT Shanghai, CHINA

Credits

Name Company Position
Kit Koh BBDO/Proximity China Executive Creative Director
Jason King BBDO/Proximity China Head of Business
Alvina Seah BBDO/Proximity China Group Account Direcor
Kevin Jin BBDO/Proximity China Creative Director
Airy Han BBDO/Proximity China Creative Director
Tao Dong BBDO/Proximity China Strategic Planner
Uming Tong BBDO/Proximity China Business Manager
Elsa Gu BBDO/Proximity China Senior Account Manager
Wai Foong Leong BBDO/Proximity China Chairman & CCO, Greater China

Brief Explanation

This is a story of how an orchestrated celebrity scandal sold 3 million razors in just 4 weeks, and resuscitated Gillette’s business in China. The challenge was a decade of seemingly terminal category erosion: 7/10 men in China could no longer justify the inconvenience of wet shaving (preparation, shave, wash, care), driving 18.3 million switchers per year to more convenient dry shavers [Source: NCS 2012]. For Gillette this represented US$647.2 million in lost earnings between 06’-12’, and no amount of innovation or promotion could stem the exodus. Everything changed with ‘Scandal Shave’. Inspired by the powerful insight that women in China find the act of men wet shaving extremely arousing to watch; an unbranded ‘private’ home video of national sweetheart Gao Yuan Yuan, scantily clad and intimately wet shaving with a man was ‘leaked’ to the media to compellingly deliver our message, generating a national scandal of enormous proportion. Capitalising on this with a full suite of branded activities, the campaign helped Gillette reach 237 million people, record its highest ever monthly sales, and inflict a significant dent in the growth of the dry shaver category. Men were flabbergasted with the effect of wet shaving and felt compelled to try for themselves. By reframing the benefits of wet shaving from inconvenient to sexy, and delivering this message in an unconventionally provocative manner, ‘Scandal Shave’ finally helped wet shaving deliver value men can see.