Gillette
Gillette is an American brand of safety razors and other personal care products including shaving supplies, owned by the multi-national corporation Procter & Gamble (P&G). Based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, it was owned by The Gillette Company, a supplier of products under various brands until that company merged into P&G in 2005. The Gillette Company was founded by King C. Gillette in 1901 as a safety razor manufacturer.[2]
For the stadium, see Gillette Stadium. For the commune, see Gilette. For other uses, see Gillette (disambiguation).Product type
Safety razors, shaving supplies, personal care products
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
September 28, 1901[1]
The Gillette Company
"The Best a Man Can Get" (1989–2019, 2023–present)
"The Best Men Can Be" (2019–2023)
Under the leadership of Colman M. Mockler Jr. as CEO from 1975 to 1991,[3] the company was the target of multiple takeover attempts, from Ronald Perelman[4] and Coniston Partners.[3] In January 2005, Procter & Gamble announced plans to merge with the Gillette Company.[5]
The Gillette Company's assets were incorporated into a P&G unit known internally as "Global Gillette". In July 2007, Global Gillette was dissolved and incorporated into Procter & Gamble's other two main divisions, Procter & Gamble Beauty and Procter & Gamble Household Care.[6] Gillette's brands and products were divided between the two accordingly. The Gillette R&D center in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Gillette South Boston Manufacturing Center (known as "Gillette World Shaving Headquarters"), still exist as functional working locations under the Procter & Gamble-owned Gillette brand name.[7] Gillette's subsidiaries Braun and Oral-B, among others, have also been retained by P&G.
Criticism and controversy
The desire to release ever more expensive products, each claiming to be the "best ever", has led Gillette to make disputed claims for its products. In 2005, an injunction was brought by rival Wilkinson Sword which was granted by the Connecticut District Court which determined that Gillette's claims were both "unsubstantiated and inaccurate" and that the product demonstrations in Gillette's advertising were "greatly exaggerated" and "literally false". While advertising in the United States had to be rewritten, the court's ruling does not apply in other countries.[128]
Procter & Gamble (P&G) shaving products have been under investigation by the UK Office of Fair Trading as part of an inquiry into alleged collusion between manufacturers and retailers in setting prices.
Gillette was fined by Autorité de la concurrence in France in 2016 for price fixing on personal hygiene products.[129]
In January 2019, Gillette began a new marketing campaign, "The Best Men Can Be", to mark the 30th anniversary of the "Best a Man Can Get" slogan. The campaign was introduced with a long-form commercial entitled "We Believe", and aims to promote positive values among men – condemning acts of bullying, sexism, sexual assault, and toxic masculinity. While the campaign received praise for its acknowledgement of current social movements and for promoting positive values of masculinity, it also faced a negative response – including from right-wing critics[130] – being called left-wing propaganda, accusatory towards its customers, and misandrist and there were calls for boycotts of Gillette.[131][132][133][134][135]
In June 2019, P&G wrote-down Gillette business by $8 billion, a move which company executives attributed to currency exchange, new competitors in the market, and increased popularity of growing beards. Share prices increased following the write-down.[136]
In science
In laser research and development, Gillette razor blades are used as a non-standard measurement as a rough estimate of a particular laser beam's penetrative ability; a "four-Gillette laser", for example, can burn through four blades.[164]
In music
A Gilette razorblade was used as a tool to achieve a certain sound by the English rock band The Kinks. Kinks member Dave Davies became "really bored with this guitar sound – or lack of an interesting sound" so he purchased "a little green amplifier ...an Elpico" from a radio spares shop in Muswell Hill,[165] and "twiddled around with it", including "taking the wires going to the speaker and putting a jack plug on there and plugging it straight into my AC30" (a larger amplifier), but did not get the sound he wanted until he got frustrated and "got a single-sided Gillette razorblade and cut round the cone [from the center to the edge] ... so it was all shredded but still on there, still intact. I played and I thought it was amazing."[166] The sound was replicated in the studio by having the Elpico plugged into the Vox AC30. It was this sound, courtesy of a Gillette razor blade that became a mainstay on many of The Kinks early recordings, including "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night".[167]
Operations in Canada
In late 1988, Gillette announced plans to eliminate manufacturing operations in Montreal and Toronto. The Canadian unit's executive offices remained in Montreal, with administrative, distribution, marketing, and sales operations continuing in both cities. Approximately 600 employees in Canada were laid off as part of the global restructure,[168] which followed a $720 million share repurchase and sought to "rationalize worldwide production".[169] As of 2005, Gillette was not producing products in Canada and employed approximately 200 people in Edmonton, Mississauga, and Montreal.[170]