Shaving ads going edgy on Internet
By THERESA HOWARD
USA Today
NEW YORK — Norelco and Gillette, two of the oldest shaving brands and most traditional advertisers, have leaped into the world of edgy Internet ads with new pitches for young men.
"It's one of the hardest groups to reach," says Zdenek Kratky, a Norelco brand manager. "The Web is a critical component of speaking to men 25 to 34."
But for getting attention, in the $1 billion men's personal-care business, the current standard seems to be set by Uni-lever's booming Axe brand's risque ads. That has pushed Philips' Norelco and Procter & Gamble's Gillette to come up with Web-based campaigns to influence young male hair care. What they're pitching:
"Body grooming is relatively new," says Kratky. But he says Norelco research found that "50 percent of men 24 to 45 in the U.S. are grooming hair below the neck ... using tools such as scissors or blades or wax. It's expensive and inconvenient. There's a huge business potential for this kind of product."
The challenge, he says, for selling the electric trimmer: "Men generally do not like to talk about body grooming. They aren't comfortable talking about it."
At the site, a smug, bathrobe-wearing young man speaks about shaving backs, chests, legs and more sensitive areas, which are bleeped out in his talk, but illustrated by images of fruits, nuts and vegetables. He even has a music video in which he sings the praises of body grooming. Since its launch a month ago, the site has attracted more than 900,000 individual visitors for an average of six minutes.
The funny and edgy site includes a film about Scruff-boy's nightmare in a world of hostile, hairy women, a mock newscast about the protests and biographies of organization leaders.
The idea came from Gillette findings that men and women like how scruff looks, but that women dislike how it feels, especially in intimate moments. The site does not promote specific Gillette products but tries to persuade young men to shave more.
Since April, more than a million people have watched the site's video, says the company.
