Gillette has been building buzz the last month with how-to online
videos. The videos show men how to shave everywhere except their face,
also known as “manscaping.”

There has been tons buzz around the videos. By last Friday, Gillette’s Youtube site had more than 300,000 views in about a month.

The videos are very clever and humorous, which is different from the
approach they usually take in their advertising and marketing. Each
light-hearted video shows a cartoon demonstrating how to manscape
different areas of the body.

Before the videos were posted, Gillette tested them on both men and
women with little negative feedback. Through their research, Gillette
also found that one-third of men shave hair from their body other than
their faces.

“Our goal was to engage guys in a dialogue on the whys and how-to’s, and to do it comfortably and reassure them in a funny and entertaining way,” said Tim Williams a Gillette marketing official.

I think Gillette did a really great job with these videos. Not only are
they funny and perfect to reach 20-something men, but there is actually
research to back their approach.

Although we can’t leave without saying that they are ripping off the Phillips Norelco Shave Everywhere site from a few years ago.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky has done it again. I love these guys. They are always pushing the envelope in incredibly creative and unique ways. This time, however, their humor and creativity has caught the attention of the Mexican government.

Getting in trouble is nothing new for CP+B. Just a few months ago they were asked by Facebook to take down their “Whopper Sacrifice” application because it violated privacy policy. Most recently advocacy groups got in a huff about the “Spongebob” BK commercial. And then there was the “Whopper Virgins” campaign last December that was not very well received, but totally funny.

So what’s different this time? CP+B is actually altering their advertisement to comply with complaints, which will be the first time they are willingly making requested changes (Facebook forced them to shut down “Whopper Sacrifice”). But I guess when you degrade citizens and disprespect the national flag of a country, that just happens to be the second largest market besides the United States, something’s gotta give.

When I watched the commercial the first time, I didn’t see why anyone would find it offensive. I thought it was totally funny. Meaning that I am an insensitive jerk or I’m not Mexican – I’ll let you decide.  It reminded me of Nacho Libre and BrokeBack Mountain, which made me giggle. I thought the concept was clever and the copy was just cheesy enough. Who could be upset by that? Turns out a whole country.

Ambassador Jorge Zermeno wrote that the “advertisement denigrates the image of our country and uses improperly Mexico’s national flag.” He noted that Mexico has strict laws barring the defamation of the flag.

It wasn’t until I read this blog comment that I realized how serious this really was to people:

“And there’s something far worse, at least to anyone born and raised in Mexico, taught from a wee age that though there are few things genuinely sacred in life, one of those things is unquestionably the national flag. For better or worse, Mexicans have a thing about flags, and so…(here’s the part you gotta pay close attention to): In Mexico this “inoffensive” advert with the cute little wrestler and Texas cowboy would be in flagrant violation of federal law.”

In this case, it’s probably a good call that CP+B is changing their advertising in order to prevent any further offense. I’m thinking that this might also be the first time that CP+B wasn’t intentionally controversial. They’ve done some pretty crazy things in the past and not been bothered by negative feedback. I’m always impressed with how CP+B takes risks in their advertising despite criticism but I’m also impressed that they are willing to correct this mistake.