Monday 11 February 2008

Gillette - almost the best a man can get

Its a risky game advertising & sponsorship. Think of the money that companies have poured into putting their name to someone else's face, just to have the face become less appealling.


It can, occassionally, work surprisingly well; I refer to the famous sponsorship of the Melbourne Demons in 2000 by Melbourne Water, a year in which the (mighty) Demons inexplicably made it to the Grand Final and their forward-pocket Jeff 'the Wizard' Farmer was featured in one commercial saying that 'saving water isnt just good for the farmers'.

An advertising triumph.


I only mention this as I recently noticed Gillettes new campaign featuring Thierry Henry, Roger Federer and Tiger Woods.


While the Tiger is still going along fairly well, Federer has just lost the Australian Open and Henry is hanging around on the wing in Barcelona, getting about as popular as the fat kid at school when any sports teams are picked (apart from maybe the sport of eating donuts off a string with your hands tied behind your back - which is absolute genius).


Gillette do seem to have a history of these things, their sponsorship of David Beckham came shortly before he; got kicked out of Manchester United, became familiar with the Real Madrid bench, was stripped of the English captaincy, moved to the might of the US Premier League and finally get dropped from the English squad.


Beware sportspeople, Gillettes pieces of eight are most certainly tainted.

As the old saying goes; Its better to go with the donuts than a grooming-induced fall from grace.

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