P&G’s Gillette wins the first PR Silver Lion at Cannes

Company Brief

Mumbai, June 24, 2010

Procter & Gamble’s “W.A.L.S.” (Women Against Lazy Stubble) campaign that led to a successful launch of its Gillette Mach 3 razor in India has won the prestigious Silver Cannes Lion in the category “PR Led Integrated Campaign” at the 57th Cannes International Advertising Festival. This is the first PR medal for India at Cannes, and has won amidst over 500 other path-breaking global entries, thereby establishing the growing importance of PR in integrated marketing campaigns.

The PR-led integrated campaign was led by the PR agency, Corporate Voice | Weber Shandwick, the ad agency BBDO, and media buying agency Mediacom.

“We are delighted to see the Gillette WALS campaign being recognized with a sliver lion at the prestigious Cannes Advertising Festival - a PR industry first. PR continues to be fundamental to brand building and a core pillar in all marketing campaigns at P&G, including being the source of holistic ideas such as the Gillette WALS campaign. I’d like to thank all our agencies – Corporate Voice | Weber Shandwick, BBDO and Mediacom for bringing this innovative idea to life and building the equity of Gillette Mach 3.” said Shweta Shukla, Associate Director & Head of External Relations, P&G India.

“It is a delight that a PR led campaign in India has created history by winning at Cannes for real transformational work done on a global brand like Gillette. Campaigns like this demonstrate the potential of PR in the overall communication that changes customers minds.” commented Shiv Reddy, CEO, Corporate Voice | Weber Shandwick.

Josy Paul, Chairman and Chief Creative officer, BBDO, said, “Our people are young and not boxed by traditional media walls. It helps when we start with an action-oriented idea that attracts multiple partners with diverse capabilities. That’s how brands grow! That’s also how we bring home a Lion.”

“When we conceived the idea of creating a national debate to engage Gillette's indifferent consumers in 2008, we had no idea that our big idea would be such a blockbuster hit! It not only delivered exceptional business results for P&G, but went on to win every award that it was entered in 2009 as 'India Votes to Shave or Not' & yet again in 2010 as 'Shave India :Women Against Lazy Stubble'. Our insight back then was consumers were indifferent to shaving & did not really care much about their razor, which was a problem for Gillette. To shake them out of their inertia we came up with the idea of stirring up a debate which is so intrinsic to Indians. Instead of conventional branded communication, we actually let the consumer & editorial create content across multiple media. And it's exciting to see the results two years in a row!”

Divya Gururaj, Managing Director, MediaCom

The WALS Campaign

The campaign played on the results of an A.C Nielsen survey that proved that 77% Indian women prefer clean-shaven men, contrary to the look numerous Indian men and even celebrities were sporting. P&G’s public relations agency Corporate Voice I Weber Shandwick leveraged this survey result to create a women’s movement called 'Shave India Movement', to convince men to shave. The movement rode heavily on “advocacy” by women celebrities, culminating into “Shaveathon”, where around 2000 men participated and shaved their faces in public using the newly launched Gillette Mach3 razor. This activity created a world record in the Guiness Book and the Limca Book of Records in India.

For further information, please contact

Corporate Voice|Weber Shandwick

Harsh Mehta

Mobile: +9198208 02228

Email: harsh@corvoshandwick.co.in