Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - Tools for the Family Jewels: Gender Bending Brands

Episode Date: January 21, 2023

This week, we look at companies that have spent decades advertising to only one gender - then suddenly decide to approach the opposite sex. L’Oreal is now marketing makeup to men. Scotch distillers are now targeting women. And lingerie companies are now designing intimates for men. It’s a brand new, gender-bending world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please, do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan, you just have to love storytelling.

Subscribe now, and don't miss a single beat. This is an apostrophe podcast production. Your teeth look whiter than no nose. You're not you when you're hungry. You're a good half with all teeth. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. Rina Glickman was born in Brooklyn in 1935. She had a rough upbringing.

Rena, nicknamed Rusty because of her flaming red hair, learned to fight on the streets and led a gang that fought other girl gangs in her neighborhood. Then, something happened in 1955. A friend showed her a martial art. He could effortlessly pick her up on his hip and flip her onto the ground with full control. He showed her other techniques of this mysterious martial art. It felt like magic to Rusty. Because strength and size didn't matter.

A smaller person could defeat a larger person just by using skill. It was then that she fell in love with judo. Back in 1955, there weren't martial arts schools on every corner. There were few and far between. But there was a judo class at the local YMCA. So 20-year-old Rusty asked the instructor if she could join. He said no. Judo was just for men.

But Rusty kept showing up and showing up. Finally, the instructor just couldn't say no one more time so he let Rusty in. She was the only woman training with 40 men. She took her falls and her bruises, but she learned, and eventually earned her black belt. But her defining

moment would come in 1959. Because judo was dominated by men, there were no judo tournaments for women. So one day, Rusty taped her chest, cut her hair short, and at 5'9", 200 pounds, she entered a tournament disguised as a man. She beat all the top judo contenders and made it to the finals. There, she slammed her opponent to the mat and won the gold medal. It was an incredible moment for Rusty Glickman.

She had competed and won in a male-dominated sport. But she wouldn't hold that medal for long. Somehow, the officials discovered she was a woman, and she was forced to give back the medal she had earned. Then and there, Rusty vowed to become a powerful change agent in the world of judo. Rusty wanted to learn everything she could about judo, so she traveled to Japan, hoping to train at the renowned school started by the founder of Judo.

In those days, women trained in a separate space and weren't allowed to practice full contact Judo. But Rusty wanted to train with the men, and she was unstoppable. Her instructors finally relented, and Rusty became the first woman allowed into the men's section of the legendary dojo, where she trained with the best judokas in Japan and eventually married one of the black belts she met there. When Rusty Glickman, now Rusty Kanekogi, came back to New York, she opened up her own judo school. For the next 30 years, Rusty fought for women's equality in judo. Her big dream was to have women's judo in the Olympic Games. Men's judo had been allowed since 1964. One of the prerequisites of the Olympic Committee was that a new sport had to have a world championship. So in 1980, Rusty Kanekogi ran up $25,000 on her own credit card

to stage the first women's world judo championships in Madison Square Garden. She sold tickets, found sponsors, and did everything she could to make it happen. The event attracted competitors from all over the world. Then Rusty challenged the judo bureaucracy, started petitions, and even threatened the International Olympic Committee with legal action if it refused to recognize women's judo. Eight years later, her persistence paid off. Women's judo was included as an exhibition sport at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

Then, in 1992, women's judo was finally included as an official Olympic event. The American women's judo team couldn't be prouder walking into the stadium that day. Their coach walked behind them. Her name was Rusty Kanekogi. After years of struggle, the world finally saw first-hand that judo

wasn't just for men. There are a lot of products in the world that are just for men, and a lot of products are made just for women. But all of that is being upended in the world of marketing. Men are using makeup, women are drinking scotch, and genderless lingerie is on the shelves. It's taken a long time, but those long-held stereotypes are being pinned to the mat. You're under the influence. There is a sea change happening in the world of marketing right now. Brands that have only aimed at one gender for decades

are now targeting another gender for the very first time. Probably the most famous story of gender bending came courtesy of Marlboro cigarettes. Created back in 1924, Marlboro was a woman's cigarette. Hard to imagine, but it's true. The slogan was, Marlboro, mild as May. As a matter of fact, the cigarette was so feminine in its design, it even featured red filter tips to hide lipstick smears. But in the 1950s, Marlboro's market share was steadily declining.

As a last-ditch effort, manufacturer Philip Morris asked its advertising agency if Marlboro could be repositioned to become a man's cigarette. It was a huge gamble. The brand had been heavily advertised to women for over 30 years. Research revealed that smokers are more attracted to the image of a brand than the actual qualities of the product itself. In other words, a brand resided as an idea in people's minds, not their taste buds.

And if it was an idea, it could be influenced. That is how the Marlboro Man advertising campaign was born. The image of a rugged cowboy smoking a Marlboro was put into a test market in New York State to see if it could attract men. After just one month, Marlboro became the number one male cigarette brand in greater New York. One year later, national sales increased 3,200%. From that day forward, Marlboro Cigarettes has been cited as the case study for switching genders, because they took a completely feminine product and changed it, not just to become a male product, but the very symbol of masculinity. Come to where the flavor is.

Come to Marlboro country. It is, without a doubt, the advertising industry's darkest success. Marlboro's gender switch was a unicorn for decades. But the times, they are a-changin'. Take cosmetics. L'Oreal is the world's largest cosmetic company. Since 1909, L'Oreal has marketed over 500 products exclusively to women.

But a few years ago, L'Oreal began marketing beauty products to men with its Men Expert line. The company said it knew that more and more men were using makeup, and it wanted to acknowledge that change. To do it, L'Oreal took the long-standing slogan it had established in 1971 So if I use L'Oreal, it's because I'm worth it. And changed it to say, because we're all worth it. Then, for the first time in its 113-year history, L'Oreal featured a man in their mass-market

cosmetics campaign. My name is Gary. My true match shade is 9C. I'm a beauty blogger, and I'm also a makeup artist. L'Oreal says male cosmetics have seen a surge in demand. Some reports say it has been growing faster than women's sales since 2020. And it's not just skin care and body wash. Men are using beauty balm and color corrector creams, mascara, foundation, bronzers, and concealers.

A recent Ipsos study found that roughly one-third of all men are open to using cosmetics. And there's an interesting split. While men over 50 are more hung up on gender roles, they also want anti-aging cosmetics. So this age group opts for male-branded products, and they buy mostly online. The 18 to 34s are not worried about aging and are focused on looking good. They are more at ease with the evolution of masculinity and have no problem shopping for cosmetics in person.

In the 2019 Super Bowl, L'Oreal signed singer Adam Levine to be its spokesperson for its line of male anti-fatigue moisturizers. We can't promise you as many fans as Adam Levine. Just high energy for your skin. New Hydra Energetic by L'Oreal Men Expert. The anti-fatigue moisturizer with Energizing Tarana. Finds the five signs of fatigue for energized skin till the end of the day.

Newer cosmetics brands like MMUK and Milk Makeup cater to a male audience. Both want to break down the stigma of men wearing makeup. The worldwide market for men's beauty products is around $32 billion.

It's expected to double by 2030. Lest you think it's just Gen Zs and a few 50-year-olds in the makeup aisle, take a look at the leaders of the free world. And we're not talking about the touch-ups done before a TV interview. That's free. We're talking about the cosmetics they buy themselves. French President Emmanuel Macron spent over $30,000 on makeup in the first three months of his presidency.

But that's less than his predecessor spent. President François Hollande spent $41,000 per quarter on makeup. In a Washington Post interview with ex-House staff employed by Donald Trump, the former president's habits and routines were listed.

He only uses Irish spring soap, he requires two boxes of Tic Tacs in his room at all times, and two containers of a brand calleds in his room at all times, and two containers of a brand called Bronx Colors face makeup. Bronx Colors is a Swiss company, and a spokesperson there believes Trump specifically uses its boosting hydrating concealer in orange. Can makeup affect voters' decisions? The Department of Psychology at New York University says

male cosmetics can positively affect perceptions of a person's trustworthiness, competence, and likability. It's pretty safe to conclude makeup sales to male politicians will continue to surge. If men can be convinced to use makeup, can women be convinced to drink single malt scotch? Ever since the day whiskey was first poured into a glass, it has been considered a man's drink.

But like cosmetics, that notion is rapidly shifting. In the U.S., 30% of whiskey drinkers are female. In Canada, it's 39%. That number has doubled since 1990. There are several reasons for that. To begin with, there are more women in leadership roles at distilleries. Second, whiskey makers know that, in some markets, women are adopting whiskey at four times the rate of men. Third, distillers are dropping the old boys club image from their marketing.

Case in point, Glenn Livet's Single Malt Scotch launched a provocative new campaign recently. It featured Academy Award winner Anna Paquin as its spokesperson. The slogan? Obey the rules, miss the fun. Some people think single malt whiskey is a drink reserved strictly for men. But whiskey doesn't care what's between your legs. Wow! Throughout the ad, Paquin mixes her scotch with soda and squeezes fresh fruit into her glass. A deliberate move to make whiskey purists squirm.

They'll tell you a single malt scotch should always be drunk straight. But you know what? I don't do straight. Obey the rules, miss the fun. Glenn Livet is on a mission to disrupt the whiskey drinker stereotype, and the brand is even going further.

Research showed that whiskey ads overwhelmingly feature men by 228%. So Glenn Livet is infiltrating search engine algorithms and is purposely planting images of diverse whiskey drinkers. The company is bent on changing the conversation. Speaking of conversations, there is a series on YouTube sponsored by Balvenie Scotch

titled Quest for Craft. The videos are hosted by Questlove, where he has conversations with a wide array of successful male and female artists. While they drink single malt scotch, they discuss what makes them excel at their craft. When you put your heart and soul into creating something, you don't want it to be good.

You want it to be great. What does it take to get there? I'm Questlove, and this is Quest for Craft, my collaboration with the Belveni. A deep dive into the obsessive, never-ending, whatever-it-takes journey to create something extraordinary. The inclusion of women in this series is not a pandering opportunity grab. These are successful women. There's a lot of respect in the room. Meanwhile, Johnny Walker Scotch tried a different strategy with women.

It didn't go down so smooth. Johnny Walker is considered the world's number one scotch whiskey. For over 20 years, it has aired an advertising campaign titled Keep Walking, with the message being that every epic journey begins with a single step. Back in 2018, Johnny Walker unveiled a new limited edition scotch called Jane Walker. It was the first female iteration of the famous Johnny Walker striding man logo. Instead of a man with a top hat and cane,

it was a woman. The whiskey maker said many women are intimidated by scotch and Jane Walker was an invitation to try the single malt whiskey. It was launched to coincide with International Women's Day and International Women's Month. And for every bottle sold, one dollar was to be donated to organizations celebrating women's causes.

But Jane Walker Scotch didn't sit well with a lot of women. Many women didn't see Jane Walker as a symbol of gender equality. They didn't need a special female version of the whiskey, nor were they intimidated by scotch. After all, over 30% of scotch drinkers are female. Others felt the timing of the launch, coinciding with International Women's Day,

was simply a marketing strategy to increase sales. Maybe the lesson here is this. To attract women to what is traditionally a male-centric product, a brand doesn't need to create a special women's edition. Neither Glenn Livet nor Balvenie did that. They just opened their aperture to include women in the conversation, naturally and without a lot of fanfare, and they gained credibility based on their actions. When a product goes pink, either literally or metaphorically,

it doesn't work. If every epic journey starts with a single step, this particular journey started with a misstep. While the world of Scotch was historically a male bastion, lingerie was strictly female. While you can definitely argue that lingerie really is designed for men, men didn't wear lingerie. Until now. There are many companies out there that offer genderless lingerie. Think mesh bodysuits, corsets, bralettes, and lacy thongs for women and men.

Traditionally, when you talked about unisex clothing, it meant marketing men's clothes to women. But genderless lingerie is different. It's about erasing boundaries. Fashion companies like Tomboy X, Menagerie Intimates, and Lucky Skivvies are now creating non-binary lingerie. The goal? To democratize underwear.

This new era of lingerie began with the creation of lacy underwear for men and silky boxer shorts for women. Then it evolved. New, disruptive companies began creating underwear without distinguishing gender. The underwear was just marketed as... Underwear. These new companies believe that sexy, revealing intimates for the bedroom can be worn by anyone. And now big brands like Calvin Klein are offering genderless underwear in their collections.

As one non-binary lingerie designer said, feeling better under your clothes can help you feel better and more confident externally. You feel authentic top and bottom. For decades, women have been offered endless personal care items to take care of their bodies, from head to toenails. Men, on the other hand, had few options, with one particularly glaring omission. There were virtually no personal care items for men's private parts. Some companies dabbled in that direction,

but none were dedicated to male grooming south of the border. That left a gap in the market. But was there a market in the gap? Enter a company called Manscaped. It aimed to fill the market ignored by the big brands like Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Manscaped offered a full line of personal grooming items for men,

including electric razors for shaving body hair, intimate deodorants, and anti-chafing creams. The kind of products that don't naturally lend themselves to television marketing. So, the company of products that don't naturally lend themselves to television marketing. So, the company stuck to YouTube and social media. When Manscaped began in 2016, the initial marketing was serious and focused on hygiene and safety. It turns out men were trying to groom themselves, but didn't have the right tools. They were using electric head trimmers around the South Pole,

and over 25% of those men experienced pubic grooming injuries. As a matter of fact, emergency room-worthy injuries increased five-fold. But in spite of that, Manscaped's serious marketing tone wasn't working. Men simply didn't want to talk about personal care products. So the company decided to recalibrate its messaging. Instead of being serious,

they decided to use humor. They rechristened their line Precision Tools for the Family Jewels. They renamed their razors the Lawn Mower and the Weed Whacker. Their anti-chafing moisturizer became the Crop Preserver. The deodorant became Ball Toner. Their new slogan was When you trim the hedges, the tree stands taller.

It was an epiphany. Humor was the sledgehammer that broke down the wall. It took a taboo and made it conversational. Suddenly, men were eager to communicate with Manscaped. The company's website traffic exploded. Men sent messages on Facebook. And humor gave Manscaped its voice. No one wants a pair of hairy kiwis.

Oh, ouch! But there's just not a great tool for trimming them up. Until now. Iman here with Manscaped, introducing the all-new Lawn Mower 4.0. It is the perfect tool for the job. Now, this trimmer has skin-safe technology, which helps reduce the risk of nicks and cuts. Just look at these amazing results.

He shaves two kiwis, an eggplant, a cucumber, and two hairy coconuts. Plus, it's waterproof. You can groom your grass in the shower. While the primary audience for Manscaped skewed 18 to 34, men in their 40s and 50s began to trim their shrubbery. Manscaped took a grooming category that was locked onto women and now dominates it for men. Over 5 million gentlemen worldwide now use Manscaped products. Last year, Manscaped generated over $100 million in sales. It expects to reach up to $500 million by 2024.

And they did it all by reaching down. When change rocks the marketing world, it comes in different packages. Sometimes, the change needs to be done without fanfare, as smart whiskey makers discovered. Simply invite women into the room and serve them the same scotch you serve men. Interesting to note that, as a rule, women don't like when products go pink. Yet men often need separate masculine packaging to attract them to a traditionally female category, as the cosmetics industry discovered. Then in other categories, big change demands disruptors. Manscaped kicked its way into a strictly women's category by making men laugh.

By using humor, it invited men to have a conversation about something they never wanted to talk about and helped save quite a few nicks on their eggplants. And then there's lingerie. Fashion companies are now designing genderless intimates to be worn by women and men, and anyone who doesn't identify with either. As the Marlboro Man taught us, it all comes down to perception. Sometimes you have to make them laugh, and sometimes you have to rusty-canna-coagie them into submission when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terrastream Mobile Recording Studio. Producer, Debbie O'Reilly.

Sound Engineer, Jeff Devine. Research, Allison Pinches. Under the Influence theme by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre Music in this episode provided by APM Music Follow me on social at Terry O. Influence This is Season 12 of Under the Influence. If you're enjoying this episode, you might also like How Marketing Created Rituals, Season 5, Episode 1.

You'll find it in our archives. You can now listen to our podcasts on the Apostrophe YouTube channel. Or, if you think there are too many ads in a show about advertising, shame on you, you can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. See you next week.

Fun fact. When Old Spice was first launched back in 1937, it was a woman's product. Womanly, yes, but I like it too.