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P&G Gets Serious About Shaving

Procter & Gamble, which bought the upscale, 14-year-old Art of Shaving brand last year, is launching its first national advertising campaign with print ads that carry the tagline, "Welcome to the brotherhood of shaving," Adam Andrew Newman reports.

P&G, once a company that almost exclusively targeted women, has increasing beefed up its product lineup to appeal to the hirsute, too. "When we acquired Gillette, that was entirely the company's desire, to play in the 'he' space as well as the 'she' space," says P&G spokesman Damon Jones. "If we are going to win with men, we have to be serious about them." And the men, it appears, have to be serious about shaving.

Married couple Myriam Zaoui and Eric Malka opened the first Art of Shaving store, on the Upper East Side on Manhattan in 1996. Barbers and sales clerks still reinforce the founding philosophy that every shave requires four steps, Newman reports: prepare (with a pre-shave oil), lather (with cream and a brush), shave, and moisturize (with after-shave balm).

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