Hasta La Creative!

March is women’s history month. To celebrate this, Brawny decided to 86 the iconic Brawny Man and celebrate Brawny Women instead for their #StrengthHasNoGender campaign. Call me old fashioned, but last time I checked, paper towels don’t have a gender either. Unless Facebook has added another gender to its list of 58 genders one can identify with. I mean if you want to identify as a paper towel, that’s cool. No judgments.
Jokes aside you would think a campaign like this would be a positive step in the right direction. After all, Brawny has partnered with Girls Inc. and will be contributing seventy-five thousand dollars to develop girls’ enthusiasm for STEM, as part of its Operation SMART programming. Not to mention the millions they spent creating the ad and pushing it out in social. I don’t know if they will change the packaging for this month (doubtful since it’s expensive to change your packaging when you’re a brand that size) but if they don’t I’m sure people will complain about it. Because that’s all people do these days.
This does seem highly opportunistic for Brawny, and while I don’t doubt their sincerity, a paper towel brand celebrating women’s accomplishments just seems, well–kind of strange. What does Brawny have to do with Harriet Tubman?
Good for them, I guess. It’s certainly a much safer topic than immigration, as 84 Lumber discovered. It’s hard to believe that ad was just a few short weeks ago. I’ve already forgotten it.
What I really want to know is, will other brands follow suit with their mascots? Perhaps Mrs. Butterworth will transition into a man. Or maybe the next Super Bowl ad will feature Ms. Clean. Although women have been stuck in that traditional gender role as household caretaker for too long. Perhaps Mr. Clean will stay male but openly identify as a female. Chester the Cheetah might become Chelsea. Or we’ll replace Snap Crackle and Pop with female versions. But only for the month. I’m just spitballing here. I’m sure the next brand who has given zero shits about cause marketing before will come up with something even better.