Some companies in 2026 are at least pretending to read the room. Gillette isn't even bothering. The razor brand your dad and his dad shaved with earns a perfect 100/100 on the BuyWokeFree score — the maximum possible — and its parent company, Procter & Gamble, is one of the loudest corporate holdouts still flying the DEI flag while half the Fortune 500 quietly files theirs in the shredder.
This is the brand that lit $8 billion on fire to lecture men about "toxic masculinity." You'd think they'd have learned something. They didn't.
The Ad That Started It All
In January 2019, Gillette took its 30-year-old "The Best a Man Can Get" tagline — a celebration of confident, capable men — and twisted it into "The Best Men Can Be," a 108-second scolding session about bullying, harassment, and "toxic masculinity." The ad showed a lineup of men as either perpetrators or bystanders to bad behavior, all set to a tone of moral disappointment.
Customers noticed. The video racked up more dislikes than likes on YouTube and triggered a wave of boycotts from the exact demographic that buys razors. That same year, P&G announced a roughly $8 billion non-cash writedown tied to the Gillette business as cheaper direct-to-consumer competitors ate its market share. The company blamed currency swings and market shifts — but the timing wasn't lost on anyone watching a heritage men's brand insult its own core customer.
The lesson was written in nine zeros. Gillette ignored it.
Breaking Down the Perfect 100/100
BuyWokeFree scores brands across six research-based dimensions: ESG reporting, DEI programs, Pride sponsorships, HRC Corporate Equality Index rating, political contributions, and CEO Action for Diversity participation. Gillette, through P&G, maxes out every single one.
DEI Programs: Branded and Proud
P&G runs a formal "Equality & Inclusion" program — note they didn't even rename it to the now-fashionable "belonging" euphemism that companies like Gillette Children's and others have hidden behind. P&G kept the quiet part loud.
Pride Sponsorships: All In
Gillette didn't just slap a rainbow on a package. The brand ran a trans-inclusive "First Shave" ad centering a young transgender man's first shave with his father — and P&G poured corporate sponsorship into WorldPride 2023 and ongoing "LGBTQ+ Visibility" campaigns. This is activism baked into the marketing budget.
HRC Corporate Equality Index: A Perfect Score for a Decade
P&G has notched a perfect 100 on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index for more than ten consecutive years. The CEI isn't a feel-good checklist — it's a scorecard that rewards companies for adopting HRC's preferred policies and pressures holdouts. P&G has been an honor-roll student the entire time.
Politics and CEO Action
P&G's PAC has steered contributions toward Democratic recipients, and the company was a founding member of CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion — the largest CEO-driven DEI pledge in the country, which launched a "nationwide unconscious bias tour" aimed at reaching 12 million employees and students. When the woke-corporate movement needed founding signatures, P&G's was on the dotted line.
While Everyone Else Retreats, P&G Digs In
Here's what makes 2026 different. The corporate herd is stampeding away from DEI. Microsoft, Amazon, and a parade of others have "rolled back" — or at least rebranded — their diversity bureaucracies to dodge headlines and legal exposure. We've documented plenty of that "DEI rollback theater" on this site.
P&G didn't get the memo, and it's proud of that. As Trump-era pressure mounted against corporate DEI, reporting in early 2025 noted that P&G and Kroger were "sticking with" their diversity programs while peers caved — and P&G landed on activist lists celebrating the "major companies still keeping DEI." When LGBTQ advocacy outlets are publicly thanking your razor company for staying loyal to the cause, you've told conservative shoppers everything they need to know about where their dollars are going.
This isn't a company that got dragged into the culture war and is looking for the exit. This is a company that volunteered, took an $8 billion beating, and re-enlisted.
Woke-Free Razors That Actually Want Your Business
The best part of the razor market in 2026? You have outstanding American-made alternatives that score near the bottom of our woke scale — meaning they stick to making sharp blades and leave the lectures out of your bathroom.
- Western Razor (Made in USA) — BuyWokeFree score of 4/100. A no-nonsense, American-manufactured razor brand that competes on quality, not politics.
- Patriot Shave Razors — score of 4/100. The name says it all; a veteran-friendly shave company built for customers Gillette decided to insult.
- Big Box of Razors — score of 3/100. Bulk, affordable blades with zero culture-war baggage.
Switching is the easiest protest you'll ever make. Razors are a commodity — the steel doesn't care about your politics, and neither should the company selling it. Every cartridge you don't buy from Gillette is a vote that the "toxic masculinity" experiment was a business catastrophe, not a branding triumph.
The Bottom Line
Gillette's perfect 100/100 isn't an accident or a legacy artifact. In a year when corporate America is racing to look less woke, P&G is one of the few giants openly choosing to stay the course — Pride campaigns, a decade of perfect CEI scores, founding DEI pledges, and all. The $8 billion writedown was supposed to be the cautionary tale. Instead, Gillette turned it into a mission statement.
"The best a man can get" used to be a promise. Now it's a reminder to check the BuyWokeFree score before you check out. Your face — and your wallet — have better options.