Under the leadership of Colman M. Mockler Jr. as CEO from 1975 to 1991,^[3] the company was the target of multiple takeover attempts, from Ronald Perelman^[4] and Coniston Partners.^[3] In January 2005, Procter & Gamble announced plans to merge with the Gillette Company.^[5]

The Gillette Company's assets were incorporated into a P&G unit known internally as "Global Gillette". In July 2007, Global Gillette was dissolved and incorporated into Procter & Gamble's other two main divisions, Procter & Gamble Beauty and Procter & Gamble Household Care. Gillette's brands and products were divided between the two accordingly. The Gillette R&D center in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Gillette South Boston Manufacturing Center (known as "Gillette World Shaving Headquarters"), still exist as functional working locations under the Procter & Gamble-owned Gillette brand name.^[6] Gillette's subsidiaries Braun and Oral-B, among others, have also been retained by P&G.

The Gillette company and brand originate from the late 19th century when salesman and inventor King Camp Gillette came up with the idea of a safety razor that used disposable blades. Safety razors at the time were essentially short pieces of a straight razor clamped to a holder. The blade had to be stropped before each shave and after a time needed to be honed by a cutler.^[7] Gillette's invention was inspired by his mentor at Crown Cork & Seal Company, William Painter, who had invented the Crown cork. Painter encouraged Gillette to come up with something that, like the Crown cork, could be thrown away once used.^[8][9]

While Gillette came up with the idea in 1895, developing the concept into a working model and drawings that could be submitted to the Patent Office took six years. Gillette had trouble finding anyone capable of developing a method to manufacture blades from thin sheet steel, but finally found William Emery Nickerson, an MIT graduate with a degree in chemistry. Gillette and other members of the project founded The American Safety Razor Company on September 28, 1901. The company had issues getting funding until Gillette's old friend John Joyce invested the necessary amount for the company to begin manufacturing.^[10][8][9] Production began slowly in 1903, but the following year Nickerson succeeded in building a new blade grinding machine that had bottlenecked production. During its first year of operation, the company had sold 51 razors and 168 blades, but the second year saw sales rise to 90,884 razors and 123,648 blades. The company was renamed to the Gillette Safety Razor Company in 1904 and it quickly began to expand outside the United States. In 1905 the company opened a sales office in London and a blade manufacturing plant in Paris, and by 1906 Gillette had a blade plant in Canada, a sales operation in Mexico, and a European distribution network that sold in many nations, including Russia.^[8][11]

Gillette first introduced its long-time slogan, "The Best a Man Can Get", during a commercial first aired during Super Bowl XXIII in 1989.^[131]

The company has sponsored Major League Baseball (MLB),^[134] the 2010 Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500, and the Olympic Games,^[135][136] and has naming rights to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, home venue for the National Football League's New England Patriots.^[137][138] Athletes such as Roger Federer,^[139] Tiger Woods,^[140] Shoaib Malik,^[141] Derek Jeter,^[142] Thierry Henry,^[143] Kenan Sofuoglu,^[144] Park Ji-sung,^[145] Rahul Dravid,^[146] Raheem Sterling,^[147] Karl-Anthony Towns,^[148] and Michael Clarke have been sponsored by the company,^[149] as well as video gaming personality Dr Disrespect.^[150]

In November 2009, Gillette became the subject of a proposed boycott in Ireland due to its endorsement by French soccer player Thierry Henry; his undetected handball foul during a FIFA World Cup qualifying match contributed to a game-winning goal by France, eliminating Ireland from contention.^[151] The following month, expanding upon the controversy, media outlets observed a "curse" associated with top athletes who endorse Gillette, also citing Tiger Woods (who became the subject of an infidelity scandal in late-2009), and Roger Federer losing in an upset to Nikolay Davydenko during the 2009 ATP World Tour Finals.^[152]

Since its opening in 2002, Gillette has held naming rights to Gillette Stadium in nearby Foxborough, home of the New England Patriots of the National Football League. The original agreement lasted through 2017; in 2010, P&G negotiated a 15-year extension, lasting through 2031.^[153]

Since the 1990s, the company has used a marketing list to send a free sample of a Gillette razor in promotional packages to men in celebration of their 18th birthday. The campaign has occasionally resulted in the samples accidentally being sent to recipients outside of the demographic, such as a 50-year-old woman (exacerbated by the package containing the slogan "Welcome to Manhood").^[154][155]

In 2019, Gillette and Twitch partnered to form the esports group Gillette Gaming Alliance, as well as the Bits for Blades campaign which gave Twitch Bits (the site's digital currency) to those who purchased Gillette products online. The 2019 team had eleven streamers, each representing a different country,^[156] and the 2020 team had five streamers including DrLupo.^[157][158] During 2020–2021, Gillette enlisted NFL players Saquon Barkley, Ashtyn Davis, Jalen Hurts, Cole Kmet, and Tua Tagovailoa as brand ambassadors.^[159][160]