Gillette is learning most people don’t want moral lessons from their razors after experiencing a colossal backlash against an ad they ran condemning “toxic masculinity.”
As of Monday evening, the clip had over 122,000 dislikes and counting on YouTube (a 1:10 like:dislike ratio), with negative comments accumulating faster than they can be removed.
Featuring the tagline “The best men can be,” the clip presents a litany of negative stereotypes of male behaviors while a voiceover emphasizes that “we can’t laugh it off, making the same excuses.” Then, after shaming men by lumping them all with the worst of their sex and displaying reenactments of their transgressions against women and bullied children, the video shows a man stand up for a passing woman’s virtue – and trigger a torrent of progressive interference by his previously passive fellow males.
Also on rt.com Toxic masculinity: American Psychological Association says it’s bad to be a manThe mockery was swift and merciless.
Although some tried to criticize more constructively.
Gillette is “aiming to inspire change by acknowledging that the old saying ‘Boys Will Be Boys’ is not an excuse,” Gillette’s North American brand director Pankaj Bhalla told the Wall Street Journal. “We want to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and hope all the men we serve will come along on that journey to find our ‘best’ together.”
Because there’s nothing men want more from their razors than a meaningful life journey.
Men weren’t the only ones put off.
Some questioned Gillette's business acumen.
Gillette had its defenders, of course, but they were few and far between.
Ironically, the ad’s director Kim Gehrig was chosen through Gillette parent company Procter & Gamble's partnership with Free the Bid, a program launched to increase female representation among ad directors.
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