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Gillette’s inspiring new ad addressing toxic masculinity asks: “Is this the best a man can get?”

UltraMagnus

UltraMagnus

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
15,670
The ad campaign to me kinda reeks of a bunch of marketing execs around a roundtable going "Nike got tons of press with Kaepernick, what social cause can we latch onto for big publicity?" ... that said, the message itself isn't wrong at all.

The irony I see is a lot of the men up in the arms over this advert probably were the "nerds" who were bullied/picked on in school, yet they still will defend that status quo to the death even if its done dick all for them, lol.
 

Deleted member 835

User requested account deletion
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
15,660
Xenon said:
It was a calculated video designed to get the reaction it received. They could easily have gotten the same message across without the ham-fisted drama scenes. Show a man crying, hugging his child, pulling away from a fight, etc. Show men breaking these mores in a positive light. I get this was a play off the original, but they over compensated going from glamour to adversarial. Also sticking with the only demographic you can possibly paint negative just shows how safe and by the numbers this was.

I'm still using their products but this is a fairly strange thing for a company to put out. Imagine if Dove's woman's image campaign focused on female toxicity and the pressures woman put on each other? Thankfully rather then delve into that they focused on trying to address unrealistic body image. Also, let's be honest here anyone receptive to this is most likely not it's target. But people are talking about Gillette a lot so, win.
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Toxic masculinity is one of the biggest problems in society today. It deserves to get called out and the reaction to it shows how big the problem is.

Trying to compare it to "female toxicity" is dumb
 
Xenon

Xenon

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,266
sabrina said:
You do realize that female toxicity manifests in a completely different way to male toxicity, right? And that Dove has had several different angles in their positivity campaign over the years? Right?
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Then please point me to the video where they show women confronting other women in dramatic reenactments?
 
Absent

Absent

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,045
Xenon said:
It was a calculated video designed to get the reaction it received. They could easily have gotten the same message across without the ham-fisted drama scenes. Show a man crying, hugging his child, pulling away from a fight, etc. Show men breaking these mores in a positive light. I get this was a play off the original, but they over compensated going from glamour to adversarial. Also sticking with the only demographic you can possibly paint negative just shows how safe and by the numbers this was.

I'm still using their products but this is a fairly strange thing for a company to put out. Imagine if Dove's woman's image campaign focused on female toxicity and the pressures woman put on each other? Thankfully rather then delve into that they focused on trying to address unrealistic body image. Also, let's be honest here anyone receptive to this is most likely not it's target. But people are talking about Gillette a lot so, win.
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"It's generic."

"Also strange."

"But what about waaaamon."

Somebody missed the point, but I guess responsibility is still a bitter pill to swallow.
 

Deleted member 51797

User requested account closure
Banned
Jan 9, 2019
94
Apart from the dubious marketing motives that might've lead to this ad I thought it was pretty powerful. Especially the bullying being done away with as 'boys will be boys' hit home on a personal level - I never really saw my own experiences with bullying as an outing of 'masculinity' but I think you can really frame it that way - both from the bulliers side as the reaction from adults.

Anyway, the amount of people losing their shit over this is staggering. It seems with every 'controversy' like this there's a new can of nasty being opened in some corner of the world. How can one possibly feel offended by this message?
 
Bufbaf

Bufbaf

Don't F5!
Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,654
Hamburg, Germany
Xenon said:
Was



Edit:. Please show me where I said anything related to the bolded.
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. Imagine if Dove's woman's image campaign focused on female toxicity and the pressures woman put on each other?
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That's the part I read into. As I said, I don't really get your point so I might be completely wrong here.

Edit I'm not the only one it seems o.o
 
Lentic

Lentic

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,836
This is just outrage culture. We live in such a polarizing and tribal political climate that a simple statement like "be a better man" is perceived to be a threat on some people...

It makes so much sense how a statement like "nazis are bad" gets so much pushback. People aren't talking about ideas anymore, it's just a gang-like mentality where everything the other "team" does is offensive. We are in the "bitch eating crackers" timeline.
 
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Xenon

Xenon

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,266
Bufbaf said:
That's the part I read into. As I said, I don't really get your point so I might be completely wrong here.

Edit I'm not the only one it seems o.o
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This isn't whataboutism, it's just a comparison of how faced with a similar situation, they went positive.

True be told, a remake of this commercial was actually a great idea that could have had a much larger impact. Now it's just another flavor of the moment for people to fight about on Twitter. Shame.
 
Morzak

Morzak

Member
Oct 27, 2017
319
We can all be cynical about marketing efforts of big corporations, but stuff like this and other depiction of people standing up to such behaviour and overall showing that toxic maskulinity is not ok in media, will move the public perception of it...
 
Solaris

Solaris

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,284
This is the kind of man that gets upset about this advert:

ArDpBke.png


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So completely unaware of being part of the problem.
 
Stinkinmushroom

Stinkinmushroom

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,708
Great message but the ad itself is so freakin corny lol.

Edit: Corny but damn it's effective. I dont even understand how so many men are annoyed by this.

Gilette: Dont be an asshole, you're better then that :)
Morons: No I'm not! Fuck you for telling me what i should believe in
 
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Sloth Guevara

Sloth Guevara

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,332
Xenon said:
This isn't whataboutism, it's just a comparison of how faced with a similar situation, they went positive.

True be told, a remake of this commercial was actually a great idea that could have had a much larger impact. Now it's just another flavor of the moment for people to fight about on Twitter. Shame.
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Your post may have had a valid point if men and women's issues where the same. But they really aren't so I don't see your point at all.
 
big_z

big_z

Member
Nov 2, 2017
7,797
My friend mentioned guys should watch the Gillette commercial on her pof and she's getting blasted.
 
How About No

How About No

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,785
The Great Dairy State
Tokyo_Funk

Tokyo_Funk

Banned
Dec 10, 2018
10,053
Issac Butterfield, a known slightly right leaning Australian Youtuber saw this ad as "Attacking all men". Way to go straight for a victim complex and way to miss the point. It seems like some people are intentionally misconstruing it for attention and drama.
 
EdibleKnife

EdibleKnife

Member
Oct 29, 2017
7,723
Solaris said:
This is the kind of man that gets upset about this advert:

ArDpBke.png


Yxb7zks.png


So completely unaware of being part of the problem.
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"Calling men bad"
This speaks so much to how fundamentally broken the men who hate this commercial are. An ad that wants to "call men bad" would just say that. This commercial highlights particularly harmful and toxic behavior and begs for it to change but so many men can only see manhood as embodying those very dangerous behaviors an attitudes. To change means to stop existing or to be "feminized" in their warped mindsets. It's just so pitiful really.
These people have no issues with the myriad commercials that depict or play to men as uncontrollable horndogs or closed off and unemotional or driven by greed or status. Yet a commercial that simply says be better makes thousands on thousands come out of the woodwork to attack this ad and the men and women who support it.
 
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cbrotherson

cbrotherson

Freelance Games & Comic Book Writer
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
491
Birmingham
EdibleKnife said:
"Calling men bad"

This speaks so much to how fundamentally broken the men who hate this commercial are. An ad that wants to "call men bad" would just say that. This commercial highlights particularly harmful and toxic behavior and begs for it to change but so many men can only see manhood as embodying those very dangerous behaviors an attitudes. To change means to stop existing or to be "feminized" in their warped mindsets. It's just so pitiful really.

These people have no issues with the myriad commercials that depict or play to men as uncontrollable horndogs or closed off and unemotional or driven by greed or status. Yet a commercial that simply says be better makes thousands on thousands come out of the woodwork to attack this ad and the men and women who support it.
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Yup. I suspect using #metoo triggered a lot of these people.

The super annoying thing is, the ad even specifies this. It practically spells it out in the voiceover.

"We believe in the best in men."

"Some already are [good] – in ways big, and small"

It has to be obvious (and sometimes, that means "corny") in order to be very obvious about what it's saying.

And yet, for some, that's still not enough to drown out the screeching white noise of someone's fragile ego blaring "OHMYGOD, I'M BEING ATTACKED, FIGHT, FIGHT EVERYONE, PROTECT THE HIVE!"

It's maddening.

I'm going to protest those damned family package holidays that clearly call me out for being a childless, middle aged married man. I mean, they're blatantly attacking me for not having children and trying to shame and ostracise me for it, not to mention punish me specifically with lower prices for families but not for ME, WHAT ABOUT MEEEEEEEE
 

Deleted member 9305

Oct 26, 2017
4,064
Good video.

Not sure, how this relates to Gillette or their products, but the message is valid nevertheless.

The reactions show, painfully so, how much change of hearts is still needed. This whole thing is a dictionary example of the backfire effect.
 
Vincent Grayson

Vincent Grayson

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,856
Mount Airy, MD
It's always interesting to see what the alt-right copy+paste argument angles have gone for - "here's some statistics about women in men's lives...obviously this is womens' fault" and the insane racial angle of "why so many white dudes? black men are bad too".

Almost as though no matter what you say about anything, these people will go for "not our fault" and "how dare you attack my group (the one with the most power and history of horrifying things) and not this other group?"

The strange "moderate" message of "I agree, but they shouldn't have been so antagonistic" is also amusing, given how tepid the "antagonism" is in this advert.
 
TarpitCarnivore

TarpitCarnivore

Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,229
ChryZ said:
Good video.

Not sure, how this relates to Gillette or their products, but the message is valid nevertheless.

The reactions show, painfully so, how much change of hearts is still needed. This whole thing is a dictionary example of the backfire effect.
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They touch on this, albeit quickly, early on. Their original phrasing of 'Best a man can get' was about their razors, but they decided to take the current climate around men and repuprose the phrase.
 
Siggy-P

Siggy-P

Avenger
Mar 18, 2018
11,865
Xenon said:
It was a calculated video designed to get the reaction it received. They could easily have gotten the same message across without the ham-fisted drama scenes. Show a man crying, hugging his child, pulling away from a fight, etc. Show men breaking these mores in a positive light. I get this was a play off the original, but they over compensated going from glamour to adversarial. Also sticking with the only demographic you can possibly paint negative just shows how safe and by the numbers this was.

I'm still using their products but this is a fairly strange thing for a company to put out. Imagine if Dove's woman's image campaign focused on female toxicity and the pressures woman put on each other? Thankfully rather then delve into that they focused on trying to address unrealistic body image. Also, let's be honest here anyone receptive to this is most likely not it's target. But people are talking about Gillette a lot so, win.
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That would be great if Dove did that. Realistically it seems like you're trying to make up a problem here. The idea that men need to be hostile towards each other is a massive problem even today, whether cynical or not ti's fantastic that the company is addressing this.

Xenon said:
Then please point me to the video where they show women confronting other women in dramatic reenactments?
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Why on God's green earth would they make an advert about that?
 
NoName999

NoName999

One Winged Slayer
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
5,906
StormUltima said:
I can't stand the ad. I also disliked it on YouTube.

Before mocking me please at least hear me out... I grew up with sisters and a single mother who worked hard for everything we got. So I have great respect for women. I know this ad wasn't directed at me but it still annoys me anyways.

The reason is the way it seems to portray toxic masculinity as an almost exclusively white male problem. Don't get me wrong there's at least one adult black man in the video being toxic but it just feels like he was thrown in after someone brought the issue up.

Imagine this video if the skin color on all the white and black men was reversed. Imagine how a black man would feel watching such an ad with the scenes at 0:37-0:38, 1:48, 0:56-1:00 and 1:01-1:05.

If the ad had shown that this is a problem with all races by showing all (or most) of them being toxic then I would have been completely fine with it. As it stands now I won't be buying any more Gillette products since every time I look at them I'll just be reminded of this commercial. Not really a loss since I recently got a Braun shaver anyways and would have been cutting back on razors.

I also understand that people will just assume I'm a far right asshole when the reality is I'm a Canadian liberal that despises Trump. I've probably made some enemies with my first post but I wanted people to know that not everyone offended is a right wing troll.
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I know you're banned but you wanted this to seriously be the first post of your almost year old account?

Seriously?

SERIOUSLY?
 
Budi

Budi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,883
Finland
It's really that the ones who usually complain about people "looking to be offended", are doing exactly that themselves. Like in this instance saying that Gillette releases "anti-male" ad and or in gaming with "EA & Dice mocks the fans!". It's fucking ridiculous. If you feel "attacked" by this, take a step back and maybe take look in the mirror. Think about why exactly you feel like you do. And why doesn't everyone else share your feelings on the matter, even though you claim it's insulting them too.

Also the comments about "racism" in this ad, wheeew. That's another huge reach. The ad has a lot of diversity, is that a problem? It shows people of many different ethnicities behaving wrong but also intervening and doing the right thing. It's not "anti-male" or "anti-white".
Tokyo_Funk said:
Issac Butterfield, a known slightly right leaning Australian Youtuber saw this ad as "Attacking all men". Way to go straight for a victim complex and way to miss the point. It seems like some people are intentionally misconstruing it for attention and drama.
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Yeah exactly this is what I was referring to. I don't know that particular Youtuber, but there's more than enough of those out there.
 
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flkRaven

flkRaven

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,236
This ad is dope. I love thinking about the notion of a guy sensitive enough to feel attacked by an ad like this, while simultaneously wanting to be a bully and harrass women lol
 
adz2ka

adz2ka

Member
Nov 1, 2017
1,034
Purely from a marketing perspective and writing as a marketing professional, I am confused by Gillette's mission purpose here.
The movement is fantastic and toxic masculinity being addressed is of absolute paramount in modern society.

Strategically, this is absolutely the right thought process. Empowering and encouraging men to take responsibility for their actions, and using the brand with the historically powerful slogan (The best a man can get) - you'd think they would be able to smash the ball out of the park with this campaign.

Unfortunately, I think the execution here is what has let the campaign down, and as a result had such a negative impact on social media. The reason being that the whole advertising campaign begins by making the viewer feel bad from the onset. Empathy is the biggest brand power play in advertising and inherently making a segment of their audience feel vindicated here is a bold move.

On a personal level, writing from my own perspective - after Nike's fantastic contribution with the Kaepernick campaign, it's great to see another big brand giving importance to powerful movements, and I hope other brands follow suit.
 
Midnight Lunch

Midnight Lunch

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,260
adz2ka said:
Purely from a marketing perspective and writing as a marketing professional, I am confused by Gillette's mission purpose here.
The movement is fantastic and toxic masculinity being addressed is of absolute paramount in modern society.

Strategically, this is absolutely the right thought process. Empowering and encouraging men to take responsibility for their actions, and using the brand with the historically powerful slogan (The best a man can get) - you'd think they would be able to smash the ball out of the park with this campaign.

Unfortunately, I think the execution here is what has let the campaign down, and as a result had such a negative impact on social media. The reason being that the whole advertising campaign begins by making the viewer feel bad from the onset. Empathy is the biggest brand power play in advertising and inherently making a segment of their audience feel vindicated here is a bold move.

On a personal level, writing from my own perspective - after Nike's fantastic contribution with the Kaepernick campaign, it's great to see another big brand giving importance to powerful movements, and I hope other brands follow suit.
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I'm not sure the execution being any better would have changed the negative reactions on social media.
 
adz2ka

adz2ka

Member
Nov 1, 2017
1,034
Midnight Lunch said:
I'm not sure the execution being any better would have changed the negative reactions on social media.
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Maybe. Maybe not.
Perhaps not showing any of the derogatory scenes and just showing men of all backgrounds doing the right thing could have worked?
It's important to add that a large percentage of the people viewing this won't be able to dissect the actual message here, because their focus will be on the brief sections of the advert that portray men in a negative light.
It's a sad truth unfortunately, but selfishly their egos take priority over their buy-in to a brand's purpose.
 
Wackamole

Wackamole

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,935
adz2ka said:
Purely from a marketing perspective and writing as a marketing professional, I am confused by Gillette's mission purpose here.
The movement is fantastic and toxic masculinity being addressed is of absolute paramount in modern society.

Strategically, this is absolutely the right thought process. Empowering and encouraging men to take responsibility for their actions, and using the brand with the historically powerful slogan (The best a man can get) - you'd think they would be able to smash the ball out of the park with this campaign.

Unfortunately, I think the execution here is what has let the campaign down, and as a result had such a negative impact on social media. The reason being that the whole advertising campaign begins by making the viewer feel bad from the onset. Empathy is the biggest brand power play in advertising and inherently making a segment of their audience feel vindicated here is a bold move.

On a personal level, writing from my own perspective - after Nike's fantastic contribution with the Kaepernick campaign, it's great to see another big brand giving importance to powerful movements, and I hope other brands follow suit.
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I disagree. This campaign has proved itself to be brilliant imo. But curious to read what you would have done to make this better.
It has a negative impact on men who can't take criticism on being a shitty person. But there are plenty of them still, so yes there is much outrage. But it's an acceleration of positive change i think. At least some of them will think about themselves.
 
rjinaz

rjinaz

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
28,401
Phoenix
The same kind of people that say "grow thicker skin" when this kind of commentary or jokes are directed towards minorities, lose their shit when it's directed towards a group they are part of. Funny that.

"Black people do commit a lot of crime". Deal with it.
"White people keep fucking up this country" WHAT?!
"Men need to do better". THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY?!
 

Deleted member 19213

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
363
The message is sound. I think the tone slightly paints men as a whole in a bad light, as if it needs to educate all men to be better. I think that's offending some folks because it's perceived as a generalization, but obviously their message is a good one.

From a marketing standpoint, they seem to be alienating their base, at least those online. However, the internet culture is not really indicative to reality. I always use Gillette Fusion because it does a good job on my face. Whatever ad they put out is completely irrelevant to what I'm going to purchase. Their shavers are the best, plain and simple.

My only gripe with them is that their Gillette Fusion shavers are really expensive. About 20 bucks for 4 razors :(
 
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