Gillette's toxic masculinity ad signals mainstream embrace of #MeToo
For decades Gillette has been selling razors using the slogan “the best a man can get”. This
week the Procter & Gamble-owned brand has adopted “the best a man can be”
as part of a marketing campaign meant to challenge toxic masculinity.
Explicitly aligning itself with the #metoo movement, the
message is that men have to change if we want to end sexual harassment,
bullying and domestic violence.
The campaign’s centrepiece, a 108-second “short
film”, has divided opinion. Among those to declare their contempt for
Gillette’s “virtue signalling” is the British television presenter Piers
Morgan, who has labelled the advert “man-hating” and part of a “war on
masculinity”.
On the other side, those lauding Gillette
include Glamour magazine contributor Helen Wilson-Beevers, who has praised the
video as a “self-assured piece of advertising that Gillette should be proud
of”.
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