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A new "short film" by razor company Gillette has called for the best men can be, which has a significant impact.
Most important points:
- The Gillette advert is part of a campaign entitled The Best Men Can Be
- It shows men who are engaged in bullying and sexual harassment before they indicate how things can change
- Piers Morgan and James Woods proposed to boycott Gillette products
The 108-second version of the ad, called We Believe: The Best Men Can Be, went directly to YouTube's trending list and garnered nearly 300,000 votes within three days.
The title is a piece on Gillette's famous slogan, "the best a man can get", which has been in his advertising campaigns for 30 years.
The ad, which was posted on Monday morning (AEDT), starts with voices that sound like news readers who say "bullying, the movement #MeToo against sexual harassment, toxic masculinity" and asks: "Is this the best a man can get?"
It goes on to describe cases where boys bully each other, men who humiliate women at work and women who are harassed in the streets.
It also shows a number of clips with humiliating images of women in cartoons, music videos & sitcoms, as well as a number of clips from news readers, many of which seem to have been specifically filmed for the ad, and talking about things like the #MeToo movement .
During the advertisement – which was filmed by the Australian director Kim Gehrig, who won the title This Girl Can campaign in 2015 – the expression & # 39; Boys will be boys & # 39; repeated by dozens of men who are watching two boys fighting for a family barbecue.
The second half of the advertisement starts with a video of actor Terry Crews telling a Senate judicial committee that "men should appeal to other men & # 39; and then that will show.
The voice-over says that some men are already taking action to turn things around "but some are not enough, because the guys who watch today will be the men of tomorrow".
On her website Gillette said that the slogan "best can get a man & # 39; an ambitious statement about what men would want in life.
"But switch on the news today and it's easy to believe that men are not at their best," was a statement.
"Many are at a crossroads, caught between the past and a new era of masculinity.
"Although it is clear that changes are needed, where and how we can start to effectuate that change is less clear to many people."
Gillette said it would take a different turn in his advertising campaigns and social media content as part of his campaign, which would see it donate $ US3 million in three years to nonprofits in the United States who wanted to educate boys and men about the problems behind toxic masculinity.
While the campaign is called The Best Men Can Be, Gillette ended the statement by making it clear that it would keep its 30-year-old trademark tagline, but with a new meaning.
"Our slogan must continue to inspire us to get better every day, and to create a new standard for boys to admire and for men to reach," the statement said.
"We all have work to do and it starts today."
Speaking of boycott: echo response to the Kaepernick ad from Nike
Almost immediately after the release of the campaign there was a push from men's rights activists to boycott Gillette's products and the parent company Procter and Gamble.
Perhaps the loudest voice among those who criticized the campaign was British commentator Piers Morgan, who said he might stop using Gillette because of the video.
On Good Morning Britain he said that the only people who loved the video were "radical feminists who love it because it depicts men as bad".
Actor James Woods also said that the message of the ad amounted to "men are awful".
"I will never use your product again," he tweeted.
Gillette's decision to take a position was always risky, according to branding experts.
Dean Crutchfield, the chief executive of branding firm Crutchfield and Partners, told the Wall Street Journal Gillette had been in trouble by entering into a prior conversation that requires brutal honesty and tough decisions.
And although he admitted that there was a requirement … that brands in the moment deal with difficult issues, he warned that this could have a counterproductive effect.
"Does the customer want to hear that they are a bad boy?" he asked.
"Are you asking too much of your consumer to have this conversation with them?"
Nike discovered this last year in September, when the former NFL player Colin Kaepernick made the face of his Dream Crazy campaign.
The sports apparel company got some hatred online for recording the controversial Kaepernick, who became known by kneeling during the national anthem for his games towards the end of his time at the San Francisco 49ers, but Nike also gained a significant rise in share prices and online sales immediately after his first ad was released.
Subjects:
attack,
men,
sexual crimes,
advertisement,
advertising and marketing,
United States
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