More News:

January 15, 2019

Gillette ad rethinks its own branding of masculinity, sparks backlash

The 'We Believe' campaign has started a debate about gender and marketing

By Emily Rolen

PhillyVoice Staff

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
[Comments](/content/gillette-ad-rethinks-branding-masculinity-backlash/#disqus_thread "Comments"/index.html)
Email
[Copy Link](/content/gillette-ad-rethinks-branding-masculinity-backlash/# "Copy Link"/index.html)

TV Commercials

Photo courtesy/Gillette on YouTube

A new Gillette campaign called "We Believe" is sparked national conversation surrounding masculinity.

In Article Audio Player

Audio Coming Soon

A new Gillette razor advertisement released this week is sparking national conversation about gender and cultural branding.

The campaign is called "We Believe: The Best Men Can Be," and it challenges standards of masculinity that the company itself was once instrumental in promoting, starting back in the early '90s.

MORE: Heavy snow possible this weekend from winter-storm doubleheader

It opens with images of boys being bullied, news reports of sexual harassment and assaults that have come to light in the #MeToo era, men fighting, and fathers defending bad behavior by just saying, "boys will be boys."

The ad is in opposition to a campaign run by Gillette that first aired during Super Bowl XXIII in 1989 that began with the "The Best A Man Can Get" slogan conjured images of a man playing football, doing well at work, pursuing a woman. As the Washington Post puts it: "The one specific location it invoked was Wall Street, the arena of the ultimate alpha male."

The ad finishes by suggesting men need to hold other men accountable to "say the right thing, to act the right way."

"The boys watching today, will be the men of tomorrow."

YouTube

Tap to unmute

This video is private

If the owner of this video has granted you access, please sign in.

Visit YouTube to search for more videos

But not everyone is in agreement with the new messaging. Piers Morgan called it a "pathetic man-hating ad" in a column for the Daily Mail.

Twitter Embed

Because the @Gillette ad presumes all men are a**holes until they are directed otherwise. If they did this to women, feminists would go crazy.

3:38 PM · Jan 15, 2019

X Ads info and privacy

Copy link

Twitter Embed

I used to love beating up kids at barbecues. Now I realise that is wrong. Also, my balls have never been smoother. Thanks, Gillette.

10:21 AM · Jan 15, 2019

X Ads info and privacy

Copy link

Twitter Embed

No thank you...You just lost a 25 year customer of your overpriced razors. Retract this anti-male commercial or I will boycott P&G till the day I die. #boycottgillete

11:57 PM · Jan 14, 2019

X Ads info and privacy

Copy link

Twitter Embed

Today I was walking down the street when I noticed a bunch of boys bullying another kid. Of course I stopped and cheered them on and shouted, "Yeah! Bully that kid! Bullying is the best!" But then someone showed me that Gillette ad and I realize now that I was wrong.

3:52 PM · Jan 15, 2019

X Ads info and privacy

Copy link

Twitter Embed

[Candace Owens\ \

The #Gillette commercial is the product of mainstream radicalized feminism— & emblematic of Cultural Marxism.

STOP PERVERTINGMASCULINITY.

LET LITTLE BOYS WRESTLE.

Despite what Lena Dunham tells you, women are not into beta males & men are not into chicks w/ armpit hair.

2:52 PM · Jan 15, 2019

X Ads info and privacy

Copy link

Twitter Embed

There’s no perfect test for the level of insecurity where masculinity becomes ‘toxic’ but basically it’s when you feel personally attacked by that Gillette ad

4:12 PM · Jan 15, 2019

X Ads info and privacy

1.6K Reply

Copy link

Read 20 replies

Follow Emily & PhillyVoice on Twitter @emily_rolen | @thePhillyVoice

Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice

Add Emily’s RSS feed to your feed reader

Have a news tip? Let us know.

Emily Rolen

PhillyVoice Staff

Featured

7 secret destinations to explore in NJ](https://visitnj.org/itinerary/secret-getaways-new-jersey?utm_source=philly_voice&utm_medium=txt_link&utm_campaign=destinations)

Free World Cup fan festival with match screenings, live music and food is coming to Camden](/content/free-world-cup-fan-festival-match-screenings-live-music-and-food-coming-camden-05999-129/index.html)

Disqus Recommendations

We were unable to load Disqus Recommendations. If you are a moderator please see our troubleshooting guide.

❮

6 hours ago
84 comments

Here we'll look at some Eagles players who had down seasons last year, …

2 days ago
3 comments

Beer lovers can sample dozens of local brews when the Fishtown Beer …

3 hours ago
2 comments

Nara Organics has recalled its infant formula products after three babies were …

21 hours ago
15 comments

Brewers phenom Jacob Misiorowski sparkled while Cristopher Sánchez …

9 hours ago
3 comments

The history of Lemon Hill in East Fairmount Park, the site of Philadelphia's FIFA …

2 days ago
9 comments

Events like the World Cup rarely cause major outbreaks, but they do …

a day ago
61 comments

As we do every offseason, we'll be comparing each of the Philadelphia Eagles' …

2 days ago
6 comments

"Despite [his] lack of size, he’s one of the most threatening and crafty …

❯

Disqus Comments

We were unable to load Disqus. If you are a moderator please see our troubleshooting guide.

Join the discussion…

Comment

Log in with

or sign up with Disqus or pick a name

Disqus is a discussion network

Don't be a jerk or do anything illegal. Everything is easier that way.

Read full terms and conditions

This comment platform is hosted by Disqus, Inc. I authorize Disqus and its affiliates to:

Use, sell, and share my information to enable me to use its comment services and for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, including supplementing that information with other data about me, such as my browsing and location data.
Contact me or enable others to contact me by email with offers for goods or services
Process any sensitive personal information that I submit in a comment. See our Privacy Policy for more information

Acknowledge I am 18 or older

I'd rather post as a guest

We have awesome news for you!

Get the latest rumors, analysis, hot takes & more from the PhillyVoice Sports team delivered daily.

Hide this message

Favorite this discussion
Discussion Favorited!

Favoriting means this is a discussion worth sharing. It gets shared to your followers' Disqus feeds, and gives the creator kudos!

Find More Discussions

Tweet this discussion
- Share this discussion on Facebook
- Share this discussion via email
- Copy link to discussion
Best
- Newest
- Oldest

Liberals are more preachy than any televangelist.

I'm old enough to remember when liberals despised Madison Avenue. Now it's one of the main pulpits in their religion.

Liberals used to be against the "Establishment". Now they ARE the Establishment.

What's best of all Mannaggia, is that the foot soldiers of Liberals like Antifa and the "I owe 300k and work at Starbucks" gender studies students think they are counter-culture while serving the establishment.

Show more replies

This comment was deleted.

You'll be sad when you stop getting cat calls.

I am not proud to admit this, but I have an app on my phone that will simulate a woman catcalling me.....sometimes I play it to remind myself of the good old days.........

whew, that felt good to get that off my chest

#triggered

Only liberal SJW snowflakes like you get triggered.

Says the guy who was compelled to write. Triggered much?

(Try not to fumble the reply back...)

Hit a sore spot.

I love the men of color are the ones stopping the evil white men in the video, especially the one who is street calling the attractive woman walking buy, because if that's one thing whitey is known for, its yelling out to women passing by.

Yes, white men are the most rapey, street-harassers out there. We need minorities to set us straight on manners and "how not to rape" or "be creepy" lolololol. Gillette, get f**ked.

OMG!

honest question: why do liberals ruin EVERYTHING?

Just enrolled in Dollar Shave Club -- funny, they sold me razors without a lecture.

I’m going with Harry’s Razors.

This reminds me of Madison Avenue's attempts to appeal to the late 60s Zeitgeist. You had Oldsmobile ads referring to them as "Youngsmobiles", and a Ford Maverick paint color being called "Anti-Establish Mint" green. Like the effort to make Nehru Jackets popular, Gillette's campaign is doomed to failure.

Stop men from shaving so we can end toxic masculinity.

Progressivism is cancer. There’s ways to promote the message they wanted to send without being so condescending.

The marketing starts with the assumption "men" are inferior thinkers. They sell razors, not philosophy so in that sense it is ridiculous. I wonder what "Brut" has to say about charitable donations around the holidays?

I'm a superior thinking man who just voted with his wallet and these Wilkinson blades are SHARP!! (Too sharp for soy boys... be careful son, you'll hurt yourself!)

I wish I could make one of those GIF MEMEs; I'll take the last scene of the commercial with all those (good looking!) white males and add a ballerina body dancing disparately with subtitle: "Gillete the best a man can be"; that's be the ultimate parody to this stupid commercial and one that would encapsulate its entire meaning: transform all men into a bunch of puss...es.

Also, while everyone is talking about the masculinity thing, is left out the other SJW theme in it: that white men are the bullies and blacks are the good guys to stop them from being jerks...

Oh yeah, looks "so much" like real life. LOL!

The person running this campaign for Gillete has multiple accusations of sexual harassment and assault against her, from both male and female employees.

Proof?

From thebestmencanbe.org

"But turn on the news today and it’s easy to believe that men are not at their best. Many find themselves at a crossroads, caught between the past and a new era of masculinity. While it is clear that changes are needed, where and how we can start to effect that change is less obvious for many. And when the changes needed seem so monumental, it can feel daunting to begin. So, let’s do it together."

Hmmm... Indeed it's time for change. I'm changing BRANDS.

You soy boys who like this pathetic ad campaign can shave your legs with Gillette.

(Get the blue ones boys, they're cheaper than the pink ones!)

This comment was marked as spam.

Hairless SJW soy boy found an opportunity to call actual men incels.

Right, any man who disagrees with being called a bully and a rapist by giant corporations is an incel. The hypocrisy of the commies on these boards bullying people over an anti-bullying commercial is hilarious.

Called a bully and a rapist? What about the ad made you feel it was talking about you?

Honestly, I found this ad to be insulting. It portrays the majority of white men as either misogynistic or inherently complicit by saying “...boys will be boys” (did anyone notice the line-up of men standing over the grills where all white?) There a many good men out there that respect people while still maintaining their masculinity.

I am raising a son to be a gentleman, to respect himself and other people (including women) just as I was. I am not Harvey Weinstein or Chris Brown, and I do not want to be lumped in with them. Sexual harassment and bullying are branches of a masculinity problem, they are a mental health issue.

Gillette doesn’t really care. This virtue signaling is because they have lost 30% of the market share to Dollar Shave Club, Harry’s, and other new boutique brands and products that millennials are moving to.

Sounds like the people complaining used Gillete razors because they felt nice on their thin skins.

Toughen up, broflakes.

found the closeted not-so-straight guy...

You can't be gay and think all men are evil, even though Gillette told you so.

I'm thinking he's a slightly overweight and socially awkward male feminist white-knighting so maybe one of the ladies will notice his virtue and give him some play.

Whiteknighting.

😂🤣😂🤣😂😭😭😭

Ohhhh boy!

Please tell me you have more gems like this coming. That is some high quality commenting!

The purpose of marketing is to promote the benefits of your product to your target demographic, not lecture to them.

Gillette's razors are garbage. If they promoted the benefits of them, nobody would buy them.

If you think they’re garbage, why are you lecturing others how to respond to the ad campaign?

I am not here to lecture.

I am here to laugh at the man babies who were upset by the commercial.

Commenting as the antagonist is not proof anybody is upset. You aren't lecturing but I suppose you find some enjoyment in being the antagonist yourself? Basic forms of communication are therapeutic. It's fun in other words.

Yep. I am laughing at all of the people upset because of a shaving commercial.

I see no evidence anybody is "upset". I see evidence people find the connection between razors and toxic masculinity curious. People are allowed to probe the logic behind marketing strategy. It would seem you are "upset" people are engaged in communication you do not approve of.

Women use GIllette razors as well.

Liberal feminists like to go au natural...

This comment was deleted.

Gillette even makes a shave cream with your name on it!

Ultra Sensitive!!

Wow. Dozens of comments about how this ad has made you feel. What a b/tch session.

Get a grip.

trump really turned the right wingers into a bunch of overly sensitive victimized wimps.

Gillette has lost 30% of its market share and is jumping on the virtue-signaling bandwagon about “toxic masculinity”.

I find it ironic that stereotypes about genders supposed to be bad, of course unless it is against males (and did anyone else notice that the long line of men standing at their grills were all white?) I guess it is OK to portray most males as Misogynists.

There is no denying that there are real issues in our culture that need to be addressed. I do not believe in this "toxic masculinity". IT is just part of a relentless ideological attack on masculinity, stemming from radical feminism. It is an attempt frame masculinity as a disease, a pathogen, and a problem. Archetypes have existed in our culture for millennia, and have help us better understand the world and our role in it. It helps us relate and understand each other across cultures.

Things like sexual harassment, bullying, and the other social ills that are depicted are mental health issues, and far more complex than just some branch off the “poison tree” of masculinity.

Those boys in the MAGA hats who surrounded the Native American Vietnam war veteran and chanted build the wall, are they suffering from a mental illness? Or are they just bullies whose fathers will no longer use Gillette razors?

Load more comments