Gillette: The best a man could be? Galvanised reactions to the latest advert

Despite being almost (or maybe over) 2 days old by this point, I only just found out about the new Gillette advert when reactions to the advert started to seep into my Facebook feed. An advert aimed at challenging toxic masculinity.

As Facebook is made up of people I know – and therefore probably like – you would be unsurprised for me to tell you that these reactions I saw on Facebook fell largely in line with my own opinions. Echo chambers and all that. However, the YouTube comments section of the advert paints an altogether different story.

About 30% of these comments actually just went on about how YouTube is either deleting dislikes or comments, or Gillette is buying likes on the advert. Whilst I do not know if these sort of things happen what I can be sure of is that some of the people moaning about it are more than likely making it up and saying it happened to them to gain attention.

More troublesome, however, is the other comments which vilify Gillette for what essentially amounts to a challenge to their character. Of course, these people are responding with the typical calls for boycotts, declaring Gillette to have made a massive mistake, and about how they have declared war on men and their customer base. Looking at the YouTube comments sections for considered remarks is always a fool’s errand, however.

Here’s the embedded advert from YouTube, in case you haven’t seen it:

I am not overly surprised by the reactions to this advert. Calling people out for their bad personality traits which some men have – and some men do have them – was never going to be popular. Many are up in arms in what they see as “SJWs” (social justice warriors) forcing their view on others. This view is perfectly encapsulated in yesterday morning’s “Good Morning” program on ITV. Here’s the footage from it embedded below from YouTube:

One of the things that stood out to me in this clip is how when Harriet Minter, one of the panellists, tried to state her view she is repeatedly interrupted and talked over by the men on the panel. The same thing happens to one of the female hosts. Perhaps if the men who were on the panel and hosting weren’t so busy making false equivalencies they would notice the irony in their actions when discussing toxic masculinity.

My personal view is that if people took a step back to look at their own actions then we would all be found wanting in some area or another. It is important we work on these areas to create a better world where we support each other and celebrate each other. By being mindful we can all achieve this and be happy in our lives. Perhaps everyone who commented on the YouTube advert should take a look at the basics of mindfulness I recently wrote about!

This advert may focus on toxic masculinity exclusively, but that does not mean it is denying other problems with society. A diabetes charity does not deny other ailments exist, only that it wants to focus on diabetes.

What are your views on this subject? Has the #metoo movement gone too far or are you happy to see toxic masculinity being called out? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,

Michael