Leave the parenting to the hairy dads, please
THE internet almost crashed this week under the weight of outrage when Gillette released the sort of commercial success that would have had Don Draper reaching for the expensive whisky.
The new ad preaches the opined wisdom that the best a man can be these days is a more caring, socially responsible, matepolicing chap.
The modern man is the sort of individual who won’t stand by while his boorish mate checks out a passing woman. Or the sort of dad who tackles bullies who are waiting on a poor random boy in the street.
This sort of lecturing was always going to divide the world and spark controversy, which of course is the only thing advertisers want. Just a couple days (and over 13 million views) after the ad’s debut, Gillette has been accused of everything from perpetuating a war against men to attacking our masculinity and raison d’etre in a cynical bid to flog a few more razors.
Personally I don’t have a problem with the main message of the piece and I am a paying Gillette customer. Toxic masculinity is a global issue. Bullying is a scourge that lives and breathes in every school the length and breadth of the country. But then this ad was designed for online consumption, a place where bullying enjoys legendary status.
WHILE many prominent male figures like Piers Morgan have slammed the concept, there has been a wave of support from woman all over the world celebrating any message that attempts to shed light on this global problem. And up to a point they are correct.
Bullying is wrong and men should treat women — in fact, everyone — with respect and kindness. But what the hell gives a razor company that has been pummelling young men with stereotypical images of manliness for years the right to act as our conscience? I mean take the tag line, ‘the best a man can get’. There is nothing wrong with that until you look at the type of men featured. You are talking David Gandy types swishing Mach 3 blades across their rugged faces.
They do not represent the best of men, simply the best the advertising community can come up with to appeal to women. Because up until now Gillette’s advertising was squarely aimed at women, whom they assume are doing the shopping and will be buying the razors.
Really the best a man can get should be changed to the best a woman can buy for a man, which kind of rails against the alleged progressive forward-thinking message of this new campaign.
‘We weren’t trying to court controversy,’ protested Gillette brand director Pankaj Bhalla. ‘We were just trying to upgrade the selling line that we’ve held for 30 years — the Best a Man Can Get — and make it relevant.’
Gillette lost any hold they might have on a moral compass when they decided to portray the best man as a sulking athlete with manicured tresses and a chin like Rocky Balboa.
When was the last time you saw a balding man in his 40s with bags under his eyes, shaving in lamplight so as not to wake the baby? Never.
Because Gillette won’t put overweight, overworked, exhausted men like yours truly in their campaigns because it won’t sell. I am all against toxic masculinity and if any boy or man has been educated by this video, then it won’t have been wasted.
But the hard truth is that there are still idiots out there who believe it’s okay to place bullying or leering under the ‘boys will be boys’ umbrella. That was more shocking to me than some preachy bit of clever creative. As a dad of three boys I am only too conscious of the challenges they face in the current world. But it is up to us dads to try and raise the sort of kids who will embrace inclusion and kindness over machismo and vanity — qualities that companies like Gillette have championed for decades.
And until they put someone like Simon Delaney or Marty Morrissey — both men I look up to— in their ads and on their packets, they can take their pop psychology and return it to the best marketing company a billion euro company can get. And leave the parenting to us hairy dads.