‘Is this the best a man can get?’, reads the tagline for Gilette’s latest razor advert, playing with their 30-year slogan, ‘the best a man can get’, in a new promotion that challenges toxic masculinity. The advert shows men intervening during episodes of sexual harassment against women and violence between boys, in turn teaching their sons to be better than older generations.
Directed by Kim Gehrig, it has received a ton of publicity since being released online, with men’s rights activists claiming the advert is insulting to masculinity and vowing never to use Gilette razors again. While the opinions of these men are obviously very important to us (eye roll), there is one thing we’re more concerned about - can an advert like this ever do any good when it's fundamentally designed to make money?
Certainly, creating an advert the challenges toxic masculinity is, on the surface, admirable, forward-thinking and vitally important at a time when suicide is still the number one killer of one, men are still the greater perpetrators of violent crime and women the greatest victims, with two women killed every week by a current or former partner in the UK. The advert also, coincidently, comes just days after the American Psychological Association released their first ever report on toxic masculinity, promoting guidelines in treating men and boys to tackle it.
However, when a brand is using something like toxic masculinity to sell a product, we have to ask, is this exploitative? We’ve seen it with the way brands have jumped on the increased engagement with feminism in the last few years. Fashion retailors selling #feminist t-shirts, cosmetic companies using #GirlsCan to sell make-up, beauty brands creating concepts around ‘real beauty’ to sell moisturisers that alter women’s skin. Ultimately, these brands use a movement meant to give women equal rights and choices, to sell them products that they don’t need - and potentially using cheap female labour to produce these prodcuts int eh first place.
This isn’t a new concept, and it’s not exclusive to gender politics, who can forget when Pepsi tried to jump on the Black Lives Matter movement to sell their fizzy drink? It’s been an increasing trend ever since advertisers realised that millennials, by and large, care about what's going on in the world around them and realised they could leverage this to make money.
Of course, there’s an argument that it doesn’t matter whether they’re selling you something if the outcome is that attitudes change for the better. I was genuinely moved when I watched the Gilette advert. Particularly in contrast to the efforts of some grooming brands, and their creepy, always very heteronormative focus on getting their customer laid. We’re looking at you Lynx.
However, if a brand wants to become a mouthpiece for social justice, they need to put their money where their mouth is, so it's worth asking yourself, who's involved in this project - is there a diverse team of people behind the advert? And secondly, where are the profits going?
In Gilette's case, their advert was directed by a woman, and they have promised to donate $1m per year for three years to non-profit organised ‘designed to inspire, educate and help men of all ages achieve their personal “best” and become role models for the next generation’.
And passing the authenticity test means when brands are talking about, and profiting from, a big issue, like toxic masculinity, then they also have a responsibility to use their power, and money and reach as a force for good.
We’ve seen how this falls down in the fashion industry - when brands create an entire advert around body positivity, using plus size models or showing stretch marks in their adverts, but then don’t actually stock the relevant sizes online. Beauty companies that claim to promote loving yourself in your own, natural skin but are selling products that ‘brighten’ your complexion, as if that isn’t just a synonym of lighten. Celebrities that promoted their personal brand by loudly supporting #MeToo, despite being accused of sexual harassment themselves.
Authenticity is important, and with issue of toxic masculinity clearly driving Gilette’s publicity through the roof, it’s something other brands are bound to see opportunity in. We can only hope this leads to real change, rather than empty words and #viral adverts.