Gillette who has used the tag line “The Best Man You Can Be” for longer than I can remember has just come out with a two minute commercial that implores men to not be toxic.
Several points here. First of all, I am insulted by the mere implication that men have to somehow rewire themselves and their behavior because by that implication, they are evil. Second, the commercial is a blatant knee jerk reaction to the #MeToo movement. Third, it is the progressive control of all forms of media that bring a major manufacturer to subscribe to such pandering. And Fourth, is Gillette selling razors or social justice, make up your mind.
Each of these points demands addressing.
Commercials are manipulative by nature. They pose a condition or problem that only they can help resolve with their product. Think about the barrage of Viagra ads we have suffered through over the years. The brand presented the condition, erectile dysfunction, as if it was a prevailing problem of almost epidemic proportions. But, wait, they were the solution. It is the classic problem solution dichotomy. So Gillette implies that men are toxic but because they help them be “The Best Man You Can Be” they are somehow preaching the solution. Men need to change. "Boys will be boys" is no longer acceptable so then "girls will be girls" must also be rejected. Granted that some men are actually brutes but some women are also bitches. However in the case of the later such a statement would be labeled misogynistic. Do you see the imbalance?
Enter #MeToo movement of the last year or so. Women are a power base that has found its voice. Sexist, misogynistic, toxic, predatory descriptors of men appear regularly in the rhetoric of so many women focused organizations and pundits. Again, I grant that there are certain, some very public, situations that point to the victimhood of women. But, and this is a relatively big but, as is everything in agenda driven discourse, it is overblown. I will stand for men as and say we are not all brutes. Labeling the gender as toxic and requiring remediation is absurd.
Commercial production has become less about selling product and more about changing the culture. Ordinarily I could subscribe to a moderate application of current mores but if you pay any attention at all to the advertisements that run today you will see that the progressive left has taken control of the medium. Family structures are not longer shown as the typical household. Ads now have same sex couples and even same sex parents. More and more couples are presented as mixed race. It is just an indication that even though those situations are so infinitesimal in society they are portrayed as the norm. Whether or not I care about the presentation is not the point. It merely points to the control and messaging that social justice warriors now have in all content. The screen is becoming a smaller version of the soapbox or maybe even the pulpit.
Which brings me to my final point. Are advertisers selling product or social remedies. It is obvious that Gillette has chosen to subject their client base, men, to a lecture on their social condition and the need for them to be evolved, changed or different in some way. Didn’t Nike just a short time ago enter the kneeling at professional sports games controversy with the highlighting of Colin Kapernick and the tag line “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. Just Do It.” Of course, it paints the former NFLer as a hero for making a choice. What it doesn’t do however is recognize that there are an equal amount of their consumers who disagree.
These ads are a product of the don’t let a good crisis go to waste school of politics and activism. Both of this manufacturers have huge customer bases and they believe that they can alienate a large portion of them while embracing the psychology of the rest at least for a brief time. They are making a money calculation. By espousing such a dramatic and controversial position each is hoping to endear their efforts to the one side hoping for the following increase in sales ( Nike took in an increase of six billion dollars after the Kapernick commercial) and projecting that a backlash either will not occur or that it will be momentary and insignificant.
You see, both capitalism and activism are becoming one. There is almost no way to combat it on a grand scale. The control of media has been ceded to the left. I forecast that you are only just seeing the beginning of a much different America.
Men are men, women are women, some are more respectful, caring and sensitive than others and that is just the way it has always been, is now and will be forever.