Gillette recently launched a new ad campaign entitled The Best Men Can Be, which addresses sexual misconduct between men and women throughout history and how in today’s society it is no longer acceptable to be a bystander. Although resulting in both strongly positive and negative reactions this campaign is nothing more than another useless ad associated with slacktivism. ‘Slacktivism’ is a term used when a campaign of any sort, whether it be on television or through social media, raises awareness for a current issue but does not take the extra step to create a lasting impact or change within our society.
My biggest critique of the ad is who it comes from: Gillette. The organization’s various television commercials feature a deep male voice and perpetuate toxic masculinity by describing how using this razor is going to transform users into a big, tough, and rugged men who can chop wood with their bare hands. Due to their history of complicity, The Best Men Can Be campaign feels as though Gillette is simply hopping on a bandwagon, as their company is one of biggest perpetuators of toxic masculinity in media.
Not only is this ad an example of slacktivism, but the production team are all slacktivists as well. We as viewers can watch it and feel good sharing the ad thinking we are playing our part in ending rape culture, while writing an inspirational message on our Facebook pages, but what does that actually do? The same goes for the production team at Gillette; they have been putting out toxic ads on “how to be a man” for 30 years, first airing their slogan “the best a man can get” at the 1989 Super Bowl. And now they can all feel good producing just one new campaign on trying to end it?
Not to mention that the ad’s message is just that “men must hold other men accountable” and shares nothing about how to properly treat others. The campaign is simply saying this behaviour will happen and is inevitable, however, we can tell other “men” it’s not okay, but ultimately, it says this is who men are and there is no changing them — we can only point out their flaws. Most of the campaign is targeting how we can raise the next generation of men to never start this behaviour; this is the only way we can stop it and it will not end for the current generation.
Gillette can start a “revolution” in a much simpler way, by just pricing their razors for men and women equally. This would be a much better step in the right direction for the company to change their image from producing toxic masculinity ads to a company that promotes equal rights!