Boycott threats over Gillette’s ‘cutting edge’ ads

Men worldwide promise to stop buying Gillette products over ‘Believe’ ad ... and Piers Morgan is leading the charge.

Gillette’s ‘We Believe’ ad targets toxic masculinity.

Men around the world are threatening to boycott shaving company Gillette after it launched an advertising campaign that targets toxic masculinity and encourages men to be held “accountable” for their actions.

The two-minute video, which intersperses clips of news reports on the #MeToo movement and­ ­images showing sexism in the workplace, has sparked intense debate online.

The advertisement, entitled We Believe: The Best Men Can Be, shows men intervening to stop fights between young boys and a man telling his friend it’s “not cool” when he checks out a female stranger in the street.

“We believe in the best in men: to say the right thing, to act the right way. Some already are in ways big and small. But some is not enough,” the voiceover says.

“Because the boys watching today will be the men of tomorrow.”

Some have praised the ad; others have condemned Gillette for its message.

Piers Morgan. Picture: Getty Images

British TV presenter Piers Morgan was among those threatening to boycott the company, describing the ad as part of a ­“pathetic global assault on ­masculinity”.

In a tweet on his account yesterday, Morgan wrote: “I’ve used Gillette razors my entire adult life but this absurd virtue-signalling PC guff may drive me away to a company less eager to fuel the current pathetic global assault on masculinity.

“Let boys be damn boys. Let men be damn men.”

Because the @Gillette ad presumes all men are a**holes until they are directed otherwise.
If they did this to women, feminists would go crazy. https://t.co/Zklc4N0GLQ

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 15, 2019

Others saw Gillette’s message as a timely and brave statement that could encourage a new generation of “positive masculinity”.

Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King, was among those to applaud Gillette’s campaign, telling her Twitter followers: “This commercial isn’t anti-male. It’s pro-humanity. And it demonstrates that character can step up to change conditions.”

The commercial was made by British company Somesuch and was directed by Australian-born Londoner Kim Gehrig.

At the time of publishing this article, the “Believe” ad had garnered nine million views on YouTube. Of those, 558,000 people had “disliked” the video, while 206,000 had given it the thumbs-up.