We Believe: The Best Men Can Be | Gillette

(Short Film)

00:02 [OVERLAPPING NEWS AUDIO] 00:53 “Men need to hold other men
accountable.”
00:06 Is this the best a man can get?
00:56 Smile, sweetie!
00:07 [MUSIC]
00:57 Come on!
00:12 Is it?
00:59 To say the right thing.
00:16 We can't hide from it.
01:01 To act the right way.
00:19 It's been going on far too long.
01:03 Bro, not cool. Not cool.
00:24 We can't laugh it off.
01:05 Some already are.
00:29 “What I actually think she's trying to
say..” 01:09 In ways big.

00:31 Making the same old excuses. 01:13 and small.

00:34 Boys will be boys. 01:13 Say, "I am strong."

00:36 [TOGETHER] Boys will be boys. 01:15 I am strong!

00:37 But something finally changed. 01:19 But some is not enough.

00:39 Allegations regarding sexual assault and 01:23 That's not how we treat each other,
sexual harassment- okay?

00:42 [OVERLAPPING NEWS AUDIO] 01:25 You okay?

00:46 And there will be no going back. 01:27 Because the boys watching today

00:49 Because we, 01:31 will be the men of tomorrow.

00:51 we believe in the best in men.

 Why People Hate the Gillette Razor Commercial

How's it going everybody the cello, how did a nearly universally disliked Gillette razor shaving commercial
become a top 10 trending video on YouTube gaining over 8.5 million views in one day? I have no idea
maybe somebody can tell me down in the comments how the YouTube algorithm works, but I am going to
assume you've already seen the commercials, let's dive right into why people don't like it!

On its face the general message of the ad is completely fine, treat others with respect. Everybody can get
on board with that but when you actually watch the ad, it comes across as much more condescending
and belittling, depicting a reality that doesn't really exist of a world packed full of men acting out
stereotypically toxic behavior and then the ad goes on to call all men to action to change this fictional
world into something better.

My main gripe with this ad is why is a razor company telling me how to act at, all it's a real beard
scratcher for me! But, two specific moments in this ad I personally found interesting besides all, these
guys at the beginning who looked like they just saw the monster in “Bird Box”.

The first one is this lady and the Executive Board meeting, she's presumably just said something out loud
during this meeting and then the man leading the meeting condescendingly places a hand on her
shoulder and tries to cover for whatever she just said it's supposed to illustrate how women's voices are
often silenced and male-dominated corporate settings which is terrible, but we're given absolutely zero
context beyond that like, what did she say? was it a stupid idea that she shared? Maybe she said
something really fucking stupid like: “hey, I have an idea let's start an ad campaign that aggressively
criticizes our entire consumer base”. And then, this gentleman has to step in and try to cover for her shit
idea.

The second thing that I found interesting in this ad, was this dude, when he sees a pretty lady walked by
and he decides to go ask her out but he is immediately blocked by some random guy. Who is this guy?
Are they friends? What's the context here? Maybe they do know each other and he's married and his
buddies just trying to stop him from making a big mistake but without that context we simply have a guy
who looks physically in league with the girl who walked by trying to initiate some standard courtship
behavior. Is this wrong now because we have apps like tinder and online dating, sites face to face old-
fashioned courtship is no longer appropriate? that's a sign of toxic masculinity? that's literally sexual
harassment?

I mean I would agree if it was this other guy who tried to start chasing after her but, he has a 100%
chance of creeping this pretty lady out. The dude that they showed in the commercial, he looks fit as fuck.

So those are my main takes on this commercial but the main issue people seem to have generally with
this ad is that it's a flagrant example of the double standard that the mainstream media appears to have
when it comes to criticizing different identity groups had this had taken a list of the most worst and most
untrue stereotypes of women false generalizations like: gold-digging, nagging, disloyalty, and then
created a fictional world where all women were acting that way while simultaneously calling on women in
the real world to stop acting that way. They would justifiably be a tremendous amount of backlash
because it would be a blatantly sexist and false illustration of women just as this is a blatantly sexist and
false illustration of men.

So, I'm glad to see the majority of people who watch this video dislike it. Hopefully the market will correct
this error in advertising please let me know down in the comments if there is anything about this
commercial that bothered you that I missed or if you think this commercial was great and it's just a
positive message. I want to hear about it, thanks everybody for watching if you like this video thumbs up
and if you hated it well thumbs down and as always, please subscribe