Grow A Walt Whitman-Length Beard If You Have To -- Don't Use Gillette.
Woke man-bashing, commercialized. (Imagine a similar commercial, calling out women for how they often tend to compete and get their way -- covertly, through sabotaging other women. Women across America would rise up like Valkyries!)
Help! Police! Gillette has been hijacked by the Oberlin College Gender Studies Collective. https://t.co/lCMNQ3ofii
— Christina Sommers (@CHSommers) January 15, 2019
Whitman, Gillette-less.
And actually, a bit of somewhat weird Walt on manhood, per Tracy McVeigh at The Guardian:
A simple meat diet, no sweets, fried food or even vegetables, a brisk leap out of bed in the mornings and not exhausting oneself "continually among women". A 150-year-old self-help guide written by one of the United States' most revered poets, Walt Whitman, has been rediscovered, offering some unique advice to 19th-century American man on how to obtain a more "noble physique" - and some of it wouldn't seem so out of place today.Whitman's "Manly Health and Training" is a 47,000-word treatise on how to be a real man, a work that had been long forgotten since it appeared in 13 weekly instalments in a long defunct New York newspaper over the autumn of 1858. In long and sometimes rambling prose, the poet extols the virtues of fresh air, of good footwear, of naked sunbathing and even of facial hair. A beard, said Whitman, is preferable in a man as "a great sanitary protection to the throat". Too much "mere repetition" of sex, however, is to be avoided as that will produce only sickly, weedy children.
In case you passed it by above, Walt was an early low-carb advocate!
And while we're on men and poets, I recently discovered Britain's Wilfred Owen, who wrote of war and its ravage of men. Beautiful stuff, free at this site. Dulce et Decorum.
via @CHSommers
If Schick's marketing department is smart, they'll have a metric s-ton of grooming products sitting on this guy's porch at dawn.
Crid at January 14, 2019 10:21 PM
Never forget the olden days, when shaving was a masculine enterprise.
(Presumably, the trends in the industry have robbed that joke of its sustaining irony.)
Crid at January 14, 2019 10:54 PM
Long-term/big-pic, maybe brand-name goods companies will purge management and marketing functionaries who're eager to toy with consumer perceptions in this social media environment. They're owned by corporations with shareholders who aren't patient with declining investment value merely because some recent college grad doesn't understand how wealth is generated.
See the comments following the tweet Amy describes.
Crid at January 14, 2019 11:45 PM
In reading the responses to the Gillette commercial, some of the soy-set are claiming that they don't understand why men are getting so upset over what is so "obviously" a positive message.
Apparently, telling men that they are innately bad and that they must strive to do better is a "positive" message. Perhaps we could create a women's commercial presenting women as catty, manipulative, overly-emotional and gold-digging, then telling them they must strive to be better.
Patrick at January 15, 2019 12:32 AM
I really wish I had the means to make that satirical commercial. I'd probably gain incredible notoriety by doing it, which would translate into bucks. But as it is, someone else with the resources to make the commercial will probably do it.
Imagine the commercial depicting young women at work, overheard saying vicious, catty things about another woman. "Ugh. You just know she's sleeping with the boss. What a total whore!"
Then another woman talking about how rich some guy is, and how she's determined to take him from his wife. Then another woman calling her out, "Not cool! We can do better!"
I wonder how "positive" the feminists would see such a commercial.
Patrick at January 15, 2019 2:37 AM
Why are you ignoring the race aspect? This is clearly an attack on white men. All the white men are shown as bad; only the black men are shown as good.
This is an attack against white men. The people who make it don't want white men to interact with white women. This is propoganda to make white women hate their men and start dating black men.
Jewish Cat at January 15, 2019 3:09 AM
> ignoring the race
Some are not.
Crid at January 15, 2019 3:15 AM
> This is propoganda to...
Perhaps I should have finished your comment before responding.
Crid at January 15, 2019 3:15 AM
"We are not fighting against single individuals. We are exterminating the bourgeoisie as a class. It is not necessary during the interrogation to look for evidence proving that the accused opposed the Soviets by word or action."
"The first question which you should ask him is what class does he belong, what is his origin, his education and his profession. These are the questions which will determine the fate of the accused."
Snoopy at January 15, 2019 3:55 AM
I've been curious lately— Are you disabled in some way? You're concerns about the ADA the other day seemed really out of character.
Crid at January 15, 2019 4:05 AM
What type of marketing idiot comes up with an advertising program to insult/drive away a large portion of their customers?
Jay at January 15, 2019 4:42 AM
Big long ladywhine in The Independent.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/gillette-advert-metoo-toxic-masculinity-capitalism-patriarchy-backlash-a8728441.html
Loved this bit:
"On the Boots website at the time of writing, the most expensive Gillette razor was priced at £14.99, while the Venus options ranged up to £25."
Um, so buy razors for dudes. They won't be pink, but you'll save money.
Amy Alkon at January 15, 2019 5:04 AM
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JAndViolentMob/status/1085120841837363201
(Scroll up for the whole thing)
Some dude's tweet:
"Men do a lotta subtly awful stuff every day."
Me: Human beings can be awful.
Men do a lot of wonderful things every day. Demonizing men to sell razors is ugly.
Amy Alkon at January 15, 2019 5:13 AM
Not true. The man who broke up the two boys fighting was white. (1:23) And one of the black men observing it commented "Boys will be boys." (0:34)
Patrick at January 15, 2019 5:41 AM
Good link from KH, see especially point #3.
Does anyone remember that beer brand which ran a commercial, circa 1980, with the playful tagline" By this beer, or we'll kill you." ?
Because I don't remember which brand of beer did that.
Google: Schlitz. You can still buy it.
Crid at January 15, 2019 6:58 AM
What type of marketing idiot comes up with an advertising program to insult/drive away a large portion of their customers?
Get woke, go broke. Or so I've been told.
I R A Darth Aggie at January 15, 2019 6:59 AM
> Um, so buy razors for dudes
So for second I was wondering if there's some preferred blade interval for men's and women's razors, but that seems really unlikely.
Vanity means nothing, but health care is for real. If anybody wants a $5 bet, we could ask a surgery-prep nurse if they have separate tools for each. My money says no.
Crid at January 15, 2019 6:59 AM
I watched the damn thing with the sound off, and I still almost hurled.
I'm tellin' ya, if the current trend continues, anyone showing any signs of having external genitalia will be rounded up and put into camps. Each time I see something like this, I think that we HAVE to have reached the apex of this trend, but it just keeps going...
bkmale at January 15, 2019 7:07 AM
> Not true. The man who broke up
> the two boys fighting...
You're probably right, but the amazing part is that JCat thinks the marketing department of (perhaps) America's largest toiletries manufacturer will throw it all away to help black guys get laid.
Here's a fun Wikipedia section.
Crid at January 15, 2019 7:08 AM
I vaguely remember the Schlitz debacle. After reading up on it, they let that ad campaign go on for 10 weeks.
I'm tellin' ya, if the current trend continues, anyone showing any signs of having external genitalia will be rounded up and put into camps.
Whose army will be doing that? this sort of nonsense will continue right up until they need someone to break things and kill people. Or spiders.
I R A Darth Aggie at January 15, 2019 7:17 AM
Gillette's been on the decline for a while; they're desperately hoping that they can win back the yoots by being woke and hating white men.
It pains me to say it, but the hipster beard-and-shaving culture has rescued us from the 1980s-TV-dinner world of the Gillette Mach 3 Turbo. I salute the tight-legged-pants-wearing whisker twirlers.
I can respect you if you buy a Merkur safety razor, we can be friends if you have a Parker butterfly, and much love if you strop.
I remember the last time I had to get the person to get the five-refills-for-$25 out of the locked case. I'd rather pay the five-for-25-cents for a razor blade and have a new one every single time and still come out on the deal.
El Verde Loco at January 15, 2019 7:35 AM
Let us imagine that Gillette put anti-smoking propaganda in their ads. Even though that is not gender-specific and it is true that smoking is bad for you, it is not their business to harangue the public about anything. I do not want to be nagged by every commercial, every football game, commentary on ESPN. It would be nice to watch the news and just hear some, you know, news, and not hear Trump's name very single broadcast. I don't even want public service ads about stuff (except maybe remind us to get flu shot).
People are stupid and awful but constant nagging doesn't fix anything, it just makes life unpleasant, like having a tiny TV at the gas pump. Unnecessary and annoying.
Furthermore, Gillette's (or anyone's) version of what is bad is not necessarily correct. Boys fighting? There is good evidence that letting boys rough-house gives them a sense of their strength and clarifies as they get older that you really don't want to fight other grown men because bones will get broken. I have seen speculation that this is why women seem to not get it that screaming at their husband is not good, because they never were in any fights. I was in fights and wrestled around as a kid and I learned as I got older that more adult people are more dangerous. So fighting isn't all bad (I did not watch the commercial because I don't need to lose my breakfast so I don't know which case applies).
cc at January 15, 2019 8:19 AM
Reply to Patrick
Ya, I missed that on the first viewing. But I can't help thinking that you are deliberately missing the point. It's no coincidence that the black actors chosen where in general more attractive then the white actors chosen. It's also no coincidence that the video shows 2 black men back to back defending white women while there is no footage of white men defending their women.
White men are obviously being attacked on the basis of their race, conservatives refuse to challenge these attacks on the battlfied of race. That is why they always lose.
Jewish Cat at January 15, 2019 9:39 AM
Reply to Patrick
Ya, I missed that on the first viewing. But I can't help thinking that you are deliberately missing the point. It's no coincidence that the black actors chosen where in general more attractive then the white actors chosen. It's also no coincidence that the video shows 2 black men back to back defending white women while there is no footage of white men defending their women.
White men are obviously being attacked on the basis of their race, conservatives refuse to challenge these attacks on the battlfied of race. That is why they always lose.
Jewish Cat at January 15, 2019 9:39 AM
https://twitter.com/rickygervais/status/1085119723954671616
https://twitter.com/ID7Dee/status/1085022618774847494
I R A Darth Aggie at January 15, 2019 10:34 AM
Piers Morgan is not a fan, either.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/8196388/piers-morgan-gillette-advert-clash-good-morning-britain/
When you've lost Piers...
I R A Darth Aggie at January 15, 2019 11:08 AM
Gilette's big problem is that they're no longer the hip go-to brand for the facially hairy set. Harry's and Dollar Shave Club online brands have taken that crown from them. Those brands are new, hip, and, more importantly, exclusively online. Grandpa doesn't use them.
Gillette tried to respond to Harry's and DSC with online shave club refills, but that went bust.
So, now Gillette is left with trying to appeal to Millennials with socially-conscious ads, but they're a bit late in hopping on that bandwagon.
Conan the Grammarian at January 15, 2019 12:41 PM
A marketing idiot who realizes that his customer base is dying off and the next generation was too small to move the needle, but the generation coming after that one is huge.
Unfortunately, this huge generation doesn't think like the two preceding generations. And the firm doesn't have anyone in power who can speak to that generation, so it just copies the tone of one of the companies that is successful with them. The bosses think that's great because they're from the generation that is dying off; a generation that secretly wanted to mimic its elders, despite how much it mocked them. They don't grok that this new generation is mocking them, but does not secretly want to be like them.
Unfortunately, the final marketing campaign doesn't come off as hip and woke. It comes off as doofus grandpa trying to be cool by wearing Junior's clothes.
That's what scares companies the most. Brands, in the past, could rely on the fact that the kids, when they were finished being kids, would settle down and come back into the fold, developing brand loyalty, aspiring to a consumerist culture, buying a house in the suburbs, having 2.3 children, etc. However, the early Millennials are well into their thirties now and are showing no signs of coming back into the fold.
What's more, the generation following them is trodding the path the Millennials blazed, not the one the Baby Boom blazed.
Conan the Grammarian at January 15, 2019 1:03 PM
"I can respect you if you buy a Merkur safety razor"
Back at ya, although I do keep a cartridge razor around for the TSA to ignore.
Get Woke, Go Broke:
All my P&G products are now isolated on their own little Death Row shelf, to be replaced by the competition as needed.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at January 15, 2019 2:00 PM
Whatever. You and Conan are the experts on my motives. If I ever want to know my motivations behind anything, I'll ask one of you, since you seem to more about them than I do.
I didn't deliberately miss anything. I didn't notice any racial bias, so I went back to look for it. I noticed one of the black guys adding "Boys will be boys." Which is at least one instance of them not following your rule that blacks are made to look good, whites are made to look bad.
You also suggest that the black men are more attractive in this commercial. I went back and looked and I didn't notice that either. But there's no accounting for taste, I guess.
Frankly, it sounds more to me like you're looking for something in this commercial that maligns white people and favors non-whites, and it just isn't there. There were several attractive white men in the "boys will be boys" lineup.
The man who rescued the boy being ganged up on with his young son in tow was reasonably attractive. The "boys will be boys" black man was not. The black man being encouraged to shake hands was overweight, shaped like a pear.
I'm very glad you're on the lookout for racial bias. I didn't see any in this commercial and when I looked for it, I still don't.
Patrick at January 15, 2019 5:23 PM
I haven't watched this commercial, but the reactions to it seem to be a giant snowflake-off between those who think a Mad Ave ad is some great social statement, and those who think a Mad Ave ad is a attack on them.
Both get off on playing the victim. I refuse to be bashed; I refuse to bash.
Me, a razor is just a razor.
Kevin at January 15, 2019 8:34 PM
One of things I've noticed about those who defend this video is that it is completely impossible for them to do it without maligning those who disagree.
Basically, the argument is, if you disagree with this ad, you must identify with the men who act like jerks in this video. I disagree with it, and I promise I don't bully people or catcall.
I disagree with it, because it basically suggests that men are innately terrible and only "some" men act decently, but "some is not enough."
Implicit in "some" is that "most" men are slime.
Patrick at January 15, 2019 10:37 PM
In seeing the discussions on Twitter regarding this ad, I've come to realize why feminists love this ad so much. Because it takes the focus off them.
"We demand men be better! ...while we gain 300 pounds and make no effort whatsoever to make ourselves attractive because men should love us no matter how much we weigh or what we look like because it's only the evil patriarchy with its artificial standards of beauty that maintains that thin is attractive!"
Patrick at January 16, 2019 5:40 AM
FYI - "Dulce et Decorum est" is the title of a Wilfred Owen poem. The title is taken from a line in a poem by the ancient Roman poet, Horace, Ode 3.2 (Valor).
The full Horace line is "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." Loosely translated from the original Latin, it means, "It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country."
Horace's poem was often quoted by supporters of Britain's involvement in World War I. Owen, in his poem, called it "The Old Lie."
Conan the Grammarian at January 16, 2019 9:35 AM
I gotta say Patrick that I see a racial bias in that add. Where are the adult asians and hispanics? ;) I think I saw one Pakistani boy. Hard to tell. But if we are going to go all racial counting we have more options than caucasian and african. And then what about the trans people? Is this trans-phobic? Damned if I can tell. Those people seem to be mad at everyone. So, probably trans-phobic just cause everything is these days.
On a more serious note, I also saw everyone who supported the add calling anyone who criticized an abuser or some such. The one's I saw on the WSJ were almost copy paste of the same thing over and over again. It really looked like astroturf. Made me wonder if P&G was paying to CYA. And then it made me wonder if Harry's was being smart and paying to piss people off about this add, thus hurting P&G even more.
Ben at January 16, 2019 6:34 PM
Meh, it was a long, boring, virtue-signaling ad and I lost interest a quarter of the way through, but I don't think they were saying men are innately bad... I saw it the other way around, men are innately good but there are lot of fucked up messages from the culture. Which I think is true.
I think the media glamourises bad behaviour (in everyone) and there are specific messages targeting different sexes.
That said it was a boring, bland ad.
NicoleK at January 17, 2019 2:05 AM
What NicoleK said.
But I thought it was just a little too melodramatic (such as the shots of men apparently looking into mirrors), and the soapy music could easily have been part of what ticked off a lot of people. Take away the music and who knows?
Also, it DID make it clear that yes, male victims of violence deserve protection and sympathy too. Who'd have expected that?
Maybe if they'd done the whole thing more humorously (as in, the men who step in to help could have made neutral jokes while doing it), people wouldn't be threatening boycotts.
lenona at January 17, 2019 7:53 AM
Ben: I gotta say Patrick...
Stop right there. I don't read your garbage so you're wasting your time responding to me. I really don't care what you think. As far as I'm concerned, you and Conan both are subhuman filth, and my opinion will not change, now or ever, regardless.
Patrick at January 17, 2019 11:48 AM
For someone who says he considers me beneath contempt, you do spend an awful lot of time talking about me and dragging my name, unprovoked, into your posts.
I'm livin' rent-free in your head, dude. And, I gotta say, this place is a dump.
Conan the Grammarian at January 18, 2019 1:14 PM
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