The new Gillette ad really caused a stir recently.

Recently (January 2019) the giant shaving equipment manufacturer Gillette released a ‘short film’ called ‘We Believe: The Best Men Can Be’.

It was essentially an advertisement for the Gillette brand. But it also laid claim to being a moral statement from a company with a conscience. It was Gillette’s attempt to come across as a corporation with a big heart.

#MeToo Pros and Cons

Gillette’s ad comes on the tail end of a 15 month period in which the #MeToo movement made a big stir and gained a monumental, society-changing amount of traction.

The #MeToo movement was, in many respects, very positive and served an important purpose. It enabled many women to come out about having been the victims of sexual misconduct. It also resulted in many men who had behaved very badly being outed and punished.

However, a criticism of the movement that lowered its credibility in the eyes of some people was it’s blunt, binary, tarring-everyone-with-the-same-brush tone.

#MeToo Losing Credibility?

The fact that Louis CK’s masturbatory shenanigans and Harvey Weinstein’s darkly manipulative, threatening, arm-twisting got both men similar treatment from many #MeToo-ers has resulted in lost credibility for the movement.

Some of the more extreme promoters of #MeToo appear to have a clearly anti-male worldview. These people essentially believe that all male-behaviour, especially when related to chatting-up and seducing women, is evil and must be stamped out.

For many people, the movement has gone too far and become too shrill. It has lost the support of millions of people around the world.

Human Sex Differences Are a Fact of Biology

Most people are intrinsically aware that sex differences are a fundamental fact of human biology. And that it is deeply ingrained in human nature for men to initiate contact with women in an attempt to court them, and for women to attempt to maximise their attractiveness in the hope of being courted by the most attractive men.

When #MeToo seemed to argue that any come-on by a male was a form of sexual assault, people began to take many claims that the movement made with a pinch of salt.  

The New Gillette Ad – We Believe: The Best Men Can Be

Gillette joined the party late, making its big leap onto the bandwagon 15 months after the #MeToo movement began.

The new Gillette ad – We Believe: The Best Men Can Be has gone viral since its release. But not in a good way.

The ad has been derided in many quarters as a cynical attempt to gain attention and to paint Gillette as a corporation with big moral ideals. Most people see the ad as a clumsy PR stunt gone wrong.

The fundamental message of the ad is that men have not been behaving as well as they should, and not living as ‘the best men can be’. Men have been falling back on the old trope of “boys will be boys” to excuse their own, and other men’s, bad behaviour. Men have been living out crude masculine stereotypes such as excusing bullying and hitting on women.