As Colin Kaepernick did for Nike last year, without a doubt the most polarising ad of 2019 has been Gillette’s “We Believe” spot released last week that delved into the issues of toxic masculinity.
Now, hot on the heels of Gillette’s efforts, a US luxury watch brand has unveiled its own campaign that heaps praise on men and outlines the challenges many men face.
Egard Watch Company has just released the social media campaign titled “What is a man?” and it is deliberately at odds with the themes of Gillette’s spot while arguing, “It’s time for society to start celebrating each other. Not tearing each other down.”
Check out the ad below:
Commenting on the ad, Egard CEO Ilan Srulovicz (who also performs the ad’s voiceover) told a Fox news program on Monday that he believed the Gillette ad was part of “a movement in society I feel that’s just been painting men with a broad brush”.
“You can look at what Gillette did, which is take the minority, the worst men, and say, ‘Okay some men aren’t like this.’ But some is not enough,” Egard said. “To me, it’s not some men. It’s the overwhelming majority of men who are not like that.”
Yesterday, B&T published a column by controversial columnist Robert Strohfeldt that caused a bit of a stir with readers.
The piece, titled “What is toxic masculinity anyway?” claimed we’d been bombarded by a “tsunami of PC flotsam and jetsam has washed away fact and logical thinking” when it came to issues surrounding modern men.
“One day, you may need a real man, but there will be none left. They will have been neutered by society gone crazy. Thanks, Gillette, for your contribution,” Strohfeldt wrote.
