A couple of good posts regarding the recent Gillette ad and controversy. First Elihu’s, “Why Good Men Need to Be Valued in Our Society.” Lot’s of good stuff over there. I found the symbolism of some of the ad a bit baffling, like what Elihu referred to as, “barbecue-obsessed.” So is that supposed to be a bad thing?? I really didn’t get that part. You know what’s wrong with our world? Men, cooking meat. Uhh…okay?
As far as I’m concerned, we need more BBQ’s, but that’s just me. 🙂
Nightwind 777 also did a good post tracing back some of the corporate and political players who influenced this ad in a post called, “BEHIND THE SCENES AT GILLETTE.” I too often like to follow the money, to try to get a clearer view of who is orchestrating the social engineering and for what purpose.
The ultimate purpose is to sell razors and make money, but also to shape and control the cultural narrative. It’s that social engineering that tends to concern people and for good reason. It’s a bit disconcerting to realize your thoughts and feelings are being manipulated, you are being herded by the culture around you, being led to embrace a specific mindset.
I guess the way I feel about all that, this kind of stuff has been going on since forever, especially in advertising and politics. There is really nothing new under the sun. I’m somewhat encouraged by the fact that we are beginning to recognize it, resist it even. We are not passive consumers being haplessly spoon fed our very identity. Well, sometimes we kind of are, but I mean, we don’t have to be. We can question the narrative, we can think critically.
Something going on in the back of my mind, I’ve been challenging the stereotypes and narratives about women in advertising since forever, specifically as it relates to sexual abuse and unhealthy perceptions of womanhood. Pornography is the extreme end of that, creating a narrative where human sexuality is now all about dehumanizing and demeaning women, in increasingly violent ways. That’s one problem with porn, it must accelerate to remain edgy.
So the same powers that be, the same advertisers, the same movers and shakers that brought us this cultural storm in the first place, are now creating ads and narratives that suggest the problem is the very nature of men and toxic masculinity? So the same people who broke it all, are now going to fix it all…. by simply blaming men?
I don’t really believe in victim narratives, but in many ways we really are victims of the culture around us, of social mores, dogmas, and trends. We shouldn’t be, but often we are just marinating it in so much and fish who are swimming in the ocean seldom even realize the water is wet.
Photo by Chevanon Photography on Pexels.com
See, there's this thing called biology... 
Remember when Coca Cola wanted to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony? It’s the same story, just a different chapter. J.
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Exactly, Salvageable!
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“I don’t really believe in victim narratives….” 🤔?
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“Victim narratives” in the sense where we are all hapless victims of the greater culture at large and therefore not accountable for our own actions.
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Thanks for the clarification. I completly misinterpreted what you communicated.
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I believe Jed Clampet would say, “Not accountable for our own actions? That don’t make no sense. Ain’t nobody that’s done our actions except us. Ain’t nobody else that CAN be accountable. Them advertising folks can tell us somethin’, but the choice to believe’em, that’s up to us, too.”
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I find it objectionable that a company that had questionable testing processes (animal testing) in the past are going to lecture anyone on their behavior. Harry’s razors, here I come.
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Right?? If we’re going to go full social justice warrior here, what’s with all the animal testing??
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Gillette missed the boat by not employing Penn to sell the deal….. it’s a joke after all right?
Then there are the bearded ladies who they ignored. Sheesh, what’s wrong with their advertising execs?
I foresee lots of men eschewing the shave and growing the beards. I say, be a barbarian and embrace the face clad with wool. lol
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Ha! Well, barbarians it is. 🙂
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I missed the commercial, however, due to my choices in what I consume visually, I didn’t miss the hubbub, which ensued. I prefer reading in places like this that provide hope that there are some who are grounded similarly as I think I might be but courageous and wise enough to admit zero certainties.
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Very good post. Thanks for sharing. I wanted to add to one of your points: Immorality also must accelerate to remain edgy.
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