Well, this made me tear up.
“Boys will be boys”? Isn’t it time we stopped excusing bad behavior? Re-think and take action by joining us at https://t.co/giHuGDEvlT. #TheBestMenCanBe pic.twitter.com/hhBL1XjFVo
— Gillette (@Gillette) January 14, 2019
At the website, this is pretty amazing.
Thirty years ago, we launched our The Best A Man Can Get tagline.
Since then, it has been an aspirational statement, reflecting standards that many men strive to achieve.
But turn on the news today and it’s easy to believe that men are not at their best. Many find themselves at a crossroads, caught between the past and a new era of masculinity. While it is clear that changes are needed, where and how we can start to effect that change is less obvious for many. And when the changes needed seem so monumental, it can feel daunting to begin. So, let’s do it together.
It’s time we acknowledge that brands, like ours, play a role in influencing culture. And as a company that encourages men to be their best, we have a responsibility to make sure we are promoting positive, attainable, inclusive and healthy versions of what it means to be a man. With that in mind, we have spent the last few months taking a hard look at our past and coming communication and reflecting on the types of men and behaviors we want to celebrate. We’re inviting all men along this journey with us – to strive to be better, to make us better, and to help each other be better.
From today on, we pledge to actively challenge the stereotypes and expectations of what it means to be a man everywhere you see Gillette. In the ads we run, the images we publish to social media, the words we choose, and so much more.
As part of The Best Men Can Be campaign, Gillette is committing to donate $1 million per year for the next three years to non-profit organizations executing programs in the United States designed to inspire, educate and help men of all ages achieve their personal “best” and become role models for the next generation.
Our tagline needs to continue to inspire us all to be better every day, and to help create a new standard for boys to admire and for men to achieve… Because the boys of today are the men of tomorrow.
We’ve all got work to do. And it starts today.
Also, too – an article about the American Psychological Association’s Guidlines for Psychological Practice with Boys And Men.
Open thread!
Baud
This makes me want to start using Gillette to shave my nether regions.
JPL
Wow! Not only tears but chills. I just sent it to my son and his wife who’s expecting their first boy in two weeks.
AxelFoley
@Baud:
Baud! Gillette! 2020!
Mike in DC
#BoycottGillette trending in 3…2…1…
#TriggeredManbabies
Brachiator
I made the mistake of looking at some of the comments. Deplorables on parade.
Despite this l think it a great ad which will be applauded by most decent folks.
trollhattan
Powerful. Setting aside my marketing cynic hat for the moment. Will see if I can get the household high-schooler to watch and issue her opinion.
trollhattan
@Baud:
Isn’t that near Belgium?
Rand Careaga
Don’t get off the boat, though. The Youtube comments are…discouraging.
Kay
Oh, good. Men should try to be better. TRY, is all I said. Make an effort.
I love this for some reason- her calm tone?
It would be difficult for media to turn her into a conniving she-devil, don’t you think?
trollhattan
Whispering something I had assumed from the get-go.
They have desired to break government since Reagan, and this is why country club Republicans put up with Trump. He’s able to damage what they hate.
Baud
@JPL: Congrats!
@Kay: No.
trollhattan
@Kay:
Define “difficult.” They do love themselves a challenge and she’s an attractive target, being a girl and all.
Mike in DC
@trollhattan: Crashing the economy to own the libs. Not sure how great of a political strategy that is.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: The low countries…
Cheryl Rofer
Yes, the comments are awful, although a lot seem to be not real people.
Speaking of which, call your elected representatives. There is a big calling campaign in favor of The Wall. I have heard that calls are running 3 to 1 in favor of the wall to New Mexico’s delegation.
Yutsano
Wow. I might go back to using Gillette products again.
In other news: Someone needs to get Drumpf a new white hood for his collection. He is so incapable of subtlety. 63 million Americans are getting more side-eye.
Baud
@Mike in DC:
It’s designed to buck up their support among their base. It’s not a political strategy.
Kay
@trollhattan:
It’s bullshit though. I’m hearing more and more complaints here in rural, conservative, legal-land They need shit from the federal government- tax transcripts, special student loan problems that have to go thru the IRS, crop insurance subsidies, USDA loans. If I’m hearing about it here just multiply that by a million in urban areas.
The low quality Trump hires are clueless. They don’t live in the real world. An awful lot of transactions require one or another document or record from the federal government. It’ll be an angry din in another two weeks.
Next time we should hire some normal people who have actually held jobs and such to run the federal government.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@trollhattan: Sooner or later they are inconvenienced by a part of government that affects them personally. Then suddenly it’s “I didn’t mean that agency was wasteful. Just all the others.”
I’ve never understood this part of the conservative mindset, that they seem literally unable to imagine or care about the effects of anything on any human who isn’t themselves.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Thank you for grounding the conversation in reality. Something that I really appreciate.
Yutsano
@Kay:
Wait until returns won’t start processing on the 28th. The attempt to recall employees doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere right now. And now that I found out my new boss was a mob lawyer, him getting pantsed here is perfectly fine by me.
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
I think I read somewhere that Barr and Mueller are close friends from way back. But I agree that it remains to be seen what Barr will do as a Trump appointee.
Baud
I hear the wingnuts are going to counter this ad with a #MenBeBest campaign of their own.
West of the Rockies
@Mike in DC:
Ayeeee! Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin and co. will tell us males will be born without boy parts if this keeps up!
unrelatedwaffle
I’m glad they’re making the effort and normalizing the language and all, but $1 million a year is pretty sad, considering the company is valued at $17.1 BILLION. That’s 0.006%. That’s the equivalent of me throwing $60 at a nonprofit per year.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
So I’m dealing with a crime scene and playing Suburban Fauna Medical Examiner. Every once in awhile I get a glimpse that the burbs are not a quiet peaceful place for the critters. Today’s mystery: who died here?
I went out with the dog and surprised a hawk sitting on the ground just a few feet away in the backyard. He looked at me and took to the air, carrying something. But it happened too fast for me to make out any details. Going over to the spot, I see a 3 foot radius of disturbed snow and tufts of brown and white striped something. I’m hoping it wasn’t a cat. One of our neighbors thinks she lost her cat to a hawk a few years ago.
Anyway, I keep going around the loop: “those are feathers. Surely those are feathers. But I don’t recall seeing a bird with that coloring around here. But surely those are feathers. But I don’t recall…” Finally I take some closeups, show them to the wife, and she agrees they are definitely feathers. So not a cat.
Then who? We’re now leaning toward owl, though I’ve only once seen one of those in the time we’ve lived here, and the crime happened at 4 pm in full daylight.
It’s a jungle out there, jackals. Keep your small animals close.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@trollhattan: $5 billion says it’s fucking Jared.
Chip Daniels
@trollhattan:
Anyone who speaks this way has no idea what they are talking about.
Really, this isn’t a revelation of some Deep Conspiracy by a smoking man in a shadowy garage.
The notion that most of what government does is unnecessary frills is the sort of thing that is said only by the drunk at the end of the bar, or an internet commenter. This statement is the sort of thing that a clueless hack says to make himself sound like a Macchiavellian mastermind.
Frankensteinbeck
@trollhattan:
Got it. This was written by Kushner, because nobody else would be so boneheaded as to try that idiot line. It’s exactly his style of spouting a theory he doesn’t understand without paying the slightest attention to the actual reality going on around him. Plus, he thinks it will make everyone think Trump is doing a great job. This isn’t about an actual plan to cut down the government. It’s about optics from the perspective of a smug, sheltered dufus who never looks past the inside of his own head.
Kay
@Yutsano:
One of the ladies at the courthouse asked me if I knew if she was getting her tax refund. I do know, a little, because I read a news story that they’re doing some workaround but I am pissed at all these complaining Trump voters, so I thought “i’m not reassuring her”. Maybe she should read some news.
I don’t care if they don’t get their refunds on time. We have tens of thousands of people working for NO PAY. I’m triaging my concern and Trump voters don’t make the cut.
They made a bad hire. They hired a dumb, petty bully who then hired low quality people. There are consequences for that.
H.E.Wolf
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Bob Altemeyer, a Canadian scientist who’s spent decades studying that topic, has a website with interesting information:
http://www.theauthoritarians.org
geg6
Andrew Sullivan threw a hissy fit over that APA thing on Friday. His hatred and fear of women dripped from every word.
Cheryl Rofer
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: The most likely in a suburban setting is that it was a Cooper’s hawk. They love bird feeders, but their idea of the food at them is different than ours. They can take birds up to about pigeon size. I’ve had one that figured out it could drive mourning doves into the area around my front door, which resulted in occasional loud thumps.
Chip Daniels
@Kay:
Somebody over at LGM was listing some of the shit that is going to grind to a halt, and it is mostly stuff that ordinarily hums along in the background, yet is vital to making the wheels of commerce turn.
Stuff like weights and measures, certifications, licensing, processing of payments and so forth.
The takeaway is that almost ever single product has somewhere in its pipeline, a crossing point with the federal and or state bureacracy. Literally, the entire economy will grind to a halt without the federal government doing what it does.
debbie
@trollhattan:
That smacks of Stephen Miller.
debbie
@JPL:
Congratulations to you and your family!
Kay
@Amir Khalid:
I think she’s a good questioner because she’s low key. That’s an approach and it’s often effective. Not everyone can do it. You need bombthrowers but you also need people like her. I always envy them because I tend to get riled up- it’s temperament. I admire their self-control.
Elizabelle
Is that Idris in the first frame? Because you had me at Idris.
And I love how the ad touched on bullying of other males.
Adam L Silverman
@Kay: Here’s one: if you have a small business and you contract with the Federal government, even if you receive a contract award from the parts that aren’t in shutdown, the contract can’t be finalized until the Small Business Administration does routine paperwork that certifies that you are, indeed, a small business. The Small Business Administration is currently shut down.
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck:
All the furloughed employees have been replaced by Jared.
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: Your knew boss is Michael Cohen?
Adam L Silverman
@West of the Rockies:
We generally just refer to them as girls.
smintheus
@unrelatedwaffle: Marketing gimmick.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Kay:
You know the old chestnut:
Republicans campaign in every election on the premise that government don’t work then get elected to prove it.
debbie
@Cheryl Rofer:
I’ve seen them kill birds and then carry them to a safe distance before eating them. There was one in a tree outside my second floor window once. I raised the window blind, and there he was at my eye level. He stared back at me with a very hateful look in his eye, but remained until he finished off his meal.
debbie
That’s a great ad. I hope they aren’t intimiated into not running it during the Super Bowl.
pat
@Chip Daniels:
Hey, maybe we can finally drown the whole thing in the bathtub!!
////snark in case it isn’t obvious\\
zhena gogolia
@smintheus:
So what, at least it’s putting goodness into the atmosphere instead of the noxious fumes that the regime and its cronies are emitting.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Gotta not too novel theory that gooper empathy lies shriveled and dormant in their penurious souls till their ox gets gored whereupon it magically springs forth in Randian rainbows and moonbeams of congratulatory selfish recognition.
Xecky Gilchrist
The over/under for the number of times the word “cuck” is used in any one YouTube comment about this: 16.5
Plato
Another Scott
Good video. Thanks. I wonder if Gillette plans to cut their ads for the NFL… ;-)
In other news, Reuters:
Treasury is run by Steven Mnuchin – the
oligarchfinancier.Of course they’re taking the sanctions off their Russian buddies – that’s what they were elected and appointed to do.
But Donnie has never worked for Russia, no sir-ee.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
B.B.A.
I guess it went over better than my proposed campaign of “All masculinity is toxic! Put estrogen in the water supply!”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@trollhattan:
You mean the painfully obvious underling message “you aren’t a REAL man if you don’t shave with our cheesy product”?
West of the Rockies
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
I rarely say this sort of thing, but I would not be heart-broken if he died badly… Maybe a colonoscopy gone terribly, terribly wrong.
Elizabelle
This was fun. I put this link from the Urban Dictionary on a friend’s FB post. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Backpfeifengesicht
For backpfeifengesicht. A face that deserves slapping. And it was marvelous to see whose popped up as the illustration with the link.
J R in WV
I haven’t shaved my whole face since getting out of boot camp, during which (or shortly afterwards, long ago and far away now) CNO Adm Zumwalt announced a change to regs allowing beards on Navy personnel, as that was compatible with historical Navy traditions.
Had to be neat and well kept, not too long and bushy, and if you were on a fire control team, well, be careful. But haven’t shaved as such since 1970.
Still a male, with all necessary parts. So Gillette can’t sway me much. And as others have said, one million dollars is a tiny drop in the bucket for a big outfit like Gillette. Very tiny drop!!!
West of the Rockies
@Adam L Silverman:
Okay, I was trying to avoid the word “testicles”. I was trying to be delicate, dammit!
trollhattan
@debbie:
Did he do the wing thing where they cover their meal? Fascinating critters, hawks, etc.
Neighbors across the street found one in the backyard dead, still clutching a pigeon. Had broken its neck on something in the process of catching it. Bad day in birdland.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
I can hear that cowboy now: “Tayud.”
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Yeah. I don’t get the focus on their budget. That might be relevant if they were trying to use these ads to excuse some bad thing they did. But positive ads are positive ads, regardless of how much they cost.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Cheryl Rofer: Yeah but who was the victim? That’s what I’ve bern puzzling over. Light brown and white striped feathers.
@debbie: There was almost no blood. I think he might have been about to eat it, but after I showed up decided to find a more private spot.
debbie
@trollhattan:
I think he forgot to do that! He was really ticked off at my intrusion. I don’t speak bird, but I knew what his eyes were saying.
debbie
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Could he have lost a few of his own in the scuffle?
Ruckus
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
You have heard of narcissism haven’t you?
While shit for brains may be an obvious and massive example, there are many degrees of narcissism and one doesn’t have to be a NYC real estate loser to play the game. And republicans have played the game of propaganda against anyone not fully in their field for my entire life. They are an exclusive club, we are an inclusive one.
Martin
Well, that’s explains it.
I shaved this morning with a Gillette razor and my dick fell off – first time that’s ever happened. I blame Belichick and Brady.
Another Scott
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Fish and Wildlife Service has a bird feather atlas. Maybe a bobwhite?
Just a guess.
Occasionally I’ve seen a disturbed area in the yard with just a few feathers remaining. I figure a fox or an owl or maybe a bald eagle grabbed a mourning dove. Almost nothing is left, making it seem like the bird was carried off somewhere else.
HTH a little. Good luck.
Cheers,
Scott.
AThornton
debbie:
Raptors routinely steal food from each other. It’s called kleptoparasitism. So when a person surprises or approaches a feeding hawk they automatically go into protection/threat mode.
debbie
Boy, when you’ve lost Rasmussen…
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Martin: A song for the occasion.
Slightly NSFW.
trollhattan
Attn: US Pacific time zoners. Sunday’s eclipse schedule.
Pacific Time
Partial umbral eclipse begins: 7:34 p.m. (January 20, 2019)
Total lunar eclipse begins: 8:41 p.m. (January 20, 2019)
Greatest eclipse: 9:12 p.m. (January 20, 2019)
Total lunar eclipse ends: 9:43 p.m. (January 20, 2019)
Partial umbral eclipse ends: 10:51 p.m. (January 20, 2019)
Our forecast is chance of showers but they’ve got a few days to fix that. The rest of you lot can see your region here.
Kay
We all have trouble admitting we were wrong, yet we do it. They need to. Trump is terrible for farmers. That’s just a fact and they all know it by now. Huge shocker, right? They hired an idiot NY reality tv star and come to find out he knows nothing about agribusiness.
They all knew they were more dependent on the federal government than those in many other industries and sectors, yet they hired the blowhard, bigmouth moron. Now they have to pay for that error.
Jay
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
You need to go CSI-ish.
First, identify the feathers. Tail feathers, wing feathers, back or breast?
Once the feathers are identified, you can guesstimate the size of the victim.
So, from that, you can use size and colouration, along with a local “perp” binder, ( bird guide) to pick out likely suspects.
Ruckus
@Kay:
Another good point.
This is probably the only way they will even have a moment of doubt about the millions of people who they think are taking advantage of the government, something that they never do….. It will take putting them on the spot for their decisions. It isn’t “the government” making this decision, it is the person they hired to be in charge. But then it must be difficult for them to make a good choice, they keep chasing away anyone who would be qualified, only looking for the worst humans to be their leaders. They seemed to have found exactly what they’ve been looking for, the worst, biggest loser with a desire to break, steal, and cheat them out of everything.
WaterGirl
@Martin: Martin, is that really you? You seem different today. Maybe just the excitement of your youngest becoming an adult today?
chris
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Got pics? Ask your local birdwatching forum or natural history museum.
Mandalay
From the comments section of an article about Rand Paul going to Canada for surgery, here’s an excellent summary on how the Canadian healthcare system works:
Ruckus
@Mandalay:
The VA takes it one step further and hires the staff to do the actual health care work. If a doc wants a test or an operation, it’s ordered. Of course one has to wait in line, according to actual need, but in the end everyone gets the care. But of course this is the US so there are copays for some and limits on income for others. No matter what they told you when you signed the contract.
cynthia ackerman
Coming from an advertising background, the Gillette ad is a glass half full.
I would have at least put Brett Kavadouche in prominently.
poleaxedbyboatwork
Feel free to scroll past if you already know all about ravens, just a coupla amateur impressions from a fan of same follow:
Where I live, ravens are common as blackbirds, and bald eagles only slightly less so. It’s fascinating watching how they interact with each other. Sometimes there’ll be a group of 3 or 4 ravens ganging up onna eagle inna aerial duel; not sure why, always suspected it’sa territorial get-off-my-lawn reax.
Ravens are incredibly intelligent, playful as fuck, gotta mean streak at times and always precociously (or irritatngly, viewpoint depending) YogiBearing food stores offa boats. Very indiscriminate omnivorous messy eaters. Saw a raven struttin about with a full-sized kosher dill lodged deep innits beak once — chest swollen and rakish grin, it looked self-satisfied like a Wall Street tycoon. When they’re doin their mating dance-flight, they swoop and dive and purl and glide and tumble and spin, generally facing e/o, wingtips touching.
And they make the coolest sounds (wiiiiide variety: caws, clicks, mews, whistles, glooooks, sound like water dripping) and are skilled mimics. But the one call they make that always delights me to hear is one that’s sorta like a continuous undulating trilling of the sound the friend (Cameron?) in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off makes by modulating and flicking the air bubble in his throat.
Done a quick visual survey of the harbor: 3 eagles, 4 ravens and one seagull perched atop masts/trolling polls. One’s my roomate for the time being — raven perched about 65 feet up atop one of my masts, unconcernedly and placidly shitting on my furled staysail. The fucker.
Curio you may know: Murder of crows, course, but ravens? An unkindness. Or a conspiracy.
Ravens strut about like Saturday Night Fever guy (sometimes think that when I watch ’em:”You can tellll by the way I use my walk …”) and also hop like a frog, specially when interactin with e/o, and, much like a wary cat cooly regards a stranger, they know just how much distance to afford so’s to maintain their cool (unflappable — better show myself the door soon) languor w/o moving. Unlike most critters, ravens’ll fly *toward* gunfire (hoping for a gutpile at the end of the rainbow).
Purty remarkable birds.
p.s. Not sure whose post it were, but if you were contemplating an owl as the victim, would be very surprised (admit I mighta misunderstood). Owls is purty bad-ass (can heft a lotta weight for their size, silent, deadly, etc.), and inna fight with a hawk, would wager onna owl. Was onna cross-countries motorcycle trip when I was a kid, and when payphones still existed, pulled up to one abutting a stand of pines at o’dark-thirty somewheres in Manitoba if mem’ry serves and hadda snowy owl spread its wings over my head in (silent) flight into the inky black.
Edmund dantes
So is Gillette going to drop Dr. Direspect (he’s a twitch streamer they recently teamed with) persona guy?
Not sure he’s a “best a man can be” unless he’s toned down the character a ton since he’s gotten the deal.
jc
Re: Gillette – it’s just unfortunate that we need to have our consumer product producers explaining these things to us. That’s supposed to be the role of the public leaders of our government, who are supposed to be moral leaders who represent the best of our country.
Ladyraxterinok
@Rand Careaga: Truly bizarre that pointing out some negative attitudes and actions of men is viewed as attempting to emasculate men.
Seems there are many men and women who believe that to be a real man you must be a bully and think you have a right to touch women, treat them as you wish and ignore the rights to autonomy of women and all those weaker than you.
And they accuse the ad and its supporters of the worst thing they can imagine– supporters are SJWs–social justice warriors!! Worse than anything else in the world!
They truly believe equality will destroy civilization! Guess Steve King didn’t get the right memo!!
Frank McCormick
Funny how many folks seem to think “toxic masculinity” means all masculinity is toxic.
Mike Toreno
@Brachiator: Not despite that. Partly because of it. They knew they would alienate a lot of customers, and they don’t want that kind of customer.
Barney
Leading the Gillette ‘backlash’ – Piers Moron.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/15/gillette-metoo-ad-on-toxic-masculinity-cuts-deep-with-mens-rights-activists
He’s in company with “far-right magazine The New American”, and Infowars’ Paul Joseph Watson. It really is time ITV sacked him. He should be just one of those guys wondering if he’s about to get booted from social media for being too much of an arsehole.
Doug!
I was going to break my radio silence to write about this because I had a great title IMHO: “The shaving razor’s cold and it stings.”