Right now, the socialwebz is chattering about the Gilette commercial where they talk about toxic masculinity.
It's a great message. It's a well produced commercial. This is not about that.
I just feel like I'm taking crazy pills sometimes. Remember
the Pepsi commercial where Kylie Jenner suddenly gets WOKE and ends racism by giving a cop a pepsi?
The whole thing was so cheap and awkward. I actually had a little faith in humanity restored because people rejected the crass attempt to cash in on a social movement. "Why can't we all just get along and enjoy a Pepsi together"
But we forgot about that -- now brands are our moral guardians again.
Just so we're on the same page here:
Bigass companies like Proctor & Gamble have legions of marketers who spend all day dreaming up ways to get regular people to talk about their brand. The easiest way to do it is to associate the brand with a topic people are talking about already. If they pick a controversial topic, they do a fuckload of research to make sure they're on the right side of the wave. At least, with their target audience. Brands aren't going to move the needle, they usually choose the safe side, to minimize blowback. (although the blowback can serve them -- when Chick-Fil-A took a stand against The Gays, people boycotted them, but then there was
Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day.. The company grew by 12% as a result of the controversy)
So, I am not generous with credit when ads sell us feel-good pro-social moral messages. They're not Martin Luther King, they're more like the guy who shows up at the million man march selling T-Shirts.
But all that being said, it's complicated... Because toxic masculinity is an important topic, #MeToo is an important topic, and getting some fresh air around masculinity is a net benefit. We need to be having these talks in cyberspace. We need shitheads to accidentally see a mirror and go "
oh fffffuck".
In my darkest and most cynical moments, I question whether social progress is possible without involving
Consumer Identity. Maybe progress is only possible when it can be sold -- and integrated into your wardrobe.
(the research shows, btw, that gender-role based advertising is
super effective)
Because ultimatley, what moves the needle is "influencers" (like Kylie Jenner for some fucking reason) or Taylor Swift (whose brief dip into political awareness
spiked voter registration). And if we're all just plugged into the knee-jerk machine anyway, then we might as well get something good out of it... so Thanks, Gilette, for getting people talking about your brand (in the context of toxic masculinity). Because it IS time to have a conversation about toxic masculinity
(brought to you by Gilette).
Let's look back at the early Women's Lib movement... The FIRST American PR campaign was about getting more women to smoke--this was accomplished by targeting activist feminists. They tried to get women to call cigarettes "
Torches of Freedom", and create a symbolic link between smoking and independence. They paid women to smoke cigarettes while marching in parades.
In my darkest and most cynical moments, I thank the cigarette industry for women's lib.
