Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Blog 30 - Wednesday, January 23, 2019

The following Gillette Ad has sparked much criticism.

https://youtu.be/koPmuEyP3a0

What are your thoughts on this advertisement?
Why do you think people are criticizing it so much?
Should it be banned?

Explain.

Image result for gillette meme

38 comments:

  1. I have strong distaste for this advertisement. It is a very bad advertisement that does not encourage anyone to buy Gillette in fact quite the opposite. You don't need to look further than the like to dislike ration to see this. Its message is simply "Men are bad get better" which is downright insulting. They clearly have no respect for the topic and are just trying to be seen better by the media. I feel that the criticism is well deserved as we need to make sure other companies don't do the same thing. Though I do not think it should be banned I think that that the criticism and the loss in sales will send a clear enough message to Gillette that what they did hear was in poor taste.

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    1. I see where you are coming from, great blog

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. Thank you for your input @Keva Misata

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  2. I personally do not see anything wrong with this advertisement. I see how it is a little more scandalous but it is pretty harmless. I think this company is just trying to make a joke so you can remember them and give them your business, and if it really really offends you than I think that you need to calm down a little bit and understand that they are just making a joke.

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    1. You really supported you opinion well and I enjoyed reading your blog! Keep up the good work!

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    2. I also think that this is harmless, although if company makes an ad like this and uses a different slogan I don't think they consider their ad to be a joke.

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    3. same its not mean or anything

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  3. After watching the ad I understand why people are angry and that is because Gillette is basically saying that the majority men and boys are mean and that they should and can be better. I don't care at all about the ad not even the message because guys can be mean. How ever in terms advertisement it is pretty dumb because, one they are barely advertising their product, two they are just calling their consumers mean people which is not at a good idea and finally the message the ad is conveying is a bit too serious for a topic.

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    1. I agree for a company thats supposed to be selling their products they did a pretty terrible job. Great blog

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    2. I see where you are going at I mean I feel like mostly it is about a sexist problem only the men solved the problems.

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    3. I agree that Gillette did a bad job with the commercial, great blog

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  4. After watching and understanding the concept of the ad, I can understand the people’s point of view behind the controversy in this ad because the whole message of this ad are that men are terrible people and they need to get better. I find that it is true that guys can be mean but not all of them are. And also the fact that they are advertising this for the whole world to see , they will probably lose a lot of money

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    1. well they are getting a lot of hate, the youtube video has 1.2 million dislikes.

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  5. First of all, this is terrible advertisement, it's none of Gilette's business to get into political, sexist, bullying and sexual harassment topics. This video is the definition of toxic masculinity, boys don't need to be emotionless or violent. They say they believe in the best in men but clearly, that is a false statement. This ad paints men to be sexist, bullies, sexually harassers, mean and aggressive, which is wrong in all of its entirety. You cannot just assume who your consumers are especially when you make them out to be terrible people. Hopefully, this ad will send a clear message to Gilette to change their views on men and how to make a proper ad.

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  6. honestly at this point who cares, theres so many crazy things going on why bother criticizing anything we see on tv, it's all just them trying to make money. I don't see this as a diss to men because it's true but at the same time maybe letting "boys be boys" isn't such a bad thing because it's true boys will be boys and girls will be girls

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  7. I feel like the political conversation and other problems like sexist and bullying or sexual harassment events. I mean the commercial is for a shaving razor brand I feel like it is weird for it to touch on those topics, but it is a good thing kind of (I wrote with hesitation) I mean it is showing how people should be more like the people at the end and put a stop to all of this. I mean why only men women can do the same thing. I mean there is no point of banning it but just next time keep it more on the topic of a shaving razor.

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  8. I feel that this ad shouldnt be banned. They have every right to state what they believe. But there is so much going on in the world that we need to focus on but somehow we manage to fall into a certain trap. WHO CARES. honestly, im a guy and I wasn't offended. The message weren't targeted at anyone. It was simply a commercial wanting to make a statement. We have people dying everyday and we do nothing about it. We have a commercial talking about a movement and its like everyone goes crazy. I didn't get why there wasent any shaving in the commercial.

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  9. I think that this commercial is being very misconstrued. At first I even had to search up what the controversy was in the first place. The men who made to ad weren't trying to identify that men are bad. They were just saying that it is us good men's job to prevent what some men are doing. I' not saying this because I am biased in anyway with more women friends. I'm not. I actually felt empowered when watching this video. Because I recognized that this add is targeted towards average men and how it is their job to stop those bad en from continuing what they're doing. Think of it, with the number of people in our class is is certain that there are men who have or are going to put us in bad light. And we need to stop those people. It is actually telling us to stand up for who men really are and to not let these few people to mess up our reputation. We as men are not sexist or overly aggressive, we don't catcall and we don't rape. Now what Gillette is telling us is to stop being the bystander and help ourselves reputation out. Because men are truly good people.

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  10. I watched this commercial several times and I didn't see a real problem with it. I found that the whole commercial was just demonstrating what's going on in the world right now. I could see how this advertisement was controversial since it did mention a lot of things about sexual harassment. Even though we hear a lot of stories and things on the news about men harassing women, it's not every man that does it. I didn't see a true problem in the video and I find that it doesn't have anything to do with the company at all. At the end of the day who cares, it happens that a company put out a bad advertisement just like the Pepsi commercial with Kendall Jenner.

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    1. Nice blog Sierra! Valid points:)

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  11. I had to watch this ad 2 times to understand it, but I don't personally see anything wrong with it. I find that this video is just advertising stereotypes, and that no way shape or form that it wants to get people to buy Gillette. Sexual harassment, cat-calling, bullying, sexism, all these things are happening in our world, right now, but I just don't see how this ad has anything to do with Gillette. But who cares you know? No one is doing anything about it.

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    1. I strongly agree with your statements. Well done Kirsten!

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  12. I do not find anything wrong in this commercial. I personally think Gillete actually sparked this debate on purpose= free advertisement. I am not 100% sure why people are mad at this commercial. I think it shows how much our society has changed from past years. I don't think there are many solid reasons for this commercial to be banned. Therefore, I DO NO THINK it should be banned.

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  13. Ok, I can see where people are getting a little bit angry. While I like the message behind this commercial, there are some serious screwed up things.
    First of all, this is clearly only pointing the finger at men. What about the times a woman has screwed over a man? Here is little known example. A guitarist named Jake E. Lee once joined Ozzy Osbourne's band and began touring with him. While recording the only two albums he did with him, he was constantly abused by Ozzy's manager, Sharon. Jake worked tirelessly around the clock, and in the end, got nothing out of. He did not even get any royalties from songwriting credits. After two albums and two world tours, he was fired in the end, not because he did something wrong, but because he was simply asking for his cut in songwriting credits. Is this not a clear example of abuse? Sharon possibly screwed up Jake's career.
    Second of all, the fact that boy's are rough housing at a young age is completely normal. There have even been studies proving this. I had not long ago seen on the news that a school would be allowing minor roughhousing on school grounds. If minor fighting gets bloody, yes break it up, but if they are just wrestling, who knows, maybe they are enjoying it and just playing.
    Gillette is a shaving company, not some some non-profit awareness organization. They should stick to what they do best: selling razors. This is clearly propaganda just to get better business, while it is just doing the opposite. If you are going to do something like this again, GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT.

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    1. I completely agree that this commercial is pointing the finger at men. Its not right at all and I loved that you had a real life example to back up your argument. You said rough housing was normal among young boys, and I would like to add to that. It is normal around young children of all genders and, as you said, is nothing to be afraid of. Great blog Panagis, keep up the great work!

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  14. Having watched this advertisement a few times, I didn’t particularly love it. I understand that, for some reason, they’re trying to look like the good guys and get on the whole “woke” bandwagon, but this was just ridiculous. They were just outright categorizing men as monsters, and women as helpless little things. Sexual harassment being a heavy subject and all, I really don’t get why this shaving company felt the need to show us how society is. Yes, there are some men like this in the world, but clustering them all into this category of pigs is just demonizing their customers. I think that the reason why people are criticizing this ad so much is because either they felt offended by it, or they found that this company was just trying to ‘profit off of feminism’. I don’t think this ad should get banned, but I hope that all the backlash will make this company and others rethink their publicity strategy.

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  15. Personally, I’ve seen this ad twice, and I don’t understand it. I don’t think it should be banned if anything. But I really don’t have an opinion on it. Yes they were a little dumb, but I don’t understand why people are freaking out. If it bothers you don’t watch it. If you like it then watch it. Thats why I think. Yes maybe they should have promoted their product in a different way. But this is a bit too much controversy.

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    1. I totally understand where you're coming from, great blog!

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  16. I have mixed feelings about this commercial. For one, I think its great that a message is being spread across that its not a joke and that men should treat women with respect. BUT I feel that this commercial is generalizing men, which I can understand is the reason for a lot of criticism. Not all men are vile and crude people, but respectable members of society. The other thing I don't like about this commercial is that the message seems to be directly targeted at men. I know that for the most part, a sexist comment or regard was probably made by a man, but a woman can make the same regard. This message should be directed to everyone because no one should ever treat another individual with any disrespect. I think most of the criticism came from men being generalized in this commercial. I honestly don't know whether or not it should be banned, but I do think tv should avoid this ad. Banning it might not be a horrible idea.

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    1. Great points mentioned in this blog. I appreciate their efforts to spread awareness about these issues but I don't think it was done properly. Great blog!

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  17. I am genuinely confused after watching this commercial. What does Gillette razors have to do with sexual assault/harassment victims in a workplace and toxic masculinity. Sexual assault is a a very controversial issue in our society today. It is unacceptable. Many women today have built up the courage to share their stories and seek the justice they deserve. I understand Gillette is trying to spread awareness and bring attestation to these issues but I don't see how it relates to the purchase of a razor. The slogan they say in the commercial is "The Best a Man can Get". I think this is the main reason why people are criticizing it so much. Personally I don't know how to interpret the slogan. It is very misleading. Also the fact that they are portraying the purchase of a razor as a dramatic change in men is also misleading. I can see why people have been criticizing it but I am truly confused about the whole thing.

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  18. I believe that this advertisement no matter it's meaning was a horrible mistake on the part of Gillette. An important part of of selling a product is empowering your consumers and making them feel special, instead Gillette has gone and chastised all men who are their principle consumers and claiming that they know best. This will alienate many consumers which I believe is going to reduce Gillette profits. This might be a great ad to sell to a women or to an activist group. However to the average man it seems like they are being accused of something they didn't do. Not a single man who is doing anything wrong will see this, wake up and decide to be a better person. The only thing Gillette is doing is shooting themselves in the foot.

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    1. I completely agree with your blog, great job!

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  19. I think that in general the message portrayed is an okay massage but not for the company and not for what they are selling... I to believe that has been a bad choice on behalf of Gillette for sort of "attacking" their primary consumers. I think that this advertisement should be taken off, but the message itself should be used for other advertisements or just any other domain. At the end of the day this message is a good one, just not something Gillette should be broadcasting. I definitely think that people criticize it because this add because, or at least from my point of view, it just doesn't make sense for a razor company to show adds like these...

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