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WATCH: Gillette’s new ad targeting toxic masculinity has divided opinion

Published 10:48 15 Jan 2019 GMT

Alan Loughnane
WATCH: Gillette’s new ad targeting toxic masculinity has divided opinion

Homefitness & health

"The best men can be."

Gillette has released a new advert which addresses bullying, the #MeToo movement and toxic masculinity and it has sparked a heated debate online.

The company's short film, called Believe, replaces their famous tagline 'The best a man can get', with 'The best men can be'. The ad has been viewed over 2.5 million times on YouTube since it was uploaded on Monday and has been shared widely on social media. "Is this the best a man can get?" a voice asks, as men of different ages are shown looking at their reflections in the mirror.
The ad then moves on to scenes depicting bullying, cyber bullying, sexual harassment and mansplaining, with the narrator stating: "It's been going on far too long." The video then shows scenes of fathers stepping in to stop situations like the above, and taking steps to teach their sons that it's not OK to behave in this way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koPmuEyP3a0 Clip via Gillette Of course, the advert has drawn both praise and criticism online, with some praising the relevance of the ad in highlighting toxic masculinity. https://twitter.com/joabaldwin/status/1084926116421357568 https://twitter.com/SonnyBunch/status/1084943461713936385 Others, meanwhile, including Piers Morgan, have criticised Gillette and some have called for a boycott of their products. https://twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/1084891133757587456 https://twitter.com/ary31574363/status/1085011524354097152 https://twitter.com/MongoAggression/status/1084948065906118656 At the time of writing, the video has 26k likes and 225k dislikes on YouTube.

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WATCH: Gillette's new ad targeting toxic masculinity has divided opinion