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18th Oct 2018

Kleenex are rebranding their ‘Mansize’ tissues following sexism complaints

Paul Moore

Kleenex

A household stalwart is changing.

Tissue maker Kleenex is to rebrand its ‘Mansize’ boxes, after the company received a complaint that the name is sexist.

Kleenex For Men tissues were launched in 1956 and the company has taken this decision after various complaints were made on social media.

The boxes will now be labelled as ‘Extra Large’ instead.

As described in their product description, Kleenex Mansize Tissues were created because “sometimes we need a little softness with our strength. Kleenex Mansize is comfortingly soft and strong so you can be confident it won’t let you down.”

When queried on Twitter if this brand was specific to men, the company replied by saying: “this extra-large, strong and gentle tissue is not just for men. Kleenex Mansize tissue is ideal for everyone.”

In a statement given to The Telegraph, a spokesman for Kleenex’s parent company, Kimberly-Clark, has said that the firm was aiming to provide “a consistent increase of complaints on gender concern”.

It states: “Kimberly-Clark in no way suggests that being both soft and strong is an exclusively masculine trait, nor do we believe that the Mansize branding suggests or endorses gender inequality.

Nevertheless, as we remain committed to developing the best possible products for our consumers and take any feedback extremely seriously, we decided to renovate our current product and update the product subbrand as Kleenex Extra Large.”

This being said, changes have now been introduced and some people have queried this decision.

For example, a Twitter user stated that: “You do realise you don’t need to be a baby to use Baby Wipes? Or to be Irish to drink Irish Whisky?”

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