You're ALWAYS Being Sold

Deconstructing the ‘Bro. Not cool. Not cool.’ vignette in Gillette’s ‘We Believe in the Best in Men’ ad campaign

08/2/2019 Update: Gillette CEO: $8 billion loss is 'price worth paying' over #MeToo campaign

Gillette’s new ‘We Believe in the Best in Men’ ad campaign uses the toxic masculinity meme as a backdrop. 

The ad itself is being interpreted as toxic.  Procter and Gamble (P&G) is Gillette’s parent company.

The one minute and forty-nine seconds advertisement has several voice-overed, sucrose-infused vignettes in its rhetorical foray into #MeToo movement.

The ‘Bro. Not cool. Not cool.’ vignette, found one minute into the ad, is particularly deserving of criticism for its tropeish, critical thinking deficient, Madison-Avenue-Woke advocacy.

It starts with the narration urging men to “...To say the right thing, to act the right way…” as an attractive, young woman is walking by several store-fronts and individuals.

As she passes by one of the store-fronts, a young man leaning against a doorway notices her, verbalizes a low, moan suggesting that a deep evolutionary desire has been ‘triggered’ and simultaneously starts moving in the lady’s direction; smitten with her attractiveness.

Shortly after, a second man exits the store-front and intercepts the first man’s move towards the young lady.  He urges the smitten man to not pursue the young lady; physically blocking him and  admonishes him with “Bro. Not cool. Not cool.”

All advertisements are an invitation to use one’s imagination and intellect to interpret the messages in the ads.  It’s the utility of the hole, not the advertised cordless-drill, which an ad wants you to envision.  With 'Best in Men', P&G digs itself a hole of hypocrisy and trips right into it.

A bit of critical thinking leads one to question the very premise of this vignette.

Was the attractive lady made more attractive by washing her hair with P&G’s Pantene shampoo?  A Pantene survey found that 74% of men indicated that they notice women because of their hair.  Thanks to P&G, ladies now know that strong hair is beautiful hair. 

Or was the young man lured to her by a male-enticing scent in the P&G deodorant she put on that morning?  We may never know. It’s a Secret. 

It may have been natural evolution in the young lady’s genetic ‘makeup’ that engendered such a reaction in the young man; or maybe another makeup as P&G's Olay marketers would have women believe. 

And why is it “Not cool.” to assume the young lady would reject the young man’s overtures?  He may be wearing P&G’s Old Spice aftershave.  Women really like it. It’s “able to give a man all the qualities a woman is seeking”.

Considering the billions spent over the decades in advertising personal care products that P&G claims make individuals more attractive to the opposite sex, the "Bro. Not cool. Not cool" social justice warrior may have stopped a match made in advertising heaven.

True ‘personal care’ should be taken when ‘consuming’ advertisement.  You’re ALWAYS being sold.