It’s the campaign that sparked significant change last year, even being named the Macquarie Dictionary's 2018 word of the year, and now the ‘Me Too’ era has inspired shaving brand Gillette to take part in the movement.
The 108-second advertisement released this week by Gillette is titled, “We Believe: The Best Men Can Be”, and is a play on the brand’s famous tagline, "the best a man can get", which has been present in its advertising campaigns for 30 years.
The ad starts with voices that sound like newsreaders saying "bullying, the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, toxic masculinity" and asks, "is this the best a man can get?"
It goes on to depict cases of boys bullying each other, men demeaning women in the workplace and women being harassed in the street.
It also shows a number of clips showing degrading depictions of women in cartoons, music videos and sitcoms, as well as a number of clips of newsreaders, many of which appear to have been filmed specifically for the ad, talking about things like the #MeToo movement.
The second half of the ad starts with a clip of actor Terry Crews telling a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing "men need to hold other men accountable" and goes on to show that happening.
The voiceover says some men are already acting to turn things around "but some is not enough, because the boys watching today will be the men of tomorrow".
On its website, Gillette said the "best a man can get" tagline had been an aspirational statement about what men should want in life.
"But turn on the news today and it's easy to believe that men are not at their best," a statement read. "Many find themselves at a crossroads, caught between the past and a new era of masculinity.
Gillette said it would be changing tack in its advertising campaigns and social media content as part of its campaign, which would see it donate $US3 million over three years to non-profit organisations in the United States that were trying to educate boys and men on the issues behind toxic masculinity.
While the campaign is called The Best Men Can Be, Gillette ended the statement by making it clear it would be keeping its 30-year-old trademarked tagline, but with a new meaning.
"Our tagline needs to continue to inspire us all to be better every day, and to help create a new standard for boys to admire and for men to achieve," the statement read.
However, since the video’s release, there has been significant backflash around the advertisement. After going straight to YouTube's trending list, the ad amassed almost 300,000 dislikes inside two days.
Among those criticising the campaign was British commentator Piers Morgan, who said he would possibly stop using Gillette because of the video.
On Good Morning Britain, he said the only people who liked the video were "radical feminists who love it because it portrays men as bad".
