First they burned their Nike trainers. Now conservatives are taking their rage out on razors.
Gillette has been bombarded with footage of angry men throwing away their shavers in response to an advert warning about toxic masculinity.
The campaign, which references the #MeToo movement, workplace sexism and male violence, has been praised by many for its message.
But it has also triggered indignation among some men, who have accused Gillette of “virtue-signalling” and threatened to boycott its products.
In scenes reminiscent of the backlash to a Nike advert featuring Colin Kaepernick last year, angry Gillette customers have been filming themselves throwing away razors and shaving foam in protest.
“We don’t need politics with our shave gel,” tweeted Art Tavana alongside a video of him dropping a bottle of shaving gel into the bin.
Others posted pictures on social media of receipts for razors made by Gillette’s rivals.
“Out with the old, in with the new,” wrote one man.
Another prompted ridicule by tweeting a picture of his razor apparently discarded in the toilet.
“My man here ruining his plumbing because a commercial suggested that maybe he should be nicer,” mocked one Twitter user.
Comedian Tony Posnanski added: “You paid for that razor. You now have to put your hand in the toilet to throw that out. You literally owned yourself.”
Television contrarian Piers Morgan is among the men who have threatened to boycott Gillette over the advert, which he denounced as “virtue-signalling PC guff which may drive me away to a company less eager to fuel the current pathetic global assault on masculinity”.
The campaign plays on the brand’s 30-year tagline, “The best a man can get”, which it replaces with: “The best men can be”. It contrasts footage depicting sexual harassment and violence with images of men intervening to prevent inappriopriate behaviour and fights between boys.
The advert quickly went viral and has been viewed more than 10.7 million times on YouTube in three days.
Bernice King, daughter of civil rights champion Martin Luther King, is among those who have praised the campaign’s message.
“This commercial isn’t anti-male. It’s pro-humanity,” she wrote. “And it demonstrates that character can step up to change conditions.”
