Gillette’s new ad urging men to be “the best a man can be” immediately succeeded in justifying its own existence.

If so many prominent adult men could be so triggered by the very suggestion that their gender might want to shave off some less desirable traits, well, obviously there’s some room for improvement.

That @Gillette ad is about the worst thing I’ve ever seen. It’s a leftist fantasy of negative stereotypes not just about men, but about white men. In the ad, 43 males exhibit "undesirable" behavior. 42 white, 1 black. 7 males exhibit "desirable" behavior, 5 black, 2 white. — John Cardillo (@johncardillo) January 15, 2019

I've used @Gillette razors my entire adult life but this absurd virtue-signalling PC guff may drive me away to a company less eager to fuel the current pathetic global assault on masculinity.

Let boys be damn boys.

Let men be damn men. https://t.co/Hm66OD5lA4 — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 14, 2019

Dear Gillette, – I am not toxic

– The amazing men in my life are not toxic

– Masculinity is not toxic The staggering number of 'dislikes' to this video suggest most people agree with me. Now kindly fuck off into insolvency.@Gillette @ProcterGamble https://t.co/oRlY168Ak1 — Peter Lloyd (@Suffragentleman) January 14, 2019

Just a couple days (and over 13 million views) after the ad’s debut, Gillette has received loads of acclaim and been accused of everything from perpetuating a war against men to donning a cloak of wokeness in order to cash in on the progressive air of our current cultural climate. However, just because the ad has provoked a divisive reaction doesn’t mean it was designed merely to generate brand awareness through chaos.

“We weren’t trying to court controversy,” says Gillette brand director Pankaj Bhalla. “We were just trying to upgrade the selling line that we’ve held for 30 years–the Best a Man Can Get–and make it relevant. I don’t think our intention was to have controversy just for the sake of controversy.”