Gillette's New Ad Campaign Is Toxic

Does telling someone they're an awful person _ever_ work as a means to motivate them to improve?

Although the new ad campaign may not make good business sense (if you want to continue selling to all people, assholes included) it doesn't make the message any less poignant.

In my experience, most men don't truly understand the meaning of the phrase "boys will be boys", which appears to be central in most people's criticism of the ad. (I certainly didn't understand its meaning for a long time as it's cleverly phrased to seem like a truism.) It should be taken as an insulting excuse, rather than something that should be upheld. It's saying that when a man does something gross, immature, disgusting, insulting, etc. like objectifying women or physically fighting to solve their differences or bullying those who are different than themselves, that's just the way men are and there's nothing that can be done about it. All men act like barbarians. That's what "boys will be boys" means. It's saying that no man is able to control or overcome their basest instincts.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I find "boys will be boys" to be undefendable.