Stephen Colbert takes issue with Gillette’s ‘woke’ ad about toxic masculinity

Stephen Colbert took aim at both Gillette’s toxic masculinity ad that has gone viral and one of its right-leaning critics on Wednesday’s “The Late Show.”

“There’s controversy in the world of advertising, folks,” the CBS host began. “Gillette is drawing fire for a #MeToo-themed commercial that challenges ‘toxic masculinity.’ Wow, that sounds … cutting edge.”

The enlightened ad debuted earlier this week and recasts the razor company’s “The Best a Man Can Get” slogan, urging the next generation of men to oppose harassing and mistreating women, stop bullying one another and shave off their “toxic masculinity.” Watch it below.

The company’s short film drew both praise from women’s groups and a backlash from men. As Colbert notes, one such man was “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade, who said, “So let’s point out all the bad things you might say about men, put them into an ad, make men feel horrible, and then say, ‘Overpay for a razor.’”

“Wow, he really gets worked up about ads,” Colbert quipped, joking about what Kilmeade’s reaction might be to other directives. “‘Please drink responsibly? Oh, so now I’m not supposed to crash my car into a nursing home, stumble out and puke in the therapy pool? Thanks for the lecture, Mike’s Hard Lemonade!’”

Colbert said he was “sincerely moved” by the Gillette ad, particularly by the boys featured at the end, but still asked: “Are our public institutions so weak that we need to be taught moral lessons by razor companies? Because first it’s Gillette, and the next thing you know, every company is going to try to jump on the woke bandwagon.”

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