
8 Min Read |
Let’s go back to the early 90s. Do you remember Gillette’s ‘The Best A Man Can Get’ commercials? They were aspirational. Full of images of the chisel-jawed, white, clean shaven ‘normal guy’ — coaching his son in a running race, winning sports competitions, bro-hugging, and receiving adoring attention from women who also met the beauty ideals of the time. The language in the voiceover is all about technology, achievements, and enabling a man to ‘be his best’. When we look at those ads with our 2021 eyes, they’re comical; but in spite of the societal tropes and gender stereotypes, they were sort of revolutionary. Emphasis on the ‘sort of’.
Why? Because in the early 90s, male grooming was…