It’s literally the first part of the ad. They show off a bunch of their old types of advertisements, and then repudiate themselves by using their own slogan to say “Is this really the best a man can get?”
Of course they are just a soulless organization. But so is every other organization. Some put out ads with bad messages, that promote bad things. Some, on the other hand, put out good messages. They say the things we want our young people and still deciding people to hear.
Just like the PSAs also put out messages we want people to hear. It doesn’t matter one bit who put them out or why. For all you know, the PSA exists because of a lawsuit, or some law that passed, or to make a politician look better. Many PSAs are privately funded–see the “very special episode” or ads with rich celebrities saying things: they’re just doing it for a paycheck a lot of the time.
And, yes, I am not answering your questions, because I reject your framing. It’s called a frame challenge. If you’ve been on the good boards out there, you’re familiar with the concept.
We reject the framing that this is some multinational soulless company telling us what to do, and that we should be mad about this. It’s a soulless company putting out a good message, and we want there to be more good messages out there.
Why the hell would I be upset if Don Draper put out an anti-smoking ad? As long as it’s not designed to undermine the position, the result is that more people learn the harms of smoking. I don’t care that he smokes a ton a day, or what other evil stuff he does.
It’s not like being evil makes the message wrong. That’s ad hominem.
And I have to realize that, if I get mad at them over this, they’ll stop doing this, and go back to what they did before, putting out the ads that appealed to toxic masculinity, that just as much “told me what to do,” but told me bad things. And told other people them, too.
That’s how capitalism works. Companies do what makes them the most money and helps their brand. If doing the right thing helps, they do that. If doing the wrong thing helps, they do that. So why wouldn’t I encourage them to do the right thing?
If you want to take down capitalism, then that’s a whole other argument, and you’d better have an idea of what to replace it with. Because, right now capitalism is what works.
