Don’t stink of toxic masculinity: Eos urges men to ‘Unmanhandle your face’

Shaving your facial hair is about as incontrovertibly masculine as it gets these days, which is probably why shaving cream has become such an advertising battleground when it comes to definitions of manhood.

New York-based brand Eos has come up with a pretty amusing campaign that pits a regular guy against a toxic Ivy League bro, taking a light-hearted look at the reasons why you might choose Eos. Is it because it has “notes of whiskey with undertones of talking over people”? Or because it gives you 24-hour hydration?

It’s a much more modern and skilful take on the subject than Gillette’s controversial 2019 ad, which replaced the 30 year-old “the best a man can get” tagline with “the best men can be.” The ad came at the height of the #MeToo movement and took a heavy-handed, virtue-signalling approach, lecturing men about how they ought to behave.

Lynx, which for years based its very successful “Lynx effect” campaign on the idea of sex appeal, has foundered slightly in its attempts to move into a less toxic territory.

But this campaign by Mischief @ No Fixed Address, feels very happy in its smooth, hydrated skin.

MAA creative scale: 7