Imagine Gillette running an advert asking minorities to not commit crime, then imagine the storm of criticism which would ensue. Now you will understand the backlash to this advert: conservative men feel that men are an oppressed minority in society.
Also, part of why the Gillette ad is "okay" is because the message is crafted so as to be a pep talk that's happening within the group (i.e., "
we have to work hard to be better than the worst among us and also transcend the caricatures"). The situation you mention, asking minorities not to commit crime, is
obviously very different, but honestly... there's probably a way to make it work at least on some level. Gillette might not be the brand to send that message, because the "we" wouldn't really intuitively represent racialized men... but put up a big-name black athlete or something? It could work. It really depends on whether the spokesperson is looking too much like a condescending or artificial mouthpiece representing dominant white corporate interests. Maybe... Gillette's "we" works because there's no disputing that corporate culture is still very much crafted by men.
