It’s safe to say every company wants their online ads to go viral, but not quite like this.
This weekend, the online menswear shop Jacamo earned the scorn of the Internet for the ill-advised ad above — #RealManRunway — due to its rather hapless and misguided concept.
Related: WATCH: Subway Goes For The Gay-Panic Approach With New Pepperoni Ad
A campaign to find the face of their Autumn/Winter line features a broody male model next to a so-called “real man,” and features the caption: “Real men have balls, not man bags.”
Unsurprisingly, the Twitter minions wasted no time in decrying the ad as “homophobic” and rife with “toxic masculinity,” as well as playing into “old-fashioned stereotypes,” as Attitude reports.
Real men have balls, not man bags ??
We've launched #RealManRunway to find the face for AW17. Tweet to enter! https://t.co/AWC0rfiF77 pic.twitter.com/QFNPFWh8d6
— Jacamo (@Jacamo) October 29, 2016
#Fail . Do better @Jacamo – this is offensive. https://t.co/k2B86cyh6u
— Omar Sharif Jr. (@OmarSharifJr) October 30, 2016
@DCHomos @Jacamo ……or men who dont have balls because they’re trans? Thanks from us trans gay dudes ?
— ?h3t3r0ph0bIc? (@tinyyaoihands) October 30, 2016
@Jacamo Your PR team are almost as outdated as your chinos.
— James Dylan Edge (@JDEdge) October 29, 2016
. @Jacamo disgusted to think that a company that is all about equality with bigger sizes would be so homophobic.
— Georgie Aldous (@georgiealdous) October 30, 2016
@DCHomos @Jacamo ……or men who dont have balls because they’re trans? Thanks from us trans gay dudes ?
— ?h3t3r0ph0bIc? (@tinyyaoihands) October 30, 2016
.@Jacamo BUT YOU SELL MAN BAGS! pic.twitter.com/7GnMMbYsrX
— Matt (@mattjholding) October 30, 2016
RIGay
I am a real man, with balls… and a man bag. What’s the issue?
Baba Booey Fafa Fooey
I love how these organizations include every f!cking group in their apology. “I want to apologize to every race, gender, religion, sexual orientation…” and sexual orientation is way down the list. Lol. These people are a-holes and should just shut up.
Hank
then to the Jacomo, men bring soccer balls to work.
Atomicrob
If not homophobic, certainly heterocentric . . .
SeijnSei
Entitlement issues.
Darsithis
My god, it’s amazing how many people get offended over the stupidest things these day. It’s just an ad. If you don’t like their product and demographic, shop elsewhere. If you do, chuckle over it and do as you do.
oaksong
@ Darsithis Really? This went out to the world. I’m not big on political correctness, but this is just short of bullying.
Kenny Jimno
I get what the message is here. It’s like when you go to a New Community and they have a Model home with all the upgrades.
Realistically your house won’t look like the Model home and if you decided to buy one you will see what your house really looks like.
But both houses are real it’s just that one is an exaggeration of what you might get? Here to hoping to look like that Model.
azani64
This is not homophobic but it is offensive. Who is to say what a “real man” is?
azani64
@Darsithis: good advice. point taken.
He BGB
Not so much homophobic but that dated idea that puts pressure on men to be something without emotions, without taste, without, well, you get it. Sonething our fathers and grandfathers were trying to achieve that history shows why men die earlier than women.
DMRX
@Darsithis: Did you miss the screenshot showing that they actually sell man bags? The company attacked its own demographic.
Read the whole article before you comment, so that you don’t look so much like an idiot.
startenout
Not buying into homophobia unless you yourself are filling in the blank that the model is gay. It is offensive, however, to insinuate that there is only one way to be a “real” man.
AtlasRich
It’s not offensive nor homophobic. It’s not good sales promo either.
captainburrito
Men who use manbags likely spend several times more on clothing than those real men… way to go in targetting a low spending demographic. lol
Granny Spoth
Why am I not able to comment?
dwes09
@Kenny Jimno: “It’s like when you go to a New Community and they have a Model home with all the upgrades.”
Were it not for the text of the ad, that might have been the perceived message. But the text of the ad makes it clearly an attack on the “fey” nature of fashion. it is amusing that the company actually promotes the fey image they disparage (as noted they have quite the selection of “man bags”: but “real men” find both man bags and balls potentially a source of pleasure).
dwes09
I find it amusing that neither of the models and neither of the sweaters they are modeling are particularly attractive. Bad ad, silly message that wanders into bad taste and self parody seemingly unaware.
oldman57
I’m 6’2″ 230lbs………what these young men do is inspire me to keep healthy and fit…….I’ve been in the fashion world as a model and as retail manager……I’ve learned to use the ads etc. as advice, suggestions, ideas and with creativity I morph the looks enhance to my body and style…….I’ll never be like that again, just because of normal wear and tear and life in general. but I can look up to date and on trend. Stop whining. Lets face it we have become so much a fashion victim to these ads. etc. and we assign blame for what we can’t be to inanimate objects. Use common sense and inspire, admire yourselves……..do the best you can. and honestly if there was one man that had love handles or fat anything the same individuals that complain about the models now would complain about them as well……..you can satisfy the world……..so they go for the obvious what sells….use your resources and personal taste and create your own look with what’s out there…..stand proud and with confidence and trust me you’ll turn heads……..we’re all handsome and beautiful all we have to do is work on it…..just like everything else in our lives………love yourself and stop hating what you can’t be…….be you!
oldman57
@azani64: WORD!
oldman57
@Darsithis: PREACH! On target!!!
charlie_jackpot
I’ve seen gay dating sites advertise themselves as being able to meet ‘real men’. This advert is lazy but sometimes look closer to home for your outrage
Bryguyf69
I don’t understand the controversy. Why is this homophobic or even offensive? At the very worst, it’s mildly transphobic, since most F-to-M transsexuals don’t have testes. But even then, they’re using “balls” metaphorically, as in “courage” — and not anatomically. The soccer (?) ball provides a visual pun.
As for the man bag, I don’t know a single gay (or straight) man who has one. I’ve only seen them in the media, i.e. on Magic Johnson’s very flamboyant gay son. Indeed, I’ve seen them carried by more rich European executives than gay-identified men. So I’m not sure what that has to do with gays.
Finally, the model is, in fact, not “real.” Models have makeup, ideal lighting, unnatural poses and expressions, and flexed muscles. Even models don’t look like models in non-professional settings. I live in SoHo in NYC where I’ve seen top models outside of work. In fact, two my my ex-neighbors are models (I know they modeled because I’ve gotten their Wilhemina mail by mistake)) and I have friends who modeled. Sure, they’re attractive, but you wouldn’t know they’re models. So yeah, the model is not being “real,” and the guy on the right is more real.
So unless you think that gay men don’t have testes, courage or play sports with balls, where’s the homophobia??? How is homosexuality even involved?
Josh447
Prefect controversial ad. They just know how to make money. Kudos to the very astute marketing director.
dean089
Seems like this is attacking “metrosexuals” rather than gays. Just because we suck dick doesn’t mean we have to stop being MEN.
Captain Obvious
It’s strange that they’re claiming to be “real men” but acting like big babies.
miserylovedme24
Well, the “real man” is more attractive.
CarlIsle
It isn’t homophobic. It’s just stupid.
SAasianboi
I’m not worried about the fact that’s its homophobic I’m more worried about the fact that the ad is so effing boring! its so predictable!
KentonF
It’s just a dumb variation on the, unfortunately far too common, No True Scotsman Fallacy. Screw these people.
Layla Miller
The Paranoia Switch by Martha Stout (amazon.com)
Ten Behavioral Characteristics of Fear Brokers
1. Fear brokers speak to us of fear, dangerous people and frightening situations
2. Fear brokers are not limited by facts; they use alarming “unfacts”
3. Fear brokers tend to accuse those who disagree with them of being unpatriotic or naïve
4. Feat brokers look good
5. Fear brokers behave like archetypal parents
6. Fear brokers shame us over sex
7. Fear brokers praise us for being moral and heroic, contradicting as it is
8. Fear brokers project personal infallibility
9. Fear brokers are secretive, and are certain that other people too, are keeping dangerous secrets
10. Fear brokers use language that pulls for primitive affect
ErikO
No it’s not being homophobic. The other man always could be bisexual or gay.
jheryn
As others above have said, I don’t find it homophobic at all.
I do find it stupid that they are trying to say what a real man is and what he looks like.
Masc Pride
Anyone who would claim this is homophobic is incredibly insecure and has clearly forgotten what REAL homophobia actually entails. Gay men play with balls too. How many guys — gay or straight — actually carry manbags? As already mentioned, this is more of a jab at metrosexuals (straight, bi or gay).
Xzamilloh
This is a gimmick to sell a product… the end. However you take it, that’s on you.
Darsithis
@oaksong:
How is this bullying?
Chris
Given how the gay community is going all ga-ga over hairy men, I sort of thought that the full dressed, non-model guy was meant to portray today’s ideal gay man. And the other one was the heretofore unattainable ideal who many gay men now deride. ….. I guess it’s all in the eye of the beholder, no?
Stilinski26
we have all have balls…..
pudman56
@RIGay: I honestly don’t know or care enough to get my undies in a bind over this. I’m more concerned about the lack of integrity of the American citizen when it comes to voting. However, the guy with the bag is kind of hot. The guy with the ball is not.