Men use men’s soap; Wild Stone pushes gendered rules

The time of the metrosexual may be over. The age of the man appears to be back if one goes by the latest commercial for Wild Stone soaps.

Ashutosh is asked to greet his relatives, including a dozing grandfather. As the boy leans in for blessings, the old man stirs and begins sniffing his grandson’s arms. The fragrance recalls that of his late wife. His daughter-in-law insists that it is only Ashutosh, her son.

The grandfather brushes her aside. Who better than him, he argues, to know how his wife once smelled. He embraces the boy. At this moment a voiceover intrudes: “Lady’s soap suits only the ladies. You use a men’s soap. Wild Stone.”

The narrative is effective, but the closing line feels misplaced. There is nothing wrong with a man using soap marketed to women. The suggestion implies an old-fashioned view of masculinity, one in which concern for hygiene or appearance is seen as unmanly. It revives a tired notion that men must rigidly separate themselves from anything associated with women.

The thought is not new. More than a decade ago, Emami’s Fair and Handsome told men to stop borrowing fairness creams from women. Shah Rukh Khan, then one of the most metrosexual actors of his time, was its champion. The current work feels like a rerun of that idea.

The ad is the work of Moonshot, an independent agency that has built a reputation for stunts that shock and amuse. It persuaded Bollywood stars to audition for a CRED commercial. It recruited Johnny Sins, an American porn actor, to appear in a soap opera pastiche for Boldcare, a sexual wellness brand. These efforts grabbed attention.

Déjà Vu? Mokobara’s Diljit ad draws parallels with Carlton campaign

Yet the agency sometimes overreaches. Earlier this year, its work for Mokobara, a luggage firm, was called out for resembling a Carlton ad from over a decade ago. Wild Stone now suffers from a similar problem. The story is touching, but the attempt to reassert old gender lines through soap is clumsy and tired.