In Brazil, underwear campaigns have always reinforced toxic masculinity by promoting harmful ideas, expectations and beliefs about what it means to be a man and how a ‘real man’ should behave. How all of it impact negatively both men and women in our society is still not discussed by the media or the population. In a country where brands have been boycotted for using their voice to promote progressive mindsets, most companies became too afraid to approach subjects that can be considered polemic. Brazilian advertising has been suffering from this issue for the last couple of years and as a result campaigns haven been lacking authenticity and any sort of social meaning.

Mash deleted all content from our social media channels and asked for help setting the standard for what the campaign approach would be. People who suffer from and work hard against gender inequality came together to create a once-in-a-lifetime campaign. Mash gave a voice to models, specialists and ordinary men and women, for the first time ever they were in charge and chose to display diverse kinds of masculinity as way to start redefining what the word really meant.

Mash reboot its social networks and left a message: Sorry. Underwear under deconstruction.

In the next couple a days, we began telling a story about vulnerability by releasing content from all the discussions that led us to the campaign creation. Finally we presented cast that didn't fit the traditional male roles to the world. They starred a video with the message: Picture yourself in a underwear ad. Which was a parody of every underwear ad you have ever seen. And another one where they dance in underwear revealing that hat not all men have six-packs. Or are sexy when they are wet. Some suck at sports or can't fix a car. In the end, 6 videos and over 100 pictures helped us engaging the whole country in this conversation for more than 30 days.

By displaying diverse kinds of masculinity we started a nationwide conversation about what the word really means. Some of Brazil's biggest newspapers, magazines and even artists joined the discussion. Over 63 million people were impacted resulting in more than US$1,2 million in earned media. Our two videos combined had 16 million video views. The campaign became a massive hit and helped us proving that acting like a man is just feeling comfortable about being who you are.

In order to disrupt the category and create a social meaningful conversation, Mash felt it was time to break gender stereotypes for good. But such a bold move required an equally bold and unique approach: it was time to talk to men and start giving new meaning to the word masculinity. But how can a a brand start redefining what such an historically oppressive word meant? We didn't know how to. And that's exactly what became our strategy insight. Honesty became our main approach so we did the one thing brands are most afraid of: admitting they didn't have the answer.

Men's underwear ads haven't change a bit in the course of decades. In 2018, they seem more out of place than ever. They are not only ridiculous, but also dangerous since for decades these campaigns helped reinforce toxic masculinity in an already sexist country such as Brazil. Mash, a 50-year-old underwear brand was struggling to reinvent itself and adapt to the current times. It was the perfect occasion to break gender stereotypes for good and reposition the brand. The challenge was how to evolve to a new mindset gaining a new audience while maintaining Mash's old traditional fans.