TORONTO — Photos of actors Jude Law and Elijah Wood and model Tomasz Pastyrczak are being used in a bizarre campaign calling for an end to discrimination against men.
The #DontMancriminate ads use black-and-white images of several different men with their mouths covered and different messages under their faces.
“Even PRODUCTS Discriminate,” reads the message on Law’s mouth. “Short men don’t have HEELS, Ugly men don’t have MAKEUP, Stupid men can’t be BLONDE.”
Wood appears with: “It’s a MAN’S World ‘BULLS***’ I don’t get FREE DRINKS, I don’t get FREE ENTRY, I don’t get SYMPATHY.”
Pastyrczak’s face is covered with the words: “You want GENDER EQUALITY? Take It. “I don’t have to HOLD THE DOOR, I don’t have to HOLD THE BAGS, I don’t have to GIVE MY SEAT.”
On social media, many people are criticizing the unauthorized use of celebrity photos.
“I wonder if Jude Law and Elijah Wood’s images are being used with permission?” wrote one on Facebook.
Another commented: “Pretty sure you will get your a** sued by all the celebrities you illegally used.”
The ads come from Maggcom, a website based in India that has a little more than 100 followers on Twitter and 12,800 “likes” on Facebook.
It’s not clear if the campaign is a parody, a viral publicity stunt or a serious call to action. No one from the website could be contacted.
The #DontMancriminate post is credited to Jahanvi Maheshwari, who wrote: “This is to remind us of the forgotten gender, who, regardless of the situation, are expected to be such gentlemen.”
She added: “When women talk about being put on the same pedestal as men, simultaneously there is an unsaid expectation of chivalry out of them. It is time we realize that they deserve a break from being all heroic and they too suffer a different level of harassment- out of innocence or otherwise. Gender inequality bugs them as much as it bugs women. So, here’s to all the men, who have been the victims of a society that tends to forget the struggles of males.”
Reaction to the campaign on social media is almost entirely negative.
“This is the stupidest most ignorant piece of crap I have ever seen,” one person wrote on Facebook.
Here’s a sample of the reactions on Twitter:
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