It goes without saying that due to the work of the American Mustache Institute, Beard Team U.S.A, and other noteworthy organizations, living a life of facial hair is far more acceptable today than it had been just 20 years ago.
AMI research demonstrates that not only are more than 62 percent of U.S. males wearing some sort of beard or mustache, but that living a Mustached American lifestyle has shown to improve good looks by 38 percent. AMI's renowned November 2013 Workplace Mustache Study even found that facial hair is now largely acceptable in the U.S. workplace -- something that was somewhat unthinkable in the 1980s.
Living a sexually dynamic life of facial hair has become so popular, in fact, that most grooming brands -- Wahl Trimmers, Gillette, Phillips Norelco and the like -- have jumped on the bandwagon and found varying ways to be productive cogs in the wheel that is the global facial hair community.
The woebegone Schick shaving brand, however, has decided to take another path altogether -- an utterly hateful and unproductive path through a new advertising campaign which is apparently aimed at deeply offending people of facial hair by insinuating rodents are nesting in their beards.
As noted by DesignYouTrust, Schick is, "...Attempting to convince hipsters to prevent their beloved beards from going feral..." The brand is asking bearded men to post pictures on social media using the #FreeYourSkin hashtag through the lure of cash incentives to remove mustaches and beards.
"Schick's campaign likening men's beards to parasitic vermin is a cheap trick to make money by getting men to scrape their faces and look more like women," said Phil Olsen, the Beard Team U.S.A. captain who is hosting the World Beard & Mustache Championships in Portland on Oct. 25, the first time it's been hosted in the U.S. since 2009. "What masculine appendage will they tell us to cut off next? You want to really free yourself? Grow a beard."
In response, the facial hair community, led by AMI and Beard Team U.S.A., is asking people of facial hair to boycott Schick products and to deliver a simple message on its Facebook page and via Twitter (@SchickXtreme3 #ScrewSchick.
"Would they look the other way if we slapped images of dolphins or hairless cats on their cheeks?" added AMI's Dr. Causgrove. "We're above such buffoonery. Screw Schick."