The Making of 'Max Hate' and Confronting the Manosphere Head-On

Guess who's pulling the strings

(This campaign contains triggering themes and images.)

Each year, we partner with White Ribbon, an organization dedicated to ending gender-based violence. We look at the cultural landscape and ask ourselves: Where is the biggest need? For example, in 2023, we saw the rise of transphobia, so we created “Short Life Stories.” A year later, the film is more relevant than ever, especially given what’s happening in the U.S., and with a potential next Canadian prime minister, Pierre Poilievre, saying things like, “I am only aware of two genders.”

This year, our focus turned to a growing, insidious force: the manosphere. The term “manosphere” is only now becoming more generally known, but its influence has been spreading unchecked across social platforms for years. It’s a space dominated by misogynistic rhetoric, where young boys are targeted, manipulated and ultimately groomed into hateful ideologies. Across platforms like YouTube, Reddit, X and in chat rooms, influencers are creating content designed to exploit young men’s insecurities and turn them against women. And it’s working.

To understand the scale of the problem, we conducted a national survey. What we found was staggering: 83 percent of Canadians—including 82 percent of parents of boys—were unfamiliar with the manosphere. Meanwhile, 7 in 10 Canadians expressed concern about the effects of hateful online content on children, particularly its impact on male-female relationships.

The Creative Approach: A Voice Just as Loud

White Ribbon’s work has always been intense. But this year, the manosphere had become even more amplified. We needed to counter it with an equally powerful voice.

There’s an aggression to manosphere content that is so dark and relentless that ignoring it simply isn’t an option. We knew our approach had to be just as loud, just as in-your-face and just as real as the content flooding young boys’ social feeds. So, we created “Max Hate” to do exactly that.

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The campaign functions in two ways. First, the main three-minute film is aimed at parents—those who may not fully understand what their sons are absorbing through their handsets tablets. Who are these influencers? What ideologies are they exposing young boys to? Many parents worry about online content, but this isn’t just entertainment—it’s manipulative, carefully crafted messaging designed to deceive, recruit and radicalize.

The second part of our campaign focuses on young boys. We created six TikTok films to expose the tactics used against them—the tricks, the traps and the language designed to ensnare them. The goal was to show them how they were being exploited and how to break free from the cycle.

The Puppet: A Metaphor for Manipulation

A puppet is the perfect metaphor for how young boys are being manipulated—tricked into becoming mouthpieces for misogynistic hate. It also allowed us to amalgamate many of the manosphere’s voices into a single, sinister character. In production, we painstakingly crafted a puppet that could emote all the disturbing elements we witnessed in our research.

Directing this campaign was Angie Bird, who also helmed “Short Life Stories.” Angie has a gift for mixing nuance, tension and empathy. She understands that no young boy sets out to become the person depicted in our final scene. But the manosphere is designed to pull them in, step by step, post by post, until they’re radicalized. We needed someone who could tell that transformation story, and we knew Angie was the one to do it.

The Takeaway: Combating Hate With Awareness

The manosphere isn’t going away—it’s evolving, growing and embedding itself deeper into digital spaces. Parents need to be aware. Young boys need to be equipped with the tools to resist manipulation. And as a society, we need to counter this narrative before it takes even deeper root.

With “Max Hate,” we’re taking a stand. Not with fear, but with knowledge. Not with silence, but with open dialogue. And that’s exactly what’s happening. The campaign is receiving a fantastic organic response on TikTok and Instagram. Over 2 million views of the lead film, 36,000 shares and 180,000 likes and comments—almost all positive.

I wish I could say this was the end of the battle. But it’s just the beginning.