New Heights for misogyny in advertisements!

Recently my attention was drawn to a particular advertisement doing the rounds of Indian TV. Clean and Dry Intimate Wash is a product aimed at women (who, of course, have to be fair to attract our attention!) and is intended for use in the peri-vaginal area (assuming the figure shown in the ad is an accurate representation) to make the said area “Fresh and Fair”. The ad in question, like other ads for beauty products shows how much of a difference using the product makes to the attention paid to the woman by her husband, who presumably hadn’t been able to consummate the marriage till then since the poor woman’s brown vagina must have given him a “derection” (thanks Barney!) double quick.

The ad has rightly raised a storm and condemnation has flown swift and thick from all quarters. I don’t even know where to start tearing this ad apart, its tasteless portrayal of women, of marriage, of men, its implied racism and colour prejudice, or its utterly shallow portrayal of human relationships.

Women over the world, your vaginas are now in focus! Make sure they are “Clean and Dry” ™ at all times or you will never get to be “intimate” with any human at all! Men of course, have decided they wanted the brightest “sheath” for their “light sabre” as it were. Your marriages and non-marriage relationships depend on the fairness of your pubic area. Brown is, of course, an unwanted shade as the ad clearly shows, the whole area must be shining white like the untrodden snows of the Antarctic. It isn’t enough for you to bleach your entire face and arms and pluck unsightly hair from all over your body, to pour hot wax on your armpits and rip out the few straggling strands left behind by the razor and to dress in uncomfortable garments to please your partner, no, he (she too?) demands a glowing mons veneris too!

I wonder how long it will be before the admen realize that kinkier people want a butt brightener too?

And I thought facial fairness cream ads were tasteless and demeaning! Imagine reducing an entire human being to the colour of her genital region!