Before I get started, full disclosure: I haven't shaved or depilated anything in nine years and I just don't come in contact with much advertising. (It's amazing what you miss when you fast-forward through commercials and don't buy mainstream magazines.)
That being said, I am appalled by Nair's new ad campaign.
So you're at an age when the childhood fuzz is becoming thicker and coarser hair. It's time to give some serious thought to removing it. But you'll soon see, getting smooth, silky skin with Nair® depilatories is simple and a fun way to treat yourself right!
(Emphasis added.)
Nair is marketing Nair Pretty to girls between the ages of ten and fifteen. The advertisements can be found in magazines such as CosmoGirl, Seventeen and Redbook. Why Redbook? So mothers of girls in the target age group can buy this product for their daughters, of course.
How wrong is this? If someone wants to remove her/his body hair that's one thing and there's certainly nothing wrong with it. It's something completely different to suggest that women must remove all hair the moment it stops being "childhood fuzz." Going through Nair's site it's obvious that "treating yourself right" means conforming to someone else's standard's of beauty. I think it's worth mentioning that in this instance the someone else stands to make money if young women do indeed conform.
What stands out to me is that nowhere on their site is keeping your body hair listed as an option. It is assumed that young women will remove their hair one way or another but preferably with Nair's product. In other words, women do not have the option to enjoy their bodies as they come but must put time, effort and cash into making their bodies meet someone else's standards. While the current trend is toward hair removal and much of the media portrays hairlessness as highly attractive, I didn't realize women no longer had any other options.
At the message boards I see lots of people trying to figure out how to accept themselves and their bodies. A lot of the teens that come here have questions about what's normal and what other people find attractive. What we try to do is encourage everyone to love themselves as is, without forcing themselves into stereotypes or trends. Nair has chosen to target people who are just beginning that process and instead of offering one option among many, they present female body hair as unnatural and unattractive -- something to be dealt with as soon as possible. Apparently it's all too easy to forget (or just plain ignore) that hair is perfectly natural and the most attractive people are usually the ones who feel comfortable with their bodies.