Advertising relies heavily on establishing a need for a product in order to generate any sales. Some ads will target a basic desire, toting their product as the best way to fulfill that desire. Others, however, attack the insecurities of consumers to convince them that the product will alleviate their anxieties. A 2012 Australian advertisement for Proactiv falls decidedly into the latter category, latching onto the perceived worries of adolescent girls to promote its product. Additionally, Proactiv’s ad relies on gendered stereotypes and a heavy dose of compulsory heterosexuality to give itself context and weight, resulting in an ad that does more harm than good. Part of the harm that comes from this ad is its reliance on stereotypical dichotomies…show more content… The language used produces a sense that the ultimate desire for an adolescent girl is to have a boyfriend, and that the chief obstacle is acne, a physical flaw. Proactiv implies that girls viewing the ad who do not have a boyfriend are single by their own faults alone, rather than by chance or choice. The inability to excuse flaws can lead girls to go to great lengths to hide their imperfections. Sometimes that means buying from a brand like Proactiv even as it demeans them. Sometimes it means holding themselves to high standards, generating even more anxiety for every failure they experience while upholding their perfect façade. Human beings are flawed creatures, though, and the end result of such struggles to maintain perfection is only further anxiety over every small mistake made along the way. In her collection of essays titled Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay says, “When feminism falls short of our expectations, we decide the problem is with feminism rather than with the flawed people who act in the name of the movement,” and just as feminism is held to high standards, so are women and girls of all ages. (Gay
