proactiv hopes young women are anything but
A Proactiv ad.
By Derrick Clements
Here’s a disturbing way to capitalize on the insecurities of teenagers:
A Proactiv ad.
See this sadly real ad in context here. Pretty despicable for a number of reasons:
- It encourages young people to continue to be uncomfortable in their own skin (literally).
- It reinforces the notion that a woman’s value is tied to her physical appearance.
- It has phrase which would be wrong in any context, but has absolutely nothing to do with acne or medicine: “Just ask your boyfriend what to do.”
- It motivates through shame.
So let’s be proactive! What would a less offensive ad for an acne medicine look like? Download this blanked version of the image and submit your own version at youngmormonfeminists at gmail dot com! We’ll post your best suggestions and send our ideas to Proactiv so they can see there’s a better way to do things.
Got a respectable caption for this ad?
Or just write your new caption for the ad in the comments below. Or, just switch over to a different company for your acne treatment.
Young Mormon Feminists 
4 Responses to “proactiv hopes young women are anything but”
Wow, I’m so disgusted by this ad that the LAST thing I want to do is offer free suggestions to their obviously struggling marketing team, but I’m trying to be constructive. How about something empowering, like:
“You study hard for your grades. You work hard at your job. You train hard in your sport. You practice hard for your art. You’ve already got it down in the rest of your life–now take charge of your skin. Its time to be Proactiv.”
What’s really weird about this to me is that I remember that the first Proactiv commercials were advertised to both genders. Such is the way of skin products, I guess—they’ll start drifting exclusively toward women and then it gets nasty.
I like the idea of Emily’s suggestion, but it would probably need to much shorter. Something like “Grades, work, sports, and band practice: you’ve got it all under control. Now take control of your skin. Be Proactiv.”
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