"You are warmth and wisdom. And grace and guts. No 'ifs' or 'buts,' just 'ands.'"
That is the message behind Gillette Venus' #UseYourAnd campaign. The spot features a diverse group of young women playing sports, reading, laughing and playing music, while another young woman performs spoken word, encouraging women everywhere to break free from the boxes they have been placed in.
"One dimensional labels limit your potential," reads the text at the end of the minute and a half video. "Venus invites women everywhere to #UseYourAnd."
The message behind the campaign is an important one: Women (and men) should work to break down gender-based barriers. After all, it's those stereotypes and labels that encourage a society where women are paid less than men for doing the same work, where women's value is often reduced to their looks, where boys are told to "be a man" no matter the cost and where college sexual assault is a true epidemic.
Yes, labels hurt and limit women. But Gillette loses us a little bit when considering that the spot is ultimately promoting a razor. It's basically saying, Hey ladies! Ditch all those demeaning and limiting labels -- except that body hair stuff. Definitely shave your legs, armpits and any other area of the body deemed necessary by the powers that be.
We appreciate the pseudo-feminist effort, but we'd prefer to #UseOurAnd to lose the one-dimensonal labels AND the faux-empowering aspects of the beauty industry.
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