Neither hair, nor there - The one place TV ad makers simply refuse to go
Last week, American shaving brand Billie did something totally cool and totally real. It showed a shaving ad featuring women with actual body hair.
The video starts with the camera panning over a pair of white legs with blonde hair and then the words "hair" flashing in bold on the screen. Then there are a bunch of diverse women embracing, in every sense, every form of their body hair. There's one in white underwear on her bed raising her arms to reveal her black armpit hair. There's another in a bathroom using a blowdryer to dry her underarm hair along with her long mane on the head.
A third tugs at her panties to take a peek at her vaginal hair. And a fourth runs her fingers through the vertical line of hair that marks the centre of her stomach. And then there are close-up shorts of the hair - armpit hair, toe hair, unibrows.
The video is overlaid with intermittent text that says, "Hair. Everyone has it, even women. The world pretends it doesn't exist. But it does. We checked."
Only halfway through the ad does one realise that it's an advertisement for a razor when they see women use it to shave off the hair on the legs, toes, armpits, and thighs.
However, what is most progressive, even endearing, about this commercial is that Billie doesn't force women to use its razors to shave their hair. In fact, it encourages and even celebrates body hair.
The previous text is followed by "So, however, whenever, if ever, you want to shave, we'll be here." There's a girl who's even grooming her armpit hair with a pink comb.
The ad ends with two women side-by-side, one with underarm hair and another without. And then one with pubic hair on her bikini line and one without, basically saying - you are beautiful, with or without hair.
What Billie is doing is actually embracing body hair, even as it tries to sell razors.
Here in India, we have Deepika Padukone with shiny, smooth, hairless skin kickboxing in a Gillette Venus commercial but we don't actually get to see her hair. In fact, if you think of it, body hair on women is entirely missing in Indian television.
In the west, Julia Roberts, Madonna, and Penelope Cruz are among the few women who have not shied away from flaunting body hair. More recently, Rihanna and Cardi B did it.
In India, Bollywood is perhaps the biggest advocator of smooth, hairless, fair skin. We never see women flaunting hair on the hands or legs, let alone in the armpits, or pubic area, or even upper lip. That is only saved for men. Kareena Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Priyanka Chopra, or even the more liberal Swara Bhaskar - nobody seems to be advocating something so natural. And then when women actually want to keep body hair for whatever reason that pleases them, they have shamed for it.
Right when we hit puberty, we see hair at places we're not used to seeing, and we're told to get rid of it. Or we see our friends wax or shave body hair and we join in. It's just the most natural thing to do, no questions asked. And almost always, it starts with the fear of being mocked until we get used to the idea of not seeing hair on our body eventually creating a habit or monthly routine of hair removal. Implicitly, it is never a choice.
None of the hair removal ads in India tell us: "Look, your hair is amazing. Keep it if you want to but if you don't want it, you can use our product." They tell us: "You're a woman. Hair is not meant to be on your body. Here, use our product to remove it!"
Billie took a stand and promoted its product using "realness" rather than promoting aspiration towards an unattainable beauty standard or seeking the approval of men.
Will Veet, Gillette, or Anne French ever come around to showing ads with actual hair? I mean, if you want people to buy your hair removal cream or razor, then the least you can do is show hair, no?