HAIR REMOVAL BRAND Veet has sparked a social media backlash with its new advertising campaign in the US.
Why? Well, the point of the adverts is that if you don’t have completely hairless legs, you are a man.
With the tagline “Don’t Risk Dudeness”, the ads show a baffled (and totally hairless) boyfriend waking up in bed with a bearded bear-man with a woman’s voice.
The bear then apologises for only having shaved the day before:
The campaign has already sparked anger on Twitter, where many users have pointed out that, um, all adults have hair, whatever gender they are:
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The backlash has also spread to Facebook, where one woman writes angrily:
This commercial is incredibly offensive. For a company geared towards women you should be ashamed of yourself for sending out such a sexist message.
While the top comment is currently this one:
Dear Veet, As a guy who likes to spend time with and have relationships with women who don’t hate their bodies, or feel the unhappy desire to be something they aren’t, let me add my voice to this. You’ve made a really bad choice with this campaign.
A number of people have been tweeting their concerns to Veet’s parent company, Reckitt Benckiser. However, it has only responded to one so far:
