Weddings, Cheryl Cole and hair loss

As a female in the UK, I am bombarded every day with 'panic-marketing'. These are things that try to sell to me by making me feel inadequate and/or a failure in some way if I don't have or do them. It's not just straightforward ads, but messaging through magazine articles, TV programmes etc. It worked (inciting feelings of worry and inadequacy!) when I was a student. But now I am a cynical old hag (who coincidentally works in marketing) I just find it a rather invasive and repetitive snore! Topics for women generally include:

1. You need to lose weight - look how slim and lovely Cheryl Cole is!
2. Feeling unconfident? Plastic surgery is the answer!
3. Are you over 28 and STILL not engaged / married / expecting a baby??? EVERYBODY else is! Where have you gone wrong? (Perhaps you are overweight or have not had plastic surgery?)
4. No attractive female ever has cellulite.
5. Look how hairy you are. You'll never date any guy if you have those three hairs on your shins. (Look how hairless Cheryl Cole is!*)
6. You deserve this dream wedding (which is quite expensive) because looking pretty in front of a crowd will make you happy for the rest of your life. Like Kate Middleton.
7. Pasty white skin is really unattractive, you must buy fake tan to look like J-Lo.

I am sure there is a similar batch of delights aimed at men.

No surprises for guessing that the same kind of marketing exists here in Asia. But the 'issues' are somewhat different. And to me, this seems slightly hilarious and proof indeed that we are all being led a merry dance! Singapore's 'worries' for women appear to include:

1. Tanned skin is really unattractive, you must buy whitening treatments to look like this very beautiful, very white Asian actress.
2. You don't have any curves - nobody will love you! Look at these hot, airbrushed pictures of Australian models with curves!
3. There seems to be even more around weddings and nuclear families (government influence?)
4. You need to use this special shampoo every day, ladies, or you will go bald.

Point 4 is a totally new one on me. In the UK, only men get pushed the baldness thing. And when I started seeing these ads aimed at females I momentarily thought: "Holy cow, I could go bald??" Do Asian women actually suffer from baldness, and thus these products serve a useful purpose to thousands? ...Or have a tiny minority suffered from it but we're now all being told 'we could be next' so better rush to the pharmacist?

I personally suspect the latter! In honesty I think most UK women have perfectly good lives (*gasp!*) without plastic surgery, Kate Middleton's wedding or Cheryl Cole's body. But we're made to feel suddenly less satisfied with what we are/have through all of this guff. It is probably the same in Asia.


*Incidentally, Cheryl Cole was recently criticised for appearing in a L'Oreal shampoo ad wearing a lustrous bouffant of fake hair extensions. The ad was finally cleared as the words relating directly to 'lustrous', 'bouffant' (and presumably 'without hair extensions') were not used - but it did make me laugh! 
 
[PS I have nothing against our Cheryl personally!]