A new Internet ad for Acuvue contact lenses acts like people
are still repressed for wearing glasses, and seeking to instill this insecurity
in young people, they have a grid of four photos of young people in glasses
with labels underneath them suggesting they are not what they want to be in
life due to their glasses, for example: The Benchwarmer, The Bookworm, The
Wallflower, The Backup Singer.
Yes, you cannot play sports with glasses: just ask Kareem
Abdul Jabbar. Oh, um, maybe he’s a bad example because he played in glasses and
is one of the greatest athletes of all time. But surely nobody else is allowed
to play sports with glasses. And backup singers? I thought that was about
having a great voice. You get to be the lead vocalist if you wrote the songs or
founded the band: glasses are not an issue. Ever heard of Buddy Holly, or maybe
John Lennon? Yeah, I think you’re allowed to be lead vocalist with glasses if
you want.
Oh, but what about the bookworm or the wallflower? Yes, I
guess Acuvue didn’t get the memo, but smart is sexy these days, and according
to public perception, glasses make people look smart. This ad is merely
attempting to exploit an unnecessary insecurity for profit, which is hitting
below the belt, I think. Plus with so many great glasses styles to choose from
nowadays, they are hardly the kind of minus they used to be. Some people even
wear glasses as fashion accessories when their vision is perfect.
If I were making this ad, I wouldn’t act like someone needs
contacts to be successful, but rather, that there are some instances where
glasses may be a limitation, like someone’s glasses bouncing off while running,
or a rock singer flinging her glasses off her head while performing (I have
done that with sunglasses more than once). But there’s nothing socially
demobilizing about glasses if you get nice ones, so they ought to cut that
stuff out.
(But if they still want to go down this same ‘glasses are
bad’ road, I guess they could make an ad where a nerd gets a wedgie with his
glasses on as they bullies shout: Nerd!”, and then we could see how they still
give him that same wedgie and yell: “Nerd!” when he has contacts. That is a
more realistic scenario, I’d think. Oh, but then their argument about contacts falls
apart, doesn’t it? Oh, well: never mind.)
