(Screenshot via YouTube)
A Clearasil ad is receiving backlash for its portrayal of an annoying pimple, which is symbolized as a male teen dressed in a pink suit.
In the ad titled “Pimples Make Terrible Prom Dates,” two teens are excited about their upcoming prom when one girl notices a growing pimple.
“If this turns into a pimple, I will literally die,” she says.
The commercial zooms in on the pimple which is a teen dressed in a pink suit who asks “Who wouldn’t want to go to prom with this?” before kicking out his foot and flipping his hair. The girl applies Clearasil and goes to prom with clear skin and her prom date.
The pimple’s characterization did not go well with viewers who found it an anti-gay stereotype.
“Why are you using an anti-gay stereotype to sell your product? This looks like something that was written in the 1960s. Shameful. I think many young people are offended by this kind of thing these days,’ one person commented on the video.
“An offensive stereotype of a gay man as a pimple? All decked out in pink and whining like a big queen? Really? Why not cast a black man as a blackhead? Are you getting the point?” another person wrote.
Imagine the marketing department brainstorming this @Clearasil commercial. ‘Let’s make the pimple an extremely gay guy in a pink suit and then we’ll kill it so the girls can go to the prom!’ hahaha. https://t.co/HBMQg3YrzJ
— Darren Hayes (@darrenhayes) April 10, 2018
Interesting how the annoying, irritating pimple in the new @clearasil commercial is portrayed as an effeminate gay man who no one wants to take to the prom. Is it funny or homophobic? Food for thought. #LGBTQ https://t.co/d2K6wiwX9V
— Darren Stewart-Jones (@D_S_J_) April 13, 2018
Yes it is homophobic and yes @clearasil needs to pull it and apologize. How many gay men worked on this ad and didn’t speak truth to power to shut it down in the conception or subsequent stages?!https://t.co/z044Aa8Hrh
— Jeff Thomas (@hayofray) April 16, 2018
