The Pink Patch is similar to nicotine patches, except it’s a diet product aimed at young women. Here’s a photo from the website of a woman wearing it:
The website for this product clearly targets young women; it warns young women that they are at the time in their lives when their metabolism is highest, and refers to college weight-gain.
The product promises women a solution to their negative body image. Of course, the solution isn’t to think differently about their bodies; the solution is to use the Pink Patch to get skinny:
This quote from a supposed customer makes it clear that losing weight brings boys and popularity:
It also encourages competition and envy among girls:
And apparently, it’s an upper. You might experience “possible mood elevation” and can “relieve your stress,” allowing you to get everything done:
So use the Pink Patch and you will lose weight, which will bring popularity and male attention. Girls will envy you. You’ll be happier, you’ll get a lot done, and that will help you graduate with that great job you always wanted.
It’s the overall message of the diet industry, condensed in one website: the answer to all your problems in a product that will help you melt the pounds away, thus transforming your life. And it’s pink! So feminine!
Via Big Fat Deal.
Comments 7
Vidya — November 5, 2008
This, like other diet aids marketed in the West, remarkably parallels the marketing of skin-lightening creams in other nations. More importantly. both suggest that certain bodies can be and are 'wrong' and in need of normalization; neither skin lighteners or weightloss product ads draw attention to the fact that chromatism and sizism, respectively, are serious and systematic forms of social prejudice, but instead locate the source and solution of the 'problem' in individuals and their bodies and practices.
Anne — November 5, 2008
So, not only can we enforce the very attitudes that made us feel bad about our bodies in the first place, but we also get to be the "envy of every girl" ... in other words the very girl that we hated before we lost weight and gained acceptance. Things like this make me really hate marketing and make me wonder if we will ever be able to just accept ourselves for our real merits: intelligence, strength, attitude, etc.
Natalia — November 7, 2008
"...your body will be the last thing on your mind!"
The final line interestingly registers the truth about women's relationships to their bodies: happiness would be not having to worry about it.
The ad holds out the (false) promise that, once thin, you will be allowed to stop worrying about your body and actually think about the real things going on in your life, which are here explicitly named as things involving work: a term paper, a big project, a job interview.
It's ideology, of course, but like most ideology, it registers a truth: that obsessing about one's body is an impediment to women's work.
Village Idiot — November 8, 2008
The happy skinny woman in the picture must be excited about the surfer dude she hooked up with who lets her carry his surfboard, because you can't really go surfing in a bikini like that one and come back to shore without getting cited for indecent exposure.
Anyhow, I wanted to know what the secret in the sauce was, and these are the ingredients:
Proprietary Formula: Fucus Vesiculosus, Extrac, 5-HTP, Guarana, Zinc Pyruvate, Yerba Mate, Flaxseed Oil, Lecithin, L-Carnitine
The secret is guarana. The rest are fluff. This is just the old tried-and-true 'speed' diet but without amphetamines. Just go get some guarana at the health food store for a fraction of the cost. It suppresses appetite, creates mild euphoria, and is a powerful stimulant. The guaranine will hype you up a lot and is almost identical to caffeine, although with far less of the jittery reaction too much coffee can create and more euphoria.
From Guarana.com:
Guarana contains a high amount of guaranine, a chemical substance with the same characteristics as caffeine. This makes Guarana a stimulant similar to coffee, which means that it:
quickens perceptions
delays sleep
helps with endurance based activities
can help to recover from a hangover
impairs the appetite
will lead to more frequent visits to the toilet
causes a higher blood pressure and an increased heart rate
can make you feel jittery and may prevent sleep at all.
Guaranine
Guarana is not:
a 'miracle medicine'
a dangerous drug
an easy way to lose weight
a vitamin
a food supplement
Guarana is awesome, but can be habit forming.
Chloe — December 1, 2008
Yeah, I was wondering what was in that pink patch. Anything that promises me nirvana must either be a) lying, or b) skirting the edges of the federal law.
edyta kronig — February 21, 2009
I was wondering why I can't order the pink patch from Canada ?
You can only order in stats 'US' ?
WHY IS THAT ? I WOULD LIKE TO TRY...
meerkat — March 3, 2009
Wow, 15 pounds! If I lost 15 pounds it would totally... make absolutely no difference at all! I suppose I might have to buy a couple new pairs of pants. Which would suck, because I hate clothes shopping.