Inadequate or Not Enough

(Part of my writing prompt series for my October 50,000 word challenge)

Do you know that commercial for the eyelash growing drug? It’s for people with “inadequate or not enough lashes.” It always makes me wonder, do they mean to say that inadequate and not enough are two different states of insufficiency? Or are they afraid that, in addition to lacking in lashes, their potential customers are also in need of a definition of “inadequate”?

And what would make this desirable facial hair inadequate, medically, requiring drug intervention? Eyelashes are designed to protect the eye from gunk that might otherwise fall right in. It’s hard to imagine that the thick, luxurious lashes (covered in black goo) seen on models and mascara commercials is necessary for eye defense.

Not to mention the fact that the advertisement blithely announces that their drug causes permanent darkening in eye pigment. Maybe the ad wouldn’t annoy me so much if they just admitted it is for vanity, like other hair regrowth treatments and mascara, rather than making it seem like thinning lashes is a medical condition. Truthfully, I’d probably still find the whole concept irksome. I can’t even stand the idea of mascara, but this is a whole other story.

Writing prompt du jour:  Write about an advertisement (or some other element of pop culture) that irks you for some reason. Be snarky and specific. Go ahead, tell the “whole other story” that’s about you, and not the commercial at all.

Oh, and the photo: that’s an alpaca we met last winter whose lashes are showily adequate.

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