In a marketing attempt to promote its Twingo city car, Renault released a nail polish that also fixes paint flaws on cars
The French car maker, Renault, decided in a bald move to promote its Twingo city car, a small urban vehicle targeted at women, to unveil a nail polish that can also be used to fix the small imperfections on cars.
However, the company did not receive the response that it was hoping for. Instead, they were charged for sexism.
Renault said in a statement that Twingo is for “active lady drivers who need to get about town but who are also attentive to fashion and looks.” For women’s rights activists, the marketing strategy is simply sexist. More than that, the way the offer has been promoted has not helped in any way either.
In the commercial, a woman screams “ouch” as she sees a scratch on her blue Twingo, which was parked between two other cars. After that, she paints her nail in blue, just before doing the same to the car scratch.
Marie-Noelle Bas, head of the French feminist collective Chiennes de Garde, mentioned in a phone interview that this “reduces women to their beauty concerns and their inability to drive. This insidious, ordinary, daily sexism lays the groundwork for the worst as ads confine women to a constructed role.”
Renault soon came up and gave an answer, by saying that Twingo cars target “urban women who enjoy customization of their cars.” He then added that the video does not show a woman who can’t park properly.
The nail and car polish is being manufactured in Paris, by the cosmetics start-up Ink and Out, owner of the De Blangy brand. The polish has been on sale at Renault’s workshops, as well as on its website and comes in blue, red, black, and yellow. The price for one bottle is $10 and it is said to be available for sale for only a short period of time.
