An Indian business booms, and more and more entrepreneurs seek to find the next big thing, one company has decided to launch what it claims is the country’s first vagina tightening cream, saying it will make women feel “like a virgin” again. The company says it will empower women.
The advert for the cream sees a scarcely glad woman singing and dancing to music for the cream named18 Again.
It is an unusual take on Bollywood.
The actress in the advert is said to say” I feel like a virgin,” although the advert makes it clear she is not.
Her shocked in-laws look on, before her husband joins her for some salsa-style dancing.
The actress continues to say “Feels like the very first time,” she continues, as she is twirled around.
The advert is aimed at all generations as by the end of the advertisement the mother-in-law, is seen buying the product online.
This advertisement is said to be designed to market a vaginal “rejuvenation and tightening” product, which was launched this month in India.
The Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company Ultratech the makers of 18 Again, say it is the first product of its kind in India (similar creams are already available in other parts of the world such as the USA), and fills a gap in the market.
Considered to be a spiritual obligation, Hindu wedding ceremonies even today centre round the Kanyadaan, which literally translates as the gift of a virgin.
Ultratech’s owner, Rishi Bhatia, says the cream, which is selling for around $44 (£28), contains natural ingredients including gold dust, aloe vera, almond and pomegranate, and has been clinically tested.
“It’s a unique and revolutionary product which also works towards building inner confidence in a woman and boosting her self esteem,” says Mr Bhatia, adding that the goal of the product is to “empower women”.
Mr Bhatia says the product is not claiming to restore a woman’s virginity, but to restore the emotions of being a virgin.
“We are only saying, ‘feel like a virgin’ – it’s a metaphor. It tries to bring back that feeling when a person is 18.”
But the company’s advertising strategy has attracted criticism from some medical experts, women’s groups and social media users, who say the product reinforces the widely held view in India and the south east that pre-marital sex is something to be frowned upon, a taboo which is even seen as immoral by some.
“This kind of cream is utter nonsense, and could give some women an inferiority complex,” argues Annie Raja from the National Federation of Indian Women, which fights for women’s rights in the country.
If the cream reaches the makers market expectations it may even spread throughout the south Asian marketplace.
