‘High School Musical’ Actor Calls Out Beauty Ad for Promoting an ‘Unobtainable Level of Perfection'

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As Ryan Evans in High School Musical, Lucas Grabeel played the levelheaded yang to twin sister Sharpay’s sassy yin. Grabeel himself seems to possess this same sensibility, as proven by his most recent Instagram post.

After spotting an advertisement in Rite Aid of a woman with impossibly clear skin with the tagline “Beauty is skin deep,” Grabeel shared a snap from the cosmetics aisle expressing his displeasure at the sighting.

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(Photo: Instagram/Lucas Grabeel)

Grabeel noted that he strongly disagrees with the imagery and its overall message. “It’s hard to love yourself a lot of the time. It’s easy to make excuses why we shouldn’t love ourselves: too fat, too short, too stupid, too weird, too poor, inadequacies of an unobtainable level of perfection,” he wrote. “Well, perfection is lame. There’s no where to go from that. Shouldn’t we all be in a constant state of growth? Isn’t life all about the journey? Love is tough, but that makes it mean that much more. I struggle with all of this all of the time. Sending all you peeps out there some deep love today.”

Grabeel is just the latest to call out what some consider insensitive advertising practices. ASOS was recently criticized by consumers for using the phrase “plus size” in an Instagram post of a model who many believed shouldn’t have been classified in such a way, prompting a long social media debate.

However, it’s important to note that instances like these are happening much less frequently these days. In fact, many brands have put in the extra effort to ensure that they don’t alienate people. Nike recently began a Sports Bra 101 campaign in which the company is helping women of all shapes and sizes find sports bras that are supportive enough for any of their activities, showing just how far some brands have come.

So while it’s disheartening to see the promotion of perfection in advertisements, rest assured that brands have been working hard to correct their previous mistakes — possibly because they’re well aware that influencers and celebrities like Lucas Grabeel will call them out for it.

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