Why don’t ads for tampons or pads ever mention vaginas? Why do they instead feature girls running on beaches and dancing while wearing all-white outfits? Kotex in Australia decided a few years ago to challenge the way feminine hygeine products are advertised with their Beaver ads and now, Kotex in the US are doing the same thing.
This may well be my favourite ad since, well, . Check this out…
I reckon I’ve watched that at least 10 times and I still adore it.
And here is how the ad came about:
Social advocacy website Change.org reports….
I just want to DANCE…..Kotex decided to “break the cycle” of bad tampon ads with a new campaign to ditch the euphemisms and ridiculous scenes of happy, dancing women in favor of real talk and some gold old-fashioned self-mockery. Unfortunately, television networks would really prefer that they stick to the euphemisms and scenes of women running on a beach.
Three broadcast networks rejected an ad for using the dirty word “vagina.” So Kotex had the ad reshot, using the second grade euphemism “down there.” Two out of three networks still considered that to be inappropriate. (Unfortunately, they’re not telling which networks made this ludicrous decision, or you can bet they’d be getting emails from Change.org readers.)
The campaign also lets you make your own tampon ad spoof; even better, for every signature, Kotex will donate $1 to Girls for Change, an organization that empowers women to, well, change things.
Right. So the moral of the story is: just don’t say vagina. Period.
Top Comments
I can't see the video! I just get a bit of text saying 'this video is private'. :(
Same - all I can see is private so I can't see a video talking about our private parts!
Yep, all I see is this video is private, I think Kotex may have got a little peeved with the traffic coming from mamamia and hidden it. :(
The blue blood, the euphemisms, it all comes from the fact that a most men have no problem with watching wrestling, stomach turning bone breaks in sport and have no issue with killing other men in war but the whole "period thing" still makes them squemish. This comes from the days when men would think that women were cursed, or it was the devils work that they could bleed without injury.
Even with the euphemisms my father still grumbles about feminine hygiene products being advertised during prime time