Blog of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research
In the grand tradition of Ms. magazine, we present the latest installment of SNL’s “Classic ESPN Women’s Sports Tournament” with NO COMMENT.
(OK, if you really want to know what we think, see our previous posts about this misogynist series. We’re just too tired to say it again.)
So last week (and yesterday on Twitter) I was griping about missing out on the panel discussion “That Not So Fresh Feeling: Marketing Embarrassing Products To Women” at HousingWorks in New York. Muchas gracias to Jessica Grose of Double X for taking video and posting them online. This one features all four panelists – Allison Silverman, Susan Kim, Sarah Haskins, and moderator Hanna Rosin. Allison Silverman comments about aspirational tampon ads: “I was struck by all the horseback riding. Things I would never, ever want to do when I was menstruating. I was surprised there was no person comfortably reading a book.”
More video available at Double X.
ETA 02/24/10: There’s additional commentary from some who attended the event at Jezebel and at The Pursuit of Harpyness.
NBC New York’s website just announced an upcoming presentation titled “That Not So Fresh Feeling: Marketing Embarrassing Products To Women,” to be hosted by DoubleX (the ladyblog spin off of Slate.com) on February 22. The panel of experts includes Susan Kim, co-author of FLOW: The Cultural Story of Menstruation; Sarah Haskins, creator of Target: Women for Current TV; former “Colbert Report” executive producer Allison Silverman; and Hanna Rosin, co-editor of DoubleX and contributing editor at The Atlantic Monthly.
I’m not sure exactly who is the intended audience for this presentation, but nevertheless I’m disappointed that no one from the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research appears to be on the panel. Consider this an open invitation to any of our readers who will be in New York and able to attend the event to write a guest blog entry about it for re:Cycling.
Details
That Not So Fresh Feeling: Marketing Embarrassing Products To Women
February 22, 7PM
Housing Works Bookstore Café, 126 Crosby Street; 212- 334-3324
Free
It’s not news that menstrual products are marketed with claims of how well they conceal menstruation. But usually from whom must it be concealed is implied, rather than made explicit. Not so in this new campaign for Whisper in southeast Asia. (Whisper maxi pads are known as Always in the U.S.)
The commercials and associated web sites are all about “Why Men Love Whipser.” Of course, this isn’t the first time men have been shown in menstrual product ads. Readers who grew up in the U.S. in 1970s (as I did) may remember the Midol ad that appears after the cut from teen magazines of the era. And our friend, colleague, and frequent guest contributor David Linton published a study of men in menstrual advertising from 1920-1949.
This ad series does seem a little more explicit than those examples, with the men speaking directly to the camera, and the image of the woman wearing the Whisper pad sitting on the man’s shoulders. Can anyone provide a translation of what is being said? The ad is only partially in English.
We’re sad to learn that brilliant funnywoman Sarah Haskins is leaving Target: Women (and especially sad that she’s leaving before creating a TW about femcare products). But we still have her fine piece about how birth control is sold to us as period control.
Fortunately, the rest of her archive lives on, on the internet.
The latest magazine ads for Always “Infinity” maxi pads remind me of this old joke:
Two young boys walk into a pharmacy one day, pick out a box of Tampax and proceed to the checkout counter.
The man at the counter asks the older boy, “Son, how old are you?”
“Eight,” the boy replies.
The man continues, “Do you know what these are used for?”
“Not exactly,” the boy says. “But they aren’t for me. They’re for him. He’s my brother. He’s four. We saw on TV that if you use these you would be able to swim and ride a bike. Right now he can’t do either one.”
So if I use Always, will I be able to be a contortionist like the acrobat in the picture? Because right now, I’m pretty sure I can’t do that.
This advert for Tampax appears in the February 2010 issue of Marie Claire, and probably other ladymags as well. It shows tennis star Serena Williams posing in a victory stance with clenched fist in the foreground, while security guards cart off Mother Nature, who is bearing a red-wrapped gift for Serena. The legend printed across the picture reads, “Serena shuts out Mother Nature’s monthly gift”.
As I said previously, I have some ambivalence about these ads. In today’s period-hating cultural climate, it takes some courage for a celebrity to appear in advertisement for a menstrual product. And it’s great to see acknowledgement that an athlete can win contests at any phase of her menstrual cycle (even the Boston Marathon).
But look closely at this ad, and read the copy. What’s missing?
That’s right – there’s no mention of blood or menstruation. The word period, itself a euphemism, isn’t even used. Only the flowery, secretive euphemism “Mother Nature’s monthly gift” represents menses.
And Mother Nature is reduced from the clever, wise-cracking Aunt Flo portrayed here to a kooky sitcom aunt reminiscent of Gladys Kravitz. Who wants to receive her gift?
I love Terry O’Reilly’s take on advertising and enjoy listening to his program The Age of Persusion on CBC radio whenever I get the opportunity, usually catching it by chance as I did this past Monday morning. This episode, Marketing the Unpleasant, tackles the subject of advertising feminine hygiene and other “delicate” products.
Here’s how the episode is described on the show’s website:
They are the ads that make everyone squirm- consumers, media, and especially ad copywriters; ads for the funeral industry, laxatives, incontinence pads, and the queen mother of unpleasant ad briefs- feminine hygiene products. Terry O’Reilly kicks off the 4th season of The Age of Persuasion with an insider’s look at marketing the unpleasant, from the strange-but-true history of marketing menstruation products, to Wal-Mart’s recent decision to sell caskets and urns online.
Now I don’t appreciate the marketing the unpleasant description as regards advertising menstruation products, (he actually calls the assignment ”the Queen Mother of awkward (ad) briefs”) but the show provides some interesting insight into the history of menstrual product advertising. I learned that it was ad legend Arthur Lasker who came up with the idea to bring menstruation education to high schools, which subsequently “led generations of young ladies” to his client’s product – Kotex. Men setting the agenda for what young women learned and thought about menstruation? Just to sell a product? Hey, it’s still happening today. Now we’ve got male doctors setting us up to buy cycle-stopping and other hormonal contraceptives for everything that ails us. If you listen to the show you’ll hear some clips from a 1950’s Disney produced film called Molly Grows Up. The film was written, directed, produced and consulted by men. It will make you either laugh or gag.
Are you worried your labia just aren’t pornified enough? You’ve mowed the lawn and used expensive cleansers, but your labia just aren’t as pink as they used to be. Here’s a new labia dye, to restore that youthful pink to your pink parts. It’s available in four different shades! Each bottle contains up to 20 applications! It’s never been tested on animals! Each application last 48-72 hours, and you can reapply “as often as necessary”.
I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Please tell me this a hoax.
[via Shelby Knox]
It’s common knowledge that international corporations use different slogans and sometimes different product names to sell the same items in different countries. Procter & Gamble’s femcare products provide many good illustrations of this; as we noted some time ago, the Always pad is known as Whisper in Asian markets. The same pad goes by the Always name in African nations, but P&G announced a new slogan for marketing the product in Nigeria: “Up to 8 hours, no check no stain“.
Explaining the slogan at the launch, at St. Mary’s Senior High School, Accra, Madam Patricia Obozuwa, Head of Corporate Communication and Brands Public Relations, said the “Always Care programme” offer superior feminine protection for eight hours, which eliminates the need for women to constantly check and change their pads during menstruation.
In the U.S., the giant Always maxi pads are advertised with the slogan, “Works Like Magic“.
I’m still mulling over what that indicates about how these corporate marketers view these two markets.
(Click to embiggen.)
Looks like our friends at Always Infinity have ditched the skinny model,* but everything else in the ad is the same, right down to the copy about a disappearing act and the close-up shot of magic blue fluid.
That pad still looks disproportionately large to me: its width measures less than 1/2 inch (1.2 cm) the inside circumference of the hat!
*Or is she missing because this version of the ad appeared in Ebony magazine, and P&G found it cheaper to use half the image than to create a new ad with an African-American model?
Concealing menstruation is always a chore, but especially when your boyfriend is a vampire.
Twilight Cycles from Brandon Routh
[via Glad Rags]
RSS