Photos
Is it just me, or is the end of this commercial missing a staticy guitar chord? And shouldn’t the brand name be spray-painted against a brick wall? I’m just saying that I understand how this is a self-aware deconstruction of the condescending tropes of traditional feminine hygiene advertising that reduce an important and essential biological process to a metaphorical piece of warm lace blowing in a lilac wind, and in that sense it is refreshing, I’m sure. But without the guitar chord and the spray-painted logo, and also maybe a couple of references to “The Man” and George Orwell’s 1984, how can we be sure that this is a product for our generation? Without those things this could just as easily be another product created by the Don Draper’s of Madison Avenue to secretly maintain the oppressive patriarchal status quo by co-opting and subverting our own symbols of individuality and self-actualization. AM I RIGHT, LADIES?! (Via TheAwl.)
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MTV: Why Are Tampon Ads So Ridiculous?
True Life: I’m a Tampon
In a mad dash to get it (TWSS) up, I think we can all rest easy. Well done, mydaughter’sname69!
Where’s Whoopi?
You are quickly becoming my favorite monster Steve Winwood, but I sort of feel like Cartman with the Jackoffasaur while everyone else is the town of Southpark.
oh jwormyk. how can we trick him into moving to france now? now that we know how much it would break your heart. Upvotes for you both.
Ami I right, fellas?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Lc9Mhi9l0
Screen shot:
http://tinypic.com/r/dpbvc6/5
I am truly terrible at the World Wide Web. Thanks, Al Gore!
Maybe?
Actually an improvement over their first idea.
This is your day; This is your day with your PERIOD!
THIS IS WHAT IT DOES TO YOUR BEACH DAY!
THIS IS WHAT IT DOES TO YOUR 3RD DATE!
Now this commercial really speaks to my experience as a womyn.
You know who knows women? Madison Avenue, that’s who.
But now EVERY tampon ad will be a further deconstruction of the last tampon ad, and everyone will just get fed up and move onto Maxi-Pads.
As they continue to one-up each other, they will eventually degrade into an undecipherable mess in which you can’t understand who though that such an ad would appeal to anyone.
Not if they want to go horsebackriding.
Ursorite Gabe. Nothing worse than when an ad tries to sell you something. I thought you were just here for the LOLs, commercial! Urgent to Kotex: less “Buy Our Feminine Products,” more “Sanitary napkins, you guys! It’s not a sanitary, it’s not a napkin, what is it? They should make the whole plane outta that stuff!”
But the plane can’t fly without the Kotex Maxi-Pad’s WINGS!
-this terrible joke has been brought to you by Kotex.
Obey your thirst.
You win the internet today.
These tampons are my girlfriend.
These tampons are making me thirsty
When are they going to invent vampire themed tampons? It only seems like the next logical step for feminine hygiene and popular culture.
Stake it where it bleeds: Vampons
I read this as “vampoons” at first. Still appropriate.
i would totally buy those! it would give me something to laugh about while i lie curled in a ball on my couch in pain.
I just drew Robert Pattinson’s face on a bunch of tampons. Could you direct me to the patent office please?
insert plug for the diva cup.
(SEE WHAT I DID THERE? it’s kinda gross, yes, i know, i’m sorry!)
damnit.
love you. loveeee you.
No spray-painted logo, but at least the wrappers are neon-colored.
They’re clearly for people who read Sassy.
We read ‘JANE’ now, just like Louise in ‘Gilmore Girls’. Get with the program.
And one day maybe a tampon ad will include the word VAGINA, because that’s where tampons go. I mean if reporters on local news can say “vajazzle” then a tampon ad can say VAGINA. In England they can say cunt on the BBC! Although of course they call “vaginas” “lorries.”
They tried but the networks wouldn’t let them.
It’s like those old Apple Jacks commercials: “Whatever, Dad. We leak when we like!”
Today’s XKCD:
Everybody is very gripey.
I must have my period all the time since twirling, dancing, running on the beach, and holding fluffy cats sounds very appealing right now
“Break the cycle”? So, a reference to domestic violence AND a terribly confused metaphor all in one go? Perfect.
Dear Rachel Leigh Cooke, you need a new agent…
You didn’t post the answer page! HOW WILL I KNOW IF I’M APPROACHABLE OR NOT?!
The snuggie says it all.
tampons are so 2009.
we are all allowed to love the diva cup!
and talk about it on the internet!
They should have made her a blogger.
This is just gross in its phrasing, but I’m typing it out anyway- BLOOD PLUGS. Start calling them BLOOD PLUGS. They don’t have to be just for ladies. I imagine they would work well at a smaller size for bloody noses or ears, or any other orifice that needs assistance.
I have now patted myself on the back and am closing my browser.
Surprise me- thumbs up or thumbs down?
BLOOD PLUGS.
Yeah, but then you get retards who think these are literally plugs (which are then ‘un-plugged’ over the toilet) who went to my school and spread their retardation to the STD babies they spawned with equally retarded girls who don’t know they peed through a separate hole.
What’s this now?
SVU has gotten pretty light hearted
Can somebody post the video clip of Telly from the movie Kids sucking kool-aid out of Casper’s mom’s tampon?
Please don’t?
Silly, the plural of Don Draper is “Dons Draper.”
As a woman who bleeds blue liquid, I found this commercial extremely alienating.
The guys at Boing Boing have an idea on how to improve this commercial: some snakes
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/16/a-scientific-paper-y.html#more
seriously though? the male monsters have no idea about all the tampon/pad commercials. they all suggest that women are very pure, and since having your period makes you unpure, you should use this product so you can keep up the illusion. otherwise no one will ever want you. that’s what all this shit is about. that women and their periods are gross and need to be kept a secret. a dancing, twirling, beach-going secret.
it’s a stigma that’s been around since (before) Leviticus, which is my favorite book of the bible! you know, because it is laughable and awful. Leviticus, my friends:
‘If a woman has a discharge, and the discharge from her body is blood, she shall be set apart seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. Everything that she lies on during her impurity shall be unclean; also everything that she sits on shall be unclean. Whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. And whoever touches anything that she sat on shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. If anything is on her bed or on anything on which she sits, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until evening. And if any man lies with her at all, so that her impurity is on him, he shall be unclean seven days; and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.’
I had a boyfriend like that. He’s dead now. That 3rd day…anyone can go at that point.
I like this comment a lot. Also they always wear white. WHY. IT’S STUPID.
i feel so conflicted right now. videogum says this ad is lame, but bust.com is telling me that it’s a giant step forward and whatever. my brain is also rebelling against the marketers who know how much i love bright colours, black packaging, and snark, and i hate marketing, but they are right. as a young city-dwelling female with turquoise hair, i am irresistibly drawn to these tampons. you know they come in like dayglow plastic applicators, right? it makes getting my period go from horrible, bloody awfulness to a rave in my vagina. which actually doesn’t really sound that fun, now that i’ve typed it out. but still! bright colours! pretty packaging! snarky girls!
i’m sorry, gabe. i totally wanted to be so cool and hate this ad. but i am not that cool.
they should definitely just call them “glowsticks” then. amirite?
More like FLOWsticks.
Collect 4 proofs of purchase and you can send away for a pair of big white cartoon gloves!
Oh just like it. It’s cute. Like the whole Dove love your big fat body campaign, people seem to feel the need to point out that it’s not a PSA it’s an ad and they’re trying to sell you something. In case you thought they wanted to cuddle and braid your hair or something. Just like when beer ads make douches think they’ll get laid by mute models and everyone feels the need to warn them this might not happen and marketers are trying to trick them into buying things!
Most of these comments are very gross. I kinda like the ad because no I don’t want to fucking frolic on a beach or go swimming with my boyfriend in a white bikini, either. Also, this is the design nerd in me but Kotex rebranded! How nice.
oh, lady business. gross.
Those tampons are punk rock. Great for throwing onstage.
Ummm…what’s wrong with this commercial? It seems pretty creative and original to me. But what do I know?
Because when irony invades our femine hygine ads then nothing is sacred. Real gurrrls want tampons that are manly! Because they can handle it. Any tampon that a man can use a woman can use just as well. These tampons…..no one knows how well they work. Its a mystery. But the comercial says “You’re kinda boring. You don’t do much but you know what, we totally get that. Buy our tampons” and I respect that.
I dunno, as a guy I think its kinda weird that everyone gets all “Ewww” about menstruation. Whatever. I just think the idea that there is something inately gross or embarrassing about “that time of the month” when its really just a natural body function sends a negative message to women about their bodies.
there are many natural bodily functions that are innately gross. ugh. like blowing one’s nose. grosses me out every time i have to do it. when i’ve got a cold, i am in a constant state of grossed-out. just because something is natural doesn’t mean we should celebrate it.
i’m all for empowerment and equality and the whole feminist thing. i just can’t get behind the whole sacred menstruation thing. it is gross. it is a pain in the ass. it makes me cranky and gives me intense cramps for three days a month. i am quite sure i’ve come to this conclusion based on my own life experience, not because some [m]admen tell me it is true.
just as i resent the message menstruation as something shameful and dirty, i also resent the hippie earth mother bullshit that it is some sacred part of being female. fuck that. but if some company wants to liven things up by giving me neon tampons and cool packaging, what’s so wrong with that? at the end of the day, i am going to give my money to a company that sells period supplies. sure it’s the same male-owned companies with male-developed products that men have been selling for half a century. but i’m not going to use a diva cup, lunapads, or sea sponges. and if these men figured out a way to get hip young women like myself to buy their flashy tampons, meh. that’s how capitalism works, right?
you know what freaks me out? those commercials where cartoon bears wipe their butts. stop it bears, you guys are on tv!
TAMPAX- Helping you relax when Mother Nature attacks your slacks-
TAMPAAAAAAX.
“in that sense it is refreshing, I’m sure.”
Really? Are you sure? Or are you hating just to hate? Because I don’t see you mentioning anything about networks not allowing the ads to say “vagina” or even “down there.” Don’t you think that’s a more interesting point worthy of some effing hate? Or you could just snark at the power chords and spray paint it’s missing. Because you get it, we’re sure.