Kotex recently released a promotion in response to typical feminine hygiene advertising. Kotex’s commercial parodies the fantastical commercials that depict women dancing in white dresses, lounging with pets, and sunning in white bikinis. The commercials that it mocks neglect the negative symptoms that some women face like cramping, mood swings, and irritability. Although the Kotex promotion does not necessarily directly counter any of the other ads or provide more realistic or well rounded information, it brings attention to the taboo of female menstruation. The bluntness of the commercial is striking at first, but I think it is makes it easier to talk about in mixed gender settings. Have you ever been sitting around watching a show, or even a game, and a tampon commercial comes on with soft music and pastel colors and everyone gets all awkward? Well this one would not trigger the same response. Another of their commercials depicts a young woman trying to get a guy to buy her tampons because she can’t leave her bike unattended. This one is great for the same reason, it addresses the taboo around female menstruation. Although neither of these ads are about athletes or sports at all, they are about women and femininity. I think these ads a small step in the right direction to give women more freedom and less shame around menstruation.
Social Experiment: “Buy Me Tampons” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXz9OcnRBYY
“Reality Check” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpypeLL1dAs
Courtney O’Connor
Kin 338I Section 04
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2 comments:
After reading this blog, I felt the need to comment on it because I was going to post a similar blog in regards to these Kotex commercials and how they are promoting women to not be fearful of their periods. Although at first these commercials seem a bit weird, after analyzing it with the knowledge I have gained from the class, it was evident that the point of the commercial was to promote femininity and all it entails.
The only part of these commercials that rub the wrong way, is how they portray the women. In some of their commercials, they use their sex to sell the product. All though it is a woman's product, the women are a bit revealing, and I personally would prefer to see the girls in regular clothes.
Shanna E.
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