I came across this article this morning in the Guardian (UK)
Quote:Tampon-makers can't mention the V-word. Period.
An advertising campaign for tampons is rejected by US television networks for daring to include the word vagina.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRf35wCmzWw[/youtube]
Just don't say vagina: the acceptable version of the tampon ad.
For years, advertising for tampons and "sanitary products" have been shrouded in nebulous euphemism. So what happens when a US tampon-maker drops the coy messaging and goes straight for the jugular (so to speak)? Its ad gets banned by the major US television networks for mentioning the word vagina.
Even when the company substituted "down there" for vagina, two of the networks still wouldn't run the ad, so the company was forced to drop the idea altogether. That provoked Amanda Hess, author of The Sexist blog, to observe: "Now, the commercial contains no direct references to female genitalia " you know, the place where the ******* tampon goes." ....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/mar/16/tampon-vagina-kotex-advertising
Anyway, this article got me wondering: why, when so much frank & sometimes extremely graphic, information about just about anything about sex is all over the place (including rape simulation video games) ... why are we still so coy about using the proper name for this particular piece of women’s genitilia?
Why is it so hard to say vagina?
I’d be interested in a bit of feedback from you:
Would you personally find the inclusion of the word “vagina” in such advertisements offensive? If so why?
If you, personally, wouldn’t be offended, do you think others in your community would be? Do you think there’d be some sort of public backlash against franker advertising of these products.
Have you ever wondered what that blue stuff (being absorbed so effectively by the “female hygiene products” in these advertisements actually is?
Would you be offended if it was replaced by the real thing? (ie blood coloured liquid)
Do you think there is a similar coyness in advertising say, male erectile dysfunction remedies, is treated as coyly in advertising in your own country?
Is the word penis actually ever used in these advertisements? (I’m thinking there is a coyness about this in my own country, though not 100% sure, as I don’t watch all that much television.)
Do you think that these advertisers of these products are actually out of step with what would actually be acceptable in your own society? If so why do you think this type of coy advertising is so prevalent?
Plus anything any other observations you may wish to add, of course!
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