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.