Classic. The blue water she is drinking is a particularly nice touch.
Sanitary towel firm's 'CEO' sets traumatised man straight
Sanitary towel outfit Bodyform has gained itself some serious internet kudos with a video response to a Brit chap's complaint that women's periods are not a rollercoaster ride of joy and outdoor activity, as the firm's ads suggest. Richard Neill recently challenged Bodyform on Facebook: Hi, as a man I must ask why you have …
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Thursday 18th October 2012 13:14 GMT David Webb
I think the part at the end where she farts is the real nice touch here, showing that women are indeed just like men, only without the male bits and.... actually, how many men would really post on a topic about a females time of the month without running away running and screaming in terror? Holy shit, that chick got men talking about periods!
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Thursday 18th October 2012 12:49 GMT Pinkerton
Re: Marketing...
The poster of the original complaint has been on Facebook since 2009 and has acquired over 360 'friends' in that time. I'm sure if you could be arsed, you could search through those friends to see if any of them have links to any part of the Bodyform empire, ad agencies or whatever.
On the other hand it could just be some bloke recycling a veeeeeeeery old joke and the company on the receiving end having a sense of humour and knowing how to exploit it.
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Thursday 18th October 2012 20:57 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Marketing...
Are you aware that PR companies pay normal people to write stuff in their Facebook / Twatter accounts? There was a Register article about an automatic grass mower not that long ago, and a couple of years back my village did the same thing to attract more tourism. It's just another tool in the marketer's toolbox.
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Friday 19th October 2012 16:43 GMT Michael Wojcik
Re: Marketing...
Are you aware that PR companies pay normal people to write stuff in their Facebook / Twatter accounts?
Horror! Can this be true? Next you'll tell us that sock-puppets and spambots are real too.
Pretty clever of the diabolical marketers to wait three years to respond to their Astroturfed provocation, though. That should fool all but the most insightful observers. Good thing Captain Hogwash and the Super Cynics (with special guest star WorkingFromHome and featuring the Coward Corps) caught it for us!
Certainly there's a tremendous difference between a spontaneous joke response, and one that was a set-up. Remind me again what that difference is, would you?
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Thursday 18th October 2012 12:54 GMT Captain Hogwash
Re: Marketing...
Even if the original "complaint" wasn't part of a marketing/PR effort, it was surely not meant as a genuine complaint but rather as a lame attempt at humour. The fact that the video response happened at all seems to confirm either the previously suggested setup or that some really dim types didn't get it to believe that a response was necessary.
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Friday 19th October 2012 07:07 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Marketing...
Yeah, me too, a lifelong cynic. But if it is a setup who cares? It's actually funny - really funny, and brilliantly executed. That from memory is what a good deal of TV advertising did years ago; it was witty or stylish in some way that allowed it to claim a minor place in the culture as sufficiently entertaining not to annoy. Marketing these days is pushy, deceitful, breathless and sweaty, hence no one pays it much attention. Fuck aspirational, humour (particularly self parody) will do me just fine.
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Friday 19th October 2012 11:43 GMT kevca
Re: Marketing...
The response video was certainly coordinated with a press launch. This article appeared at exactly the same time the video was put up. Note that the article already claims it's viral. I saw the video at about 400 views at this point.
http://www.stylist.co.uk/life/bodyform-period-myth-advertising-video-response#image-rotator-1
This was 8 days from the original post, which probably didn't get popular until a few days after posting. You'd suspect that getting press lined up, making the video, getting clearance for the campaign, would all take some time to organise.
I'm guessing the poster was genuine, as in they are a real person. I'm assuming Bodyform asked them to post it, however, or there's some connection there. Cynical me...
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Thursday 18th October 2012 13:59 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Title Space for Rent or Sale
Perhaps, but be aware any sense of humour only exists to sell products that aren't really necessary anyway. *
Getting an actress + minimal set crew isn't something an employee has done out of a sense of fun; a business case has been made for this.
* The "cups" work just as well as the pads, and are MUCH cheaper over a woman's lifetime. (Majority opinion of the the three women I've actually discussed this with.)
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Thursday 18th October 2012 12:43 GMT Dave 126
Bodyform advertisements were lampooned in mid nineties on a sketch in The Ben Elton Show, along similar lines to Richard Neill's complaint. Mr Elton also exposed the dangers of women uncontrollably swinging their hair around in slow motion after using shampoo and conditioner. But well played, Bodyform!
The adverts that really need bashing are for skin care, with their fake 'Swiss laboratories', dubious statistics ("87% of women agree!* ... [small print:] *study of 37 women") and pseudo scientific animations of their product 'in action'. They don't do real science and statistics, or real women, (or women in science!) any favours at all.
Frank Zappa had a spin on it, too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqYOIp66w9I&feature=relmfu
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Thursday 18th October 2012 12:59 GMT Anonymous Coward
Well remembered!
I'd forgotten Ben Elton had done that routine.
I'd just like to point out that you made a small, but important flaw in your summing up of the dubious statistics. It's an easy mistake as you quite rightly end where the adverts do. What they fail to add to that small print as they do not have to legally declare it yet is this:
*study of 37 women chosen from carefully selected consumer panels consisting of women who already buy our products and have a proven track record of believing any shit we tell them.")
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Thursday 18th October 2012 13:50 GMT dssf
the 37s
And THAT is the 37 that *
*
- did not develop skin rashes, experience diarrhea, constipation, spontaneously-inverted eyelids, pupil recolorization, 360° head spins, vomiting, dizziness, prolonged mensteuation, excessively dry urination, scratchy throat, itchy ass, enlarged knuckles, curled toes, visions of screaming lab animals, or other "experimental miss adventures prior to the survey...
Jkjkjkjkjkjkjk
And not the "The 37s" from ST Voyager
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Thursday 18th October 2012 13:54 GMT dssf
Re: the 37s
btw, just in case, my posting is related not to sanitary napkins but to skin lotions. Some are rash makers for some people. Some are egregious wastes of consumer cash. But, the FDA and the market tolerate all sorts of non-lethal bullshit in the market even if the product does not deserve shelf space.
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Thursday 18th October 2012 14:35 GMT Dave 126
Re: Made up stats
>In a study of 37 women, 32 women agreeing would be 86% and 33 women agreeing would be 89%. It's not mathematically possible for a study of 37 women to result in 87% of them agreeing.
'A girl can change her mind, can't she?'
I made up the figures on the spot, as well you know! I did consider calculating figures that would work, but felt it was overkill to make the point! : D
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Thursday 18th October 2012 12:59 GMT Ralph B
Metaphor?
The fake CEO in the fake response to the probably fake Facebook post claims that the imagery used in the adverts - horse-riding, sky-diving, etc. - are "metaphors".
Now, a "metaphor" is:
1. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
2. A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, esp. something abstract.
So, the ad images are metaphors to ... what exactly? Something similarly positive? Happiness? Excitement? No? What then?
Or is "metaphor" just an advertising term for "lie"?
Sorry to be so pompous about this but words and their meanings matter.
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Thursday 18th October 2012 13:06 GMT Graham Dawson
Re: Metaphor?
They're a metaphor for the relative freedom from misery that sanitary products apparently provide women and presumably for the joy that comes with not having to stuff rags down your pants and rinse them out in the river every day.
Seems all those years I spent at university have finally found a use...
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