When I was a child, we had an elderly neighbor named Edna Bigly. It seemed to me she was ancient, but in reality, she was probably about 80. We would visit her often, and I remember a story about her once telling my mom how disgusting television commercials were. She specifically disliked the commercials for Summer's Eve, and said that those women did not need to be talking about washing their vaginas on television. Back then, I found this hilarious and prudish. But today, I join the ranks of Edna Bigly. I think the new Summer's Eve ad campaign is disgusting, and completely objectifying of women. The commercial is slick, and of high production quality. It features women from different historical time periods, and talking about this thing being the cradle of life, the center of civilization, a thing fought and died for by many men and perhaps the most powerful thing on earth. Then it cuts to a woman buying douche and says, so show it some love ladies. The catch phrase at the end is "Hail to the V". Um, what? So, the thing that rules the world is vagina? All women really are is a vagina, in other words.
What marketing director okays a message like that, when your entire customer base is female? Apparently the same one that uses racial stereotypes, and suggest a campaign that indicates a fresh douching will give you the confidence to ask your boss for a raise.
I find the whole premise of this ad campaign disgusting. I get that your products are geared towards the lady zone, but come ON. You pretty much just set the woman's movement back an entire millenia. I am sure some feminists love this campaign, and see it as women owning their sexuality. But to me, I think it is just the opposite, with women being treated as sexual objects. And, ew, get that grossness off of my television thanks. I know this makes me sound old and cranky. I rarely watch tv, and when I do, it is usually dvred, so I skip commercials. A recent heat wave, however, has me parked in front of my tube in the air conditioning, and I am simply appalled at what I see. I am sure it does not help that I have been watching a lot of WE, Bravo, and Oxygen.
To be fair, these are not the only commercials I find gross. The new Huggies commercial, where the little boy urinates all over the room is awful, as is the Luvs commercial where cartoon babies are in diaper filling contest while the song Poop There It Is plays in the background.
So why the graphic grossness about sensitive bodily parts and functions? I attribute it to the social media age, where anyone can, and most usually do, share any and every intimate detail of their lives, including things about their vaginas or bowel movements. People forget to filter themselves, and now that is apparently the accepted mode of operation, even in the marketing world. Well, get it off my television. And get off my lawn.
