That Not So Fresh Feeling

These ads for Summer’s Eve are so offensive, I assumed they must have been created by men. Sadly, no.

Talking vaginas that perpetuate ethnic and gender stereotypes? All in the interest of hawking a product designed to tell us women that all is not right “down there”? Silly cartoons? Afros and leopard-print thongs?

The campaign is supposed to be some kind of women’s empowerment thing, “be proud of your vagina,” or as Summer’s Eve marketing director put it:

“This campaign is about empowerment, changing the way women may think of the brand, and removing longstanding stigmas: Summer’s Eve is not a means to confidence, rather it’s a celebration of confidence, of being a woman, and taking care of their bodies.”

I dunno, but telling women our cooters are so nasty that we need a half dozen different products to make things right doesn’t strike me as the epitome of confidence and empowerment. Face it: your product depends on the exact opposite of those traits, you’re making money off of the very stigma you pretend to be removing.

Hail to the V? How about Hell to the no?

9 Comments

Filed under advertising, feminism

9 responses to “That Not So Fresh Feeling

  1. Proud Socialist

    From every angle in every way imaginable, this ad is inexcusably repellent.

  2. Oh my god.

    “WHY won’t he love me?! Could it be … my nasty vagina?!!

    Honey, if your cooter stinks that bad, you need a doctor not a douche. Maybe it’s because I’m of the post-“Our Bodies Ourselves” generation, but I’ve always found the supposed need for this product to “feel fresh” unnecessary. Like high heels and nylons.

  3. Southern Beale:

    Ad is stupid. Offensive is far too mild a description.

    It occurs to me that high heels, nylons, feminine “freshness” products and the like are, beyond being unnecessary, a convenient yardstick to measure how far a woman will go to garner acceptance from others. Men do the same thing but I haven’t yet seen the ad for “Ballsack Balsam” or a similar product.

    Soap and water, the best pheremone I’ve come across, to date.

  4. Men do the same thing but I haven’t yet seen the ad for “Ballsack Balsam” or a similar product.

    Umm … Viva Viagra, anyone?? Featuring some of Nashville’s finest, or reasonable facsimiles thereof! That ad was brilliantly skewered by my friend Chet Flippo over at CMT, and rightfully so.

  5. Worst ad ever.

    I’ve long maintained that even deodorants are unnecessary. I think theres even been some studies which shown that what, aluminum? has adverse effects on the body. Like Demo said, soap and water.

    • Supposedly there is aluminum in antipersperants. And then I’ve read studies that suggest high aluminum has been found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.

      Anyway, I don’t use that crap. When it gets really nasty out here I’ll use that natural crystal stuff, though it’s a mineral salt, so who’s to say it’s completely safe either.

  6. Jen

    Yikes. My Nurse Practitioner friend saw this and was like, “Water! Water. No Summer’s Eve. No soap. Water and only water!”

  7. ThresherK

    The post-”Our Bodies Ourselves” generation

    SoBe, you and I are the same generation, so I guess someone younger will have to answer: Has it been so long since the ’70s that the Summer’s Eve brand isn’t stuck there?

    I’m thinking of Old Spice and Williams’ ‘Lectric Shave as a comparison of things I also grew up remembering TV ads existing for. Have the images for all three brands been rehabbed to the point that the young folk don’t giggle at them?

    PS Last summer’s eve it was threatening to be 78F and 75%. Inside the house, before I relented and turned on the air. In Connecticut (“Currier and Ives horsedrawn sleigh to a farmhouse” territory!) our next five overnight lows are forecast in the 68-72 range. Were summers’ eves fresher 40 years ago?