Summer's Eve new "V" add. Are these feminine hygiene adds racist?

[aaaaaa5a]

Summer's Eve is a vaginal wash for women. They recently came out with 3 different product commercials aimed at black women, white women and hispanic women.

Links below:


Black women's commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6U2-jG5Veg



White women's commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPcJkvM7Ink


Hispanic women's commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWAQ6_u4hSg

[HopeHoops]

1. Now all they need is a GOP teabagger version. No wait - those ARE the douches.

[MADem]

17. Best comment! And first one out of the gate too!

Kudos to you.

As far as the commercial goes:

It's an idiotic commercial/s, and an idiotic construct. Racist? Probably not. Culturally insensitive and stereotypical? Perhaps. Dumb? Absolutely!

[aaaaaa5a]

22. Agreed.

The topic is framed based on what the National uproar is about. Not what I personally think. I think the commercials stereotype. But to call them outright racist is a little over the top.

[WCGreen]

61. Ki yi yipppie i yea....

brilliant!

[markbark]

2. Well I dunno about racism

but all douche commercials are misogyny at its finest.
It taps into the "girl parts are nasty" meme.

[aaaaaa5a]

25. It seems as though girls get hit with these adds more

frequently than guys get hit with Jock itch commercials.

[BlueIris]

42. We prefer to be called women now. nt

[aaaaaa5a]

45. Thank you Mrs. PC

I was referring to girls, their development,t and what advertising they are subjected to BEFORE they become women. Thank you for taking the post out of context.

[Maru Kitteh]

59. You didn't really provide much in the way of context, so it did in fact look like a sexist remark

People can't read your mind. Only what you type.

[aaaaaa5a]

63. No problem.

I'm just glad I'm on YOUR SIDE! :)

[AlabamaLibrul]

60. Imagine the response if the comment to a simple use of "guys" was "we like to be called men now"

girls and guys. Neither one is the technical name for a gender. Some of this overly-PC stuff when there is absolutely no offensive remark anywhere is getting old.

[aaaaaa5a]

62. Agreed.

+1

[Taverner]

65. Did you know Lysol Cleaner used to be a "douche"?

True story

[TwilightGardener]

3. Oh my God, those are awful. I don't know about racist, but "vertical smile"?

A hand playing a talking vulva? Holy shit, that's bad.

[Schema Thing]

5. heh, you almost made me look.

[Mimosa]

48. LOL I looked

All 3 ads are about the same.

The cleansing cloth product on the hispanic commercial sounds very useful, especially for women on the go. The older one gets the less one worries about sweat and moisture since we 'dry up'. Individually wrapped cloths sound like a great product.

I don't get why the products should be aimed at differnt groups.

[skypilot]

26. That's what I thought too.

Can't really tell how racist they are because I don't have audio at the moment but they really LOOKED fucking weird. "Welcome to Vagina Land"?!?!?! Really?

[Fuzz]

27. Yeah, I thought talking babies and dogs were bad, but this! I'm surprised they

didn't draw in a couple legs spread, one on each side of the hand to be honest. Maybe next time.

[KoKo]

4. I just saw a La Quinta Hotel ad where a black man is kicked in his crotch...

because the business customer had a good night's sleep in their La Quinta Hotel room...and the Voice over is a song..."Kick in the Butt kick 'em the Crotch" (something like that) and the traveler goes and kick a guy in his butt as the other guy is bending over in pain from kick in the crotch.

Nice stuff these ads that are out there today. :eyes: Actually DISGUSTING is too kind a word for it.

[MuseRider]

14. "Ow my balls"

Oh we are so there.

[roody]

6. I know I can't stomach watching.

The concept is sexist as well as unhealthy.

[The Straight Story]

7. No info on how they taste though?

:evilgrin:

[guitar man]

19. +1000

:D :spray: :rofl:

[pipi_k]

8. And what, exactly, would be racist about them?

The ads are aimed at what each group of women might identify with.


Like the others, I find them offensive because of the suggestion that women stink.

That whole ball of bullshit has caused lots of women I know to worry almost obsessively over whether other people can smell them...sad. :(

[boston bean]

9. Is that suppose to be a talking labia/vulva/vagina?

[w8liftinglady]

10. I can just say...as a woman,I find the ads pretty crappy

and yes,all three are stereotypes to the max.

[Mimosa]

51. How good they are...is they were meant to go viral.

And we're talking about them. The ads work as intended.

[outerSanctum]

11. No... not racist at all.

Plus, they help keep the world a fresher smelling place!

[MineralMan]

12. I don't think they're racist, but they're pretty annoying.

I hope they don't make it to television.

The premise is wrong to start with, in my opinion. Vaginas don't need to be sprayed or douched under normal circumstances. They do just fine on their own. They evolved to be self-cleaning, I believe.

[w8liftinglady]

13. you are correct. Anything else needs to be seen by a doc.

[aaaaaa5a]

28. You are 100% correct.

I have even been told that TOO MUCH WASHING can upset the natural PH balance and turn a non-problem into a big problem.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lucian]

16. Wow...

the African-American's commercial has her dragging out her vowels and doing the whole neck-roll thing and the Hispanic woman's commercial has her saying "aye aye aye." :wtf:

Yeah, those are pretty much racist.

[aaaaaa5a]

30. I don't like the fact that they purposely miss-spelled words in the black commercial. NT

[pipi_k]

32. Well, since the ad seems to be targeted toward the younger women...

my guess would be that the misspellings are meant to make the ads look hip and young.

[Poll_Blind]

36. Along with the tone in each, which is somewhat irreverent.

My girlfriend described the commercial as being shaped to represent "advice from a girlfriend" in each culture.

PB

[aaaaaa5a]

57. I would have to look at the ad again

but to my knowledge the words are only miss-spelled in the commercial geared towards blacks. If that is correct. That is a problem IMHO.

[Lucian]

35. I didn't like that either.

[Snoutport]

18. I'd hate to have to watch any of those with my mother

those were pretty...disturbing on many levels.

[ecstatic]

20. complete and utter fail. All three versions,

especially the latina/black women versions. I don't think a woman designed those commercials.

[Ian David]

21. It's not racist, because vaginae actually talk that way.

What?

Don't tell me you never bothered to try TALKING to one while you were "down there?"


Seriously though, I don't feel like it's my call to make, but I did find the commercials disturbing on many levels.

I would defer to the opinions of Black and Latino women.

[skypilot]

29. LOL!!!!

Too funny.

[Mimosa]

54. ROTFLMAO!!!

Funny!:D Sometimes we just have to laugh. OR.... we get depressed. ;)

[HappyMe]

23. Not racist, just weird.

If you take care of yourself, you really don't need that stuff anyway.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

24. Not to change the subject but I have found the new face of Summer's Eve.

[aaaaaa5a]

39. Great Picture!

I can't believe I overlooked it before.

Did you find that picture online or take it yourself.


I have it saved in my downloads folder. I may "borrow" it for later debates.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

55. I think this might have started with another DUer who took it. It blew up and now

if you Google Hanitty douche under images. There it is. Hopefully the person who took it will see this and take credit. I don't think they'll mind if you keep spreading it far and wide. :evilgrin:

[aaaaaa5a]

64. HA! Thank you!

I'm going to spread it as far as my fingers can type.

[cbdo2007]

31. "....some smell like a summer's eve, cause they've been douched too much!"

hahaha

[Poll_Blind]

33. Nah, IMO not only are these not racist they're a nod to the fact that the...

...company is selling to different cultures and trying to respect each with different approaches that would be most successful, culturally, for each group. Also, note the difference in euphemisms or focus in each of the different commercials. My girlfriend is Latina and she didn't consider the "Hispanic" version racist- she actually thought it was pretty funny, saying that these commercials a basically represent the kind of stereotypical "chatter" that one would hear from a stereotypical girlfriend in those cultures. Selling a product like this, one has to overcome certain hurdles and comfort levels in different cultures and she, being raised Catholic, noted that the Latina commercial, for instance, chooses to focus on the miraculous creative powers of the vagina as opposed to the other commercials, which have different tweaks on the same topic.

Also, there are subtle reflections of cultural economics in each. In the Latina commercial, it starts off with an airline flight status board showing arrived/delayed, reflecting that more and more Latina women are expected to enter the workforce along with caring for families. The Black woman's commercial starts off with time spent doing hair: African Americans spend more on hair products and services than all other cultural groups in America, combined. BTW, great documentary by Chris Rock called "Good Hair" I'd recommend if you haven't seen it already. Back to the Latina version- the slipping into Spanish when talking about the leopard print thong made her laugh out loud because in Latin culture, one will often slip into Spanish when discussing uncomfortable or taboo topics.

We had a long conversation about it- I think you raised good questions- and I was only able to capture some of it in this message. Neither of us think it's racist. And to underscore, it's a positive thing to see a company catering to different cultures instead of slapping out one commercial (generally from a White American's cultural perspective) and expecting that to be palatable to other American cultures.

That's our 4 cents from this end, anyway.

OnEdit: And BTW, neither of us think vaginas need douches to be happy.

PB

[TroglodyteScholar]

34. Offensive on a number of levels.

The complete opposite of empowerment, just like republicans' concept of patriotism...

[KoKo]

37. Yep...definitely some new Dimension...in Advertising..and Targeting..

:eyes:

[Cali_Democrat]

38. I thought women weren't supposed to wash down there

because it can ruin the ph balance or something like that and lead to increased infection risk. :shrug:

[BlueIris]

43. It's the 21st century. You're allowed to Google around about what women are and aren't "supposed"

to do "down there." Really. It's okay. Google is your friend.

[tammywammy]

50. There's no reason to use the products.

The vagina is self-cleaning. :)

[Islandlife]

40. racist? I dunno, I'm still stuck on "vertical smile"

This is marketing genius. It creates for me an indelible image associated with the product.

However, it's embarrassing to me and I don't want to see it again.

[Mimosa]

49. YES, talking vertical smiles are Freudian ICKY! n/t

[October]

41. Offensive on so many levels. /eom

[trueblue2007]

44. all these ads are soooooooooo offensive. I WILL NEVER BUY THAT PRODUCT

NEVER!!!

[LLStarks]

46. The All-New Axe Detailer. Cleans your balls. nt

[RobinA]

47. Are These For Real?

They are so horrible on so many levels I can't even get to racist.

[FLAprogressive]

52. Not racist but silly...."Vagina-Land"? "Vertical Smile"? Thank god I'm gay. LOL

[zappaman]

53. Rascist? No. Not sexist either.

I remember one gal I dated 30 years ago that could have used some.
I was only a teenager so I had no idea what was going on.
Today, I'd find someway to nicely let her know.

[Mimosa]

56. aaaaaa5a, DU is a 'focus group', right?

Put this left leaning over 50 progressive down for 'ads are attention catching, dumb but funny, not particularly offensive...but don't put them on TV or I will HATE Summer's Eve.' Such commercials on TV embarrass women.

[DRoseDARs]

58. Am I the only one who thought, from the thread title, this had something to do with the ABC program?

Oh lord the disturbing possibilities, I thought, as I opened the thread...