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February 4, 2012
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Aloud promotes NYWICI members' professional growth, enhances the organization's image and helps attract new members by providing timely, insightful, occasionally controversial viewpoints on topics that are relevant to women's communications careers and encourage conversation.
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A while ago a group of NYWICI women talked about writing a post for this blog called Ads That Shouldn’t Exist in 2010. The idea was to call out advertising that subtly promotes outdated and damaging gender stereotypes. But today I came across an ad so blatant that it deserves to be called An Ad That Shouldn’t Exist in This Millennium.
The ad in question — for the “feminine hygiene” product Summer’s Eve — appears in Woman’s Day magazine. Under the headline Confidence at Work: How to Ask for a Raise, the ad offers eight tips. Guess what number one is:
That’s right. Don’t let a smelly vagina destroy your chances for success. Kudos to AlterNet for the image above and for turning this ad’s shame agenda into a laugh-out-loud funny August 26 article, Hey Ladies, Want a Raise? Wash Your Vagina.
Update: The fall 2010 issue of Ms. Magazine reprinted the Summer's Eve ad in its "no comment" section and also published the company's contact information. If you would like to tell Summer's Eve what you think about their ad, here's how to reach them:
C.B. Fleet Company Inc.
4615 Murray Place
Lynchburg, VA 24502
Tel: (866) 787-6383
summerseve_cares@cpfleet.com
— by Michele Hush
355 Lexington Ave., 15th Fl, New York, NY 10017-6603
T 212-297-2133 F 212-370-9047
New York Women in Communications empowers women in all communications disciplines to reach their full potential by promoting their professional growth and inspiring them to achieve and share their successes in the rapidly changing world of communications.
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Comments
My guess is they thought "bad publicity" will get people talking about the product AND the agency's audacity. Add to that, the publication will also garner more attention, even if its negative attention. Our attention spans are so short - they really had nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing something so outrageous.
I don't know what is worse: That Women's Day magazine agreed to run this ad (but, hey, anything for ad revenues, right?) or that the company made this ad in the first place.
Let's see, maybe NYWICI members in advertising and magazine publishing can help us investigate here:
1) Who was in charge of publishing this ad at Women's Day? According to Mediabistro, the senior account directors advertising/sales at the magazine are: Mark Bernardini, Katie Berry, Beth Burstein, Rebecca Greenwald, Ashley Klopfer-Lucas.
2) Who created the ad for Eve? Here is a statement from Summer's Eve brand manager Angela Bryant, published in Daily Kos (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/8/26/896386/-Want-a-raise-Wash-your-v... — the other comments are worth a read as well):
"I would like to first of all apologize if this ad in anyway has offended anyone. We are taking immediate next steps to remove the ad from circulation. We want you to know that Fleet Laboratories and the Summer's Eve brand have the utmost respect for women. While we understand how some may come to an alternative conclusion regarding our recent ad, that was never our intention. Thank you."
Angela, Angela, "how some may come to an alternative conclusion...?" What about you? You don't find the ad offensive? Tell us, what was your intention with the ad? Contact Angela via LinkedIn and maybe she will share her views with you: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/angela-bryant/1/49/812
If you find the names of those, who are really responsible for the ad at the magazine and at Eve's, share them with us here, and we can out them in public! Oh, and send a letter to the magazine and the company and complain, otherwise, attitudes will never change. You can also submit the ad to Ms Magazines' "No Comment" column: http://www.msmagazine.com/Fall2009/nocomment.asp
This blog post is a great start! Kudos, Michele, as always, for spreading the word and rocking the boat. We need that.
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