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Author Topic: Monthly Messaging: Marketing Gone Awry
remind
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6289

posted 24 February 2008 09:29 AM      Profile for remind     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Oh man, the following letter was emailed to me and it is too funny, though it does contain some
things that could've been left out.

quote:
This is an actual letter from an Austin woman sent to American company Proctor and Gamble regarding their feminine products. She really gets rolling after the first paragraph. It's PC Magazine's 2007 editors' choice for best webmail-award-winning letter.

[i]Dear Mr. Thatcher,

I have been a loyal user of your 'Always' maxi pads for over 20 years and I appreciate many of their features. Why, without the LeakGuard Core or Dri-Weave absorbency, I'd probably never go horseback riding or salsa dancing, and I'd certainly steer clear of running up and down the beach in tight, white shorts. But my favorite feature has to be your revolutionary Flexi-Wings. Kudos on being the only company smart enough to realize how crucial it is that maxi pads be aerodynamic. I can't tell you how safe and secure I feel each month knowing there's a little F-16 in my pants.

Have you ever had a menstrual period, Mr. Thatcher? Ever suffered from the curse'? I'm guessing you haven't. Well, my time of the month is starting right now. As I type, I can already feel hormonal forces violently surging through my body. Just a few minutes from now, my body will adjust and I'll be transformed into what my husband likes to call 'an inbred hillbilly with knife skills.' Isn't the human body amazing?

As Brand Manager in the Feminine-Hygiene Division, you've no doubt seen quite a bit of research on what exactly happens during your customers monthly visits from 'Aunt Flo'. Therefore, you must know about the bloating, puffiness, and cramping we endure, and about our intense mood swings, crying, jags, and out-of-control behavior. You surely realize it's a tough time for most women. In fact, only last week, my friend Jennifer fought the violent urge to shove her boyfriend's testicles into a George Foreman Grill just because he told her he thought Grey's Anatomy was written by a bunch of drunken chimps,Crazy!

The point is, sir, you of all people must realize that America is just crawling with homicidal maniacs in Capri pants... Which brings me to the reason for my letter Last month, while in the throes of cramping so painful I wanted to reach inside my body and yank out my uterus, I opened an Always maxi-pad, and there, printed on the adhesive backing, were these words: 'Have a Happy Period.'

Are you f**king kidding me? What I mean is, does any part of your tiny middle-manager brain really think happiness - actual smiling, laughing happiness is possible during a menstrual period? Did anything mentioned above sound the least bit pleasurable? Well, did it, James? FYI, unless you're some kind of sick S&M freak girl, there will never be anything 'happy' about a day in which you have to jack yourself up on Motrin and Kahlua and lock yourself in your house just so you don't march down to the local Walgreen's armed with a hunting rifle and a sketchy plan to end your life in a blaze of glory.

For the love of God, pull your head out, man! If you just have to slap a moronic message on a maxi pad, wouldn't it make more sense to say something that's actually pertinent, like 'Put down the Hammer' or 'Vehicular Manslaughter is Wrong', or are you just picking on us?

Sir, please inform your Accounting Department that, effective immediately, there will be an $8 drop in monthly profits, for I have chosen to take my maxi-pad business elsewhere. And though I will certainly miss your Flex-Wings, I will not for one minute miss your brand of condescending bullsh*t. And that's a promise I will keep.

Always.
Best,
Wendi Aarons
Austin , TX



From: "watching the tide roll away" | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560

posted 24 February 2008 09:35 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Haha! That's fabulous.

And yeah, sure, it plays on the hormonal, homocidal maniac on the rag stereotype, but sometimes you've just gotta close your women's studies books and laugh. (I don't get homocidal during periods, but I sure hate them all the same.)

Anyhow, just wondering why this is in the feminism forum - is this shared with babblers as a joke, or did you want to discuss feminist implications of this letter? (Serious question.)


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
martin dufresne
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posted 24 February 2008 09:56 AM      Profile for martin dufresne   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
If the issue is taken up as serious, I wonder if consideration has ever been given - maybe in other countries - to compensate women in some way (tax deduction?) for the pad/tampon/pain-killing drug expenses only they incur between puberty and menopause. Seems to give men an unfair financial advantage.

[ 24 February 2008: Message edited by: martin dufresne ]


From: "Words Matter" (Mackinnon) | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
remind
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6289

posted 24 February 2008 10:49 AM      Profile for remind     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
It can be moved michelle... as I put it up as a funny.
From: "watching the tide roll away" | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
1234567
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 14443

posted 24 February 2008 12:46 PM      Profile for 1234567     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
OMG! I needed a laugh, good one remind!
From: speak up, even if your voice shakes | Registered: Aug 2007  |  IP: Logged
Polly Brandybuck
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Babbler # 7732

posted 24 February 2008 03:02 PM      Profile for Polly Brandybuck     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I love it! "Put down the hammer"....LOL.
From: To Infinity...and beyond! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
Indiana Jones
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Babbler # 14792

posted 24 February 2008 03:27 PM      Profile for Indiana Jones        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by martin dufresne:
If the issue is taken up as serious, I wonder if consideration has ever been given - maybe in other countries - to compensate women in some way (tax deduction?) for the pad/tampon/pain-killing drug expenses only they incur between puberty and menopause. Seems to give men an unfair financial advantage.

[ 24 February 2008: Message edited by: martin dufresne ]


Actually, I seem to recall the NDP proposing that feminine hygiene products be exempt from GST.


From: Toronto / Brooklyn / Jerusalem | Registered: Dec 2007  |  IP: Logged
Polly Brandybuck
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Babbler # 7732

posted 24 February 2008 05:00 PM      Profile for Polly Brandybuck     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Tax breaks on menstrual pads...meh. Let's work on pay equity first. I won't mind spending the whole $8 per month if I am making as much per hour as the guy in the next cubicle.

I can see it being used to point out how much further we've come.


From: To Infinity...and beyond! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
Pride for Red Dolores
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Babbler # 12072

posted 24 February 2008 08:30 PM      Profile for Pride for Red Dolores     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Not to say that that wasn't funny, but I don't think that women should pay taxes on what is an essential product, it's discrimination. How does one do without it ?
As for the have a happy period, it's a much more positive message that pad commercials from a few years ago which portrayed menstruation as something horrible ( I acknowledge that for some women it can be, but for most it's not)as opposed to something normal. I believe that the term essentialist applies here.

From: Montreal | Registered: Feb 2006  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560

posted 26 February 2008 03:18 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Scroll down and watch this spoof. The pharmaceuticals are apparently marketing a pill called "Seasonale" which lets you go for a few months without having a period. (I guess they've decided to market what every woman on the pill has figured out for themselves already, that if you keep taking the active pills without taking the week-long break, you don't get your period.)

So this spoof is about "Annuale", the pill that lets you go for a YEAR without getting your period. It's pretty funny. And a great statement on the way pharmaceuticals try to make women believe that our natural bodily functions like periods are something to be medicated away.

Another amusing, homemade spoof: Season Al

[ 26 February 2008: Message edited by: Michelle ]


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged

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