More than a few of you have emailed me after having gone to see Harry Potter this past week – but not regarding Potter. You’re all talking about this commercial from the previews before the movie:
Link? Link!
So, what do you think? There’s a whole lineup of “Hail to the V” commercials, with a talking hand that’s snort-worthy the first time you see it. And I’m all for appreciating and celebrating all things vagina. But I was almost disappointed it was for a product I wouldn’t use, and one that I’m suspicious of, since it uses scents to mask and generally disguise the actual vagina-ness of your friendly every day vagina, implying that soap isn’t enough. You need to make sure your downy curls and whatever else smell like blossoming concoctions of scent.
Whether folks are irritated and disgusted or totally falling-off-the-chair amused, I’m fascinated by how controversial this commercial is. Some people have emailed me laughing themselves silly, while others are irritated and angry that “hailing one’s V” involves making it smell like Summer’s Eve and Other Natural Scents like Tropical Rain or Island Splash (which, I believe, come from the same etymological origin as “one’s almighty awful yeast infection”).
So, welcome to a rather divisive Friday Video. What do you think?
very little bothers me, so what MarieC said:
But like some others said above, target marketing fail. Why would they put this before Harry Potter?!?!
Not really my taste~ crude and offensive. Thankfully I haven’t seen it anywhere knock on wood. so I am only mildy annoyed.
Yes this ad is offensive it implies men only want women for the “v”.
definitely Objectificatify. Also laughably bad since probably not of those ladies had the products and they got guys to kill each other over it. Definitely sick, and not HP appropriate.
Jamisings, I am offended by the ad and slogan; not the product.
I have never noticed other womens’ smells. I try to mind my own business.
Finally results 64 I care little about the product.
Oh for heaven’s sake, just get a bidet installed instead of bothering with potentially harmful chemicals.
@Redcrow – Way to misinterperate! I’m saying there are FAR MORE IMPORTANT THINGS to be offended by. By getting all up in arms about this you’re drawing attention to it, giving them free advertising, meaning women who wouldn’t have known about this are likely now to go out and buy it just to see what the fuss is about. Like how people went to see The Last Temptation Of Christ simply because people were protesting it.
What I’m saying is – stop getting your knickers in a twist about unimportant things. Douches, in the end, don’t deserve any sort of attention. Stop giving them free advertising, pretend they don’t exist. Eventually people will stop buying them because you’re no longer doing the companies’ work for them. Most of the women who use them are ones like my mom who grew up with Lysol & bleach ones. I only rarely use them myself. Maybe once every five years.
There’s so many more important things in life to burn energy on then douche. And if you think there isn’t maybe it’s time to reprioritize you life.
Am I the only person who looked at the dudes fighting with staffs in a forest and saw microbes and dirt among pubes? OK, just me, then.
Part of me is disheartened that another generation of young’uns is being sold the idea that girly parts are filthy and disgusting unless they’re specially cleaned and scented. Part of me admires the creative mind behind the video. All of me is glad I got the straight dope about feminine hygiene from a knowledgeable medical professional – my mother, the nurse – at a fairly young age, and was immediately rendered impervious to this particular kind of marketing nonsense. I hope mothers will disabuse their daughters of the kind of notions this campaign may impart.
BWAhahahaha!
Because I’m 12.
@JamiSings, in my experience, telling other people what is important and what isn’t leads to acrimony. It may not be important to YOU, but saying that it shouldn’t be important to someone else (to whom it may be important) is a quick way to start a flame war.
@Wendy:
You are awesome.
Ridiculous commercial, but not nearly as offensive as the Hornitos commercial that makes a joke out of date rape.
First, I don’t think it is a “douche” per se. I believe it is a product to be used externally. Then, I love the homage and the generous use of poles, sabers and swords as symbols. Finally, I wonder how they would symbolize the action filled first part of this ad were it for a male oriented product of similar type. Maybe scouring machetes or some use of that bowling ball cleaner bristly thing at the bowling alley.
I seriously just gazed right on past the fact that this was shown before Harry Potter. Whaaaaaaaaaat? Is this incontrovertible proof that Harry Potter’s fan demographic is not children, as was purported, but women ages 25-40?
This product is not at all a douche its a wash specifically for your lady parts that is not as harsh as your typical bar soap and is pH balanced that kind of thing. Not at all meant to be used internally. Also comes unscented for people who are allergic to scented tampons wipes etc. Funny commercial
My eight year old daughter watched one of the hand Hail to the V ads, and her response: “That’s disgusting. That’s stupid. and that’s NOT necessary. Why should my vagina smell like flowers? And who is going to have their face down there to smell it?” *cough* that last question I left vague. LOL!
And can I also point out that the commercial is telling us that ninjas and knights found our vaginas so irresistible that they would fight and die for them…that was long before Summer’s Eve even existed.
I honestly didn’t even consider it offensive for the vagina-shame aspect.
Where I found it offensive was that these men are fighting and dying over vaginas. Not the women attached to them.
“The cradle of life… men fought over it… men died over it… so make sure its clean and smells awesome!”
Even if men reduce women to vaginas and what those vaginas can do for them, there is no way this should be acceptable.
Wait, there are scented vaginal wipes? Oh, the inculcated genital shame! Are there any other countries (originally typoed that without an ‘o’ appropriately) where this and applicator tampons are the norm?
Two things – water alone is perfectly adequate to wash your wholly self-cleaning genitalial (soap of any kind = bad); and, as has been pointed out before, who wants a mouthful of perfume? Ick, yuck, wrong – and that’s before you even get tot he target demographic.
Whilst I like the idea that women probably should give their V some love and attention as part of giving themselves the same, I don’t support the product. I don’t like the idea that this is just one more thing to worry about as a woman. And the idea that that’s all women are… how do we say objectify! We’ve fought for the rights we have today, raise our children to understand those and aim for the stars and here we have an ad’ reducing us to a single body part.
And on the subject of making our V smell good – I always like the idea of the tisane mentioned in Le Divorce. I never actually tried it, but at least the idea of drinking something that “perfumes the juices” makes more sense.
Would’ve been seriously funny as a vibrator commercial.
But let’s face it—no one needs to advertise vibrators, because if ever there was a self-marketing product, they are it. “Feminine hygiene” products are at the other end of the spectrum, designed to address an artificially created “problem.” If companies didn’t constantly bombard us with the message that we needed this stuff, no one would spontaneously buy it.
I got seriously turned off by Dane Cook (as if one needed a specific reason) by a bit he did on a woman whose vagina was so “dirty” that she must have only washed it with another, dirtier vagina. My immediate thought was that if he’s that ignorant, he must be shit in the sack.
Andplustoo I don’t think he’s funny.
Change29: If I could change 29 things about myself, my vagina would not be among them.
Continuing the proud cosmetic industry tradition of inventing new body problems that they can solve, for a small fee. I remember seeing an ad for a similar product from the 1950’s (“I was trapped in a web of cruel indifference from my husband until I freshened up down there!”) and smiling at the silly attitudes of those wacky mid-century people. But I guess induced insecurity is as big a seller now as ever.
I can’t believe this was shown before HP. Stupid placement.
And I agree with the post saying another reason for us to feel bad about our nether parts. Love the beginning,; hated the ending.
For many years I was yet another woman who thought “that area” was ugly and smelly…maybe it was the culture of the 1950/60s. It took a man to change my mind…I bless him to this day. He even told his friends—- seriously. Unusual compliment but a compliment.
We must change the idea that vagina=smelly but cock=strong.
Leave the beginning of the commercial, cut out the very end and just list the product’s name. It would be a stronger commercial.
@Shari:
Probably. If one of us were suddenly transported into the past, we would certainly notice new, and not always acceptable, smells. Various kinds of body odour would have been much more common, as would the particularly disagreeable smell of long-unwashed clothing, and in city streets, there would have been strong scents of horses (pleasant), and horse-dung (not quite so pleasant). Likewise, if a person from the past suddenly landed in a 20th/21stC environment, they would notice modern smells; traffic fumes smell worse, and are much unhealthier, than horse-dung, and the pervasive stench of cigarette smoke in many environments up to quite recently would bother anyone unaccustomed to it.
The good news is that we unconsciously edit out ‘background’ sounds and smells, so that a time-traveller would become inured to the ‘new’ smells, good and bad, within weeks or even days, just as happens when we live for a while in a different contemporary culture, where life smells different from home.
Oooh, oooh, I remember that! Norforms, I think they were called. I remember ads in the back of TV Guide, something about “the embarrassing problem married women face.” What? What problem? Bad cooking? I was just a kid then, so I decided to Ask Mom. I think she told me they were some kind bullet-shaped douche product. (I knew about the douching thing—Mom was an avid user of the paraphernalia. When it came to such matters, especially anatomy and sex, she was the dispenser of mostly wrong information that she sticks with to this day.) Anyway, store shelves used to be full of these different products (anyone remember Massengill?): powders, liquids, disposable bottles. Now they’re mostly gone. Goodbye and good riddance.
I didn’t get anything about a douche in this advertisement, it’s for a cleanser and cleaning cloths, though they may very well have a douche product for sale. This may be tmi but I have crazy sensitive skin so cleansers containing soap cause bad irritation – I’ve used Summer’s Eve sensitive skin cleanser for years for that reason. The perfumes in the products down in the video are kinda crazy though.
As I read through the comments I became curious about the “v.” What does it stand for—vulva or vagina? If its vulva (the outside) then the product is just fancy overpriced baby wipes and spray. If its vagina (the inside) then its a douche. Either way, why is it necessary?
My captcha is perhaps so perhaps its a douche or perhaps its baby wipes.
The retail-experienced cynic in me is thinking that the placement in Harry Potter previews was intentional and perfect. It was a superb venue for reaching a target audience of insecure girls & young women who are obsessed with being attractive to boys.
Re: smelly history. In 1990 or so, I did the tourist thing in the British Isles. A whole bunch of places we went, including the York Viking museum, were really big on making things smell authentic. I went through several tours breathing through my sweater (‘cause I didn’t have a hanky). I still wonder why they wanted to inflict that stench on people.
It’s a shallow, vulgar, meretricious marketing ploy. As I said earlier, people who lived at the time would not notice the smell, so inflicting it on modern people is not ‘authentic’ in any way.
I do think the ad is offensive and assumes something’s wrong down there. Marketing it to teenage girls just keeps the misinformation flowing.
Check out this Lysol ad. Seriously, people, just take a bath. http://imageshack.us/f/30/lysolad.jpg/
Ooops! KatieM beat me to it. I was reading backwards. LOL
Captcha: Hard24 *snicker*
Wahoo Suze: Now you’ve got me wondering *how* they made the exhibits and museums smell authentic. No, that’s OK, don’t tell me, I’ll sleep better not knowing.
I feel sure that most smells can be chemically synthesised, and seriously doubt whether even at the Jorvik centre (in York), where this kind of approach was pioneered, they have piles of steaming ordure behind the scenes.
Fortunately my curatorial career was spent in a more conventional museum. Unduly organic smells were definitely not encouraged.
OMG, that was an awesome commercial. I laughed myself silly. And it did exactly what it set out to do. It caught our attention, and we took note of the product. Fabulous and original. I also liked that they took it in a different direction than usual and didn’t pull the whole ‘aren’t-you-embarrassed-by-your-body’s-smell’ route.
I find the product offensive. The ad is just kinda ridiculous. Leave it to marketers to try and put a positive spin on historical ownership of women (i.e. women as chattel) to try and sell a product. i am suspicious of the notion that our magical and mysterious hoo-has have somehow driven world politics for centuries, and are the most powerful things on the face of the planet. Women are powerful because of our intelligence, wit, charm resourcefulness, etc. NOT because of our va-jay-jays.
This product has been around for years.. why are women still buying into the notion our bodies are somehow dirty. Where’s Adam’s FAll … cleansing cloths for the average douchebag?
Yes, they were chemically synthesized. The dominant aroma, as I recall, was burning peat. I get that it was the main source of fuel, but holy cow, unpleasant.
I thought it silly. I wonder though what Storm Large would have thought of it with her 8 miles wide one:
Burning coal (familiar to people of my generation) is not a great smell, either, but burning anything is probably better than rotting kitchen waste! Exposing anyone to unfamiliar smells suddenly, and for a very short period, simply doesn’t convey a true impression of how the smells would have been perceived by those who knew them well. It’s a culture-shock experience, which is almost the reverse of what one wants to achieve, namely a true insight into how the people of the past interacted with their own world.
I remember when I first lived in the city where I went to university, I detested the smell of the local brewery which would waft over the town when the wind set in a certain direction. By the time I moved on, 4 years later, I simply didn’t notice it — and in later years, encountering the characteristic smell of brewing beer simply makes me feel nostalgic for the place where I first encountered it.
Not just Harry Potter, this is showing up on about 1 out of every 5 Hulu videos I (or my son watch). The first time I saw it I laughed at its outrageousness, but it gets old fast and pushes a product we DON’T need!
I was entertained until it jumped to “reality” which to me was more of a letdown than the fact that it’s selling douche.
On a related note, has anyone else ever read “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” by Tom Robbins? One of the stranger books I’ve read, but that more than anything else has convinced me never to try any of these products!
Are you KIDDING me?? I am a little late to the game, but I can’t believe this ad hasn’t pissed more people off. As if we aren’t reduced to what’s between our legs enough, now marketing targeted AT us is doing it too??
I get the appeal of men fighting over women – we all read romance novels – but this commercial actually has them fighting over our VAGINAS. come ON. Because that’s the only part of us that matters to men, right? The cradle of LIFE? No, that’s a freaking womb, tyvm, and in addition, you need a PARENT to make sure that life actually survives.
Ugggghhhhhh. This is one of the most offensive commercials I have maybe ever seen. How come guys get the Old Spice guy, and we get THIS?