The cast of Family Guy is shocked: ‘You’ve got to do something! The potholes aren’t getting fixed, the traffic lights aren’t working and tampon commercials no longer use blue liquids in their demonstrations!’
Blue liquid to demonstrate the absorption capacity of sanitary napkins, it has annoyed critics for years. But not the cast of Family Guy. ‘Aaarggh! Make it blue! That’s always been the deal! Make it blue!’ shouts the entire Griffin family when suddenly TV commercials start to use a red liquid. (Click on the image to watch the scene).
The famous blue liquid also makes an appearance in the satirical commercial The Truth. However, not in the way you might expect. This video by Bodyform SCA (Libresse) from 2012 won a Cannes Gold Lion in 2013. It’s a reply to Facebook post by a guy called Richard, and makes fun of all the existing sanitary pad commercial cliches. ‘Sorry Richard,’ says the company’s CEO while pouring herself a glass of blue water, ‘We’ve lied to you. What you’ve seen in our advertisements isn’t a factual representation of events. There’s no such thing as a happy period. And blood isn’t blue.’
Red blood?
In the summer of 2016, Bodyform SCA again won a Gold Lion. This time with the advertisement video #blood, part of the Red.Fit. campaign. The corresponding online platform offers information about exercising during the menstrual period, because ‘no blood should hold us back’. In Blood, blood was flowing. Real blood. However, no menstrual blood; it was all caused by sport injuries.
Now there’s the campaign #bloodnormal, an advertisement which shows the daily life of menstruating women. With girls passing pads in class, a woman asking her friend for a sanitary pad at a dinner party, and a man buying sanitary products in a supermarket. It also shows women experiencing cramps and woman in the shower with blood running down her leg. Last but not least, red liquid is used to demonstrate the pad’s absorbency. Viewers are requested to share the video in order to break the taboo on menstruation. Super (plus) smart marketing.
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More commercials:
Man versus Pad
Very personally yours
Pussy – shark – beaver
The period fairy
Kotex girl
