Is this tampon ad the worst, or the best thing ever?

It's not your mother's tampon ad. But it's no "Camp Gyno" either.

This Spanish ad for Tampax Pearl, called "This Summer, Get Wet," features a woman in a swimsuit surrounded by male gaze. When one man, for some odd reason, tries to grab a tampon out of her beach bag, she turns the tables on him by using his hand to demonstrate the product's ease of insertion. Then she swims away.



Her line is translated as “It’s never been so easy to place it in the right place."

The Local reports that Tampax Spain received complaints about the ad, saying it was “highly sexed” and degrading. In turn Tampax claims it carried out its own research, which found "98 percent denied it was denigrating to women.”

The source also quotes the advertiser:

“The message we wanted to transmit was that menstruation and tampon usage is something completely normal and natural,” said Tampax in an official statement. “We never intended to give the ad any sexual connotations, we simply wanted to show how easy it is to use.” 

I'm not buying that. But I would like to hear opinions from women, in Spain and elsewhere, about whether this ad is objectifying, empowering, or both. It's certainly the first time I've ever seen a man's hand used to demonstrate tampon insertion, or indeed the only tampon insertion I've ever seen in an ad.

The woman, by the way, is Amaia Salamanca.

Stamp artist trolls the entire nation of France for #Femen

"Dear fascists, nationalists, homophobes and extremists of France, now whenever you want to send a letter, you will have to lick my ass!"

Marianne is the mythical face of the French Revolution. A symbol of France's revolutionary values, Marianne's face graces a series of stamps issued every few years with a new interpretation.

This one just happens to be based on Ukrainian activist Inna Shevchenko, of topless radical protest group Femen.

According to one of the stamp's designers,

"For all those who ask who the model was for Marianne, it's a mix of several women, but particularly Inna Shevchenko, founder of Femen [France]" 

According to The Local, Ms. Shevchenko was not even aware that her face had inspired this small act of nationalist subversion. The artist told the press, "For me, Marianne, who is represented bare-breasted, would probably have been a Femen in 1789 because she fought for the Republic's values - liberty, equality and fraternity."

France's Christian Democrat Party has demanded a boycott of the stamp as "an affront to the dignity of women and the sovereignty of France."

The Amazing Spider-Pram: Redefining gendered toys

(Image via Fru K blog)

This image, from the recent toy catalogue of Swedish retailer Leklust, is getting a lot of play on social media right now for its image of a kid in a Spider-Man costume pushing a pink doll carriage.

As reported in The Local, Leklust CEO Kaj Wiberg told Metro, "Gender roles are an outdated thing... I'm 71 years old, and those of us who have worked in this industry for a while know that boys play with doll houses. We know that boys can play with Barbie dolls."

The catalogue has other non-stereotypical images as well:

Nice to see. I'd love to see more of it.

F'd Ad Fridays: Sweden's barfiest ad ever

Hold on to your lunch...



According to The Local:

"Price comparison website Flygresor.se chose to market themselves through a television commercial in which a man vomits on his friend after the two discuss how much they paid for their plane tickets.

Nearly two dozen offended viewers reported the ad to the Swedish Advertising Ombudsman (Reklamombudsmannen, RO), which ruled that the ad was indeed offensive.

In its ruling, the agency cites complaints that having to watch a person vomiting without being forewarned made viewers nauseous and made them lose their appetite."

Ummm... yeah. Blargh.