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.
Yeah, clearly it's suggesting penetration. I agree that it's not denigrating.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, Ivan! That's how I felt, too. Definitely sexual, but is it objectifying of the woman, or empowering, or both?
DeleteI can't really grasp the idea of objectification. I already asked two people to explain me but still don't get it... Maybe you can help.
DeleteIn the simplest terms, objectification is presenting a woman as a body, not a person. (The crude term for this is "fuck puppet".)
DeleteThe ultimate objectification is stripping, or porn in which the woman's sex is presented as a commodity to be consumed by men (even if only visually) for their own pleasure. In ads, the best recent example is models like Kate Upton who are better known for their breasts than anything the are, say or do — besides shaking those things.
The problem with objectification is that it portrays women as purely sexual objects. It may seem like a small thing in a burger ad, but if you've ever read any of these leaked fraternity e-mails referring to fellow students as "slam pieces" it's not that difficult to make the jump to justifying certain forms of rape.
so many Spanish women commenting....
ReplyDeleteAnd so many profound comments from you.
Deleteabout as profound as this one u made lol silly shit...
DeleteI am not a Spanish woman but I am a woman who live in Spain. I don't feel like it is objectifying anymore than the usual sexy girl in bathing suit ad, but nor is it empowering. It's just over-the-top sexual in a rather goofy and bizarre way, what the Spanish call "picante" (roughly translated as hot in a fun sort of way). I get the feeling that the ad makers were aiming for that kind of vibe, a bright, colorful, fun and sexy ad for women but they totally missed the mark, in my opinion. It's just weird! But maybe I should ask a Spanish woman as I'm not the cultural target here.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rachel!
DeleteIt's not objectifying. It's not even that sexual, if you subscribe to the menstruation is a natural part of life thing because plastic wrapper tampon-inserters are not sexual. The oddest part of the ad is that a strange man is reaching into her purse and nobody yells "stop, thief!"
ReplyDeleteMaybe tampon pickpursery is a normal part of Spanish culture?
DeleteDoubt it. It's just the simplest way for the creatives to make a skit out of the briefs exact keywords. There's no reason for the purse-pickpocketing. Her inserting the tampon into his hand is not penetration (you guys, seriously, take a cold shower), it's product demonstration. She's being "sexy" because she's "in control" and what she demonstrates is that with this tampon you are "in control" of where it ends up.
DeleteI just analyzed a plate of beans that wouldn't even register had you not brought it up. Every try ignoring shit instead of sticking a flag in it?
love how you think :)
Delete"Every try ignoring shit instead of sticking a flag in it?"
DeleteBut then I wouldn't get your beantacular analysis, Åsk...
How smart... You take the advertising cliche of male gaze and bathing beauty and rather than perpetuate that notion that the vagina is something dirty, shameful, and weak you use a male-hand in its place: suddenly this everyday implement can be shown and bodies are bodies are bodies. And, the guys are interested: she has nothing to be ashamed of,; no one has anything to fear. Love it. Could be better, but conceptually, it's keen.
ReplyDelete(and I don't mean fear like rapey stuff or something. Just the guys aren't alarmed by that this gorgeous woman has biology and other internal aspects.)
Delete