Thinx has been getting a lot of free advertising lately, thanks to all the media coverage about their supposedly controversial advertisements for period-friendly underwear. First, the New York subway didn’t want to run the ads, but after receiving criticism for rejecting them, the ads went up in MTA stations after all. Now, Vistar Media — an ad company in charge of taxi video screen advertisements — has rejected Thinx’s underwear ads, claiming they “could be offensive to riders.”
These ads contain the same imagery that appeared in the other previously-rejected ads, such as a piece of fruit (pictured above) and a broken egg. Here are some examples of the ads that would appear:
Thinx digital strategist Matthew Michaelson and Thinx CEO Miki Agrawal wanted to give Vistar Media a second chance to change their mind, so they sent examples of articles written about the press surrounding the MTA’s initial rejection and later approval of Thinx ads. Still, Vistar Media responded in the negative. Agrawal is baffled: “I cannot believe it. The nerve to actually deny those after the onslaught of negative tweets that the MTA got from thousands of women. It’s absurd.”
To me, these Thinx advertisements seem so innocuous in terms of their content, especially compared to other ads I see out and about. Sure, it’s obvious what the piece of fruit and the egg are meant to represent, in context — but that imagery is precisely what makes the ad memorable. If it were just a picture of a woman in underwear, would anyone even look twice at it?
I’m not sure whether the advertisers are objecting to the images used or the use of the word “period” or both; according to NY Mag, it sounds like the imagery of fruit and eggs is more the issue, but it’s not 100% clear. Either way, though, I’m having trouble mustering much sympathy. Even the word “period” is, ultimately, a euphemism — it technically only means, “a length of time.” It’s not as though one could argue that these ads are somehow inappropriate for children, either. As a kid, I would’ve had no clue what these meant (at least, not until they became applicable to my life). The discomfort about these ads clearly comes from some other concern — a deep discomfort about even the tamest of euphemisms to do with menstruation. That is absurd.
(via Jezebel)
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