Take a look at this Playtex tampon ad. One of these women is not like the others.

This popped up on my Pandora page, and I couldn’t help but be distracted by it.  Playtex’s current ad campaign is based on the idea that “every woman’s body is different,” and at first glance it’s a pretty standard tampon ad. Lots of pink and girly girls – note the skirts and long hair. But if you look at this ad, you’ll see that two out of the three female figures depicted here are almost identical, just posed differently. The woman in the middle and the one on the right are both very slim. They are ideal according to the “thin is in” mentality glorified in the media, but in all likelihood quite a bit smaller than the average American woman. The woman on the left is the only who looks “different,” as her silhouette is significantly more curvy than the others featured in the ad. (I’ll be using “curvy” as a very relative term – obviously, the “curvy” woman here is really pretty average, but she’s rather curvy in comparison to the other women in the ad.)

This is a tampon ad, and obviously a woman’s physical appearance has nothing to do with what type of tampon is right for her. But because it presents a picture of female silhouettes, in which we can see only the superficial outlines of three bodies, the focus of this ad becomes female body size and shape. Read More »

Drinking too much is bad. Urging people to drink safely and stay away from their car after a few beers is good. Using a half-naked chick to tell people drinking too much is bad, especially if they want to drive…is confusing.

Arrive Alive, an organization devoted to ending drunk driving, has recently begun a prevention campaign that consists of lifelike stickers of a totally wasted girl in both men’s and women’s restrooms. The girl in the men’s restroom sticker is sitting with her thigh-high stockinged legs apart, eyes drooping, as though she’s just stumbled into the wrong bathroom and collapsed on the floor. I’ll sober up when I’m behind the wheel, her black shirt states. Read More »

I have so many issues with this one, I don’t even know where to begin. So here goes nothing.

P-Diddy the Perfume? WTF??? Ok, technically it’s Sean John, but P-Diddy is Sean John- so still I say WTF? – Double WTF???

Is there really a girl out there that is going to buy this sh*t… let alone wear it? I can smell it now… hundreds of fat-backed, skank-ass, halter top-wearing honeys packing the 40 /40 club donning Diddy’s “fresh” new scent- I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

I can only imagine it smells a bit like the enclosed storefront ATM by my apartment that a homeless man has conveniently made his own personal restroom… with a hint of “Meadows & Rain” Febreze.

Personal taste aside, MTV has refused to air the ads for P-Diddy’s unforgiveable fragrance “Unforgiveable Women” by Sean John. Although MTV has declined to comment, Puffy says the spots were “deemed too provocative and too sexual for television with cable network executives reportedly demanding the erotic content be edited.”

There is no question the ads are a bit on the racy side, but certainly no more sexually offensive than MTV’s Spring-Break and Real World gropefests. The reality of the situation is the ads are as pungent as the perfume itself… they just stink. Take a look for yourself.

See the ad after the jump. Read More »