TBWA\Dublin has decided that humour might be the best way of making a point about a controversial and widely surprising decision by creating an ad which parodies the recent move by the Advertising Standards of Ireland (ASAI) to pull Procter & Gamble’s Tampax ‘Tampons & Tea’ TV commercial where two women discuss how best to insert a sanitary towel.
In light of the 84 complaints made by members of the public and the decision by the ASAI to ban the ad on the grounds that it caused “widespread offence”, TBWA has created a make-belief brand called Irish Lady Products (ILP), with warnings that ILP may cause people to react in a number of ways, including “pearl clutching and disapproving glances”.
Censorship
The idea came from a video chat discussion among agency staff about the ASAI decision and what it says about the treatment and censorship of women in Ireland. TBWA copywriter Blaise Hoban said they felt they needed to take a strong position and add their voices to the debate – both as people who work in advertising and as a group committed to gender equality.
In its latest report on complaints made by members of the public about recent campaigns, the ASAI said that the Tampax ad was considered by some complainants to be “offensive and inappropriate to talk about such a sensitive topic in the manner portrayed and that the content had been over-descriptive, inappropriately expressed and with excessive detail”.
The ASAI said that 83 per cent of the complaints about the ad came from women.
P&G’s Tampax ‘Tampons & Tea’ TV ad by Saatchi & Saatchi New York
