I hate sanitary pad advertisements.
I don’t find them embarrassing. It takes a lot more than inconveniently placed advertisements to embarrass me. No, it’s because I find them so unrealistic.
Firstly what is it with the white pants? When I have my period white is the last colour I think about wearing. It’s a bad idea. On the disaster scale it ranks a healthy 9, with only the plague coming in higher.
Then there is the fact that women in pad advertisements are so happy. You’d be forgiven for thinking they were really trying to sell Prozac. These women glow. Their flawless skin shimmers. There isn’t a zit in sight.
Yes, so realistic.
I always look super hot when I have my period. I’m also unbelievably charming and friendly. People just want to be around me.
Anyway all of this is still bearable. I can deal with the fact that they portray women in such a slanted and unrealistic fashion. What I can’t stand is when they over-exaggerate in a sad attempt to advertise some functionality relating to the pad. The focus here is generally on thinness or absorbency.
I feel the need to clear a few things up.
No sanitary pad in the world will suck up a river of water leaving two unsuspecting canoeists stranded. There is also no way that you will get your super thin pad stuck to your head and not realize it’s there.
So what is it that I want from the pad advertisers?
I want them to stop treating me, and other women, like an idiots. Show me a real woman, who has real periods, who understands what I go through every month and most importantly; stop allowing men to conceptualize pad adverts. They don’t get it.