Althouse: Don't even say "down there"...

March 25, 2010

Don't even say "down there"...

... over here.

36 comments:

Adventurer said...: Don't you just hate petty censorship?; 3/26/10, 12:10 AM
Adam said...: How on earth did this ad ever get on the air?; 3/26/10, 12:15 AM
chickelit said...: Whatever happened to "if it bleeds, it leads"?; 3/26/10, 12:37 AM
chickelit said...: How on earth did this ad ever get on the air?

For the same reason this used to be aired. It's just a question of which meaning came first.; 3/26/10, 12:47 AM
veni vidi vici said...: Funny mershal. Would've been better if she'd casually worked the word "vagina" in there, though.

Like those Cialis ads with the couple sitting in his 'n hers bathtubs at the end of a pier, watching the sun set or something at least as asininely demented as that image is, which would be even more effective if the narrator talking about 4+ hour erections, loose stools and the rest of it had managed to work in the term "dong" once or twice...

I don't know what's wrong with these people. Really, don't they know how to REACH an audience?

wv: "ablact" -- That stupid insurance company duck, attempting to play the race card.; 3/26/10, 1:58 AM
Penny said...: Parody or not, that ad was absurd. If that's the kind of work Kotex's ad agency does, I'm imagining what they'd do with an ad containing the word "vagina", and it isn't pretty.; 3/26/10, 1:58 AM
Penny said...: My favorite personal protection ad of all time was a print ad with an attractive young girl in some tiny hiking shorts leading the way up a steep cliff with a handsome young man on her tail, head slightly turned, with the biggest shit eating grin you would ever want to see.

That ad must be at least 30 years old and still makes me laugh when I think about it.; 3/26/10, 2:04 AM
Anonymous said...: It's always about female genitalia here at Althouse. She evades the really important questions, such as why can't Trojan-brand condoms commercials can't say cock.; 3/26/10, 2:41 AM
MamaM said...: I often find visuals more disconcerting than words. The Tampax ad representing "mother nature's monthly gift" as a sliding little red package tied with red ribbons gives me the creeps. Way too visceral.; 3/26/10, 2:46 AM
rhhardin said...: Feminine needs aisle.; 3/26/10, 3:08 AM
rhhardin said...: They rejected the ad because of the cat.; 3/26/10, 3:11 AM
Unknown said...: That TV censors anything anymore is a surprise, they say everything else. There may be hope yet.

El Pollo Real said...

Whatever happened to "if it bleeds, it leads"?

Go to your room.; 3/26/10, 5:50 AM
Anonymous said...: They could say "bearded clam," as that would ... oh wait, that is a tragically obsolete term today :(

Peter; 3/26/10, 6:11 AM
kentuckyliz said...: Japanese flag

WV tasing; 3/26/10, 6:13 AM
kentuckyliz said...: I have nothing to say but

WV pubigerr

LOL!!!!; 3/26/10, 6:14 AM
AllenS said...: I really hate to say this, but...

Look! It's an onion ring with ketchup!; 3/26/10, 6:35 AM
Fred4Pres said...: I heard Tina Fey say "douchebag" and a string of other similar words on 30 Rock last night as a joke on what you can say on TV now.

So everyone can say penis. But vagina is a no no?; 3/26/10, 7:13 AM
Scott said...: We live in a country where a movie showing two adults having consensual sex is considered pornographic, and a movie showing someone being shot and dismembered isn't.; 3/26/10, 7:33 AM
Scott said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/26/10, 7:33 AM
Gary Kirk said...: This post and its comments are just another reminder that everybody's "privates" are not "private" anymore.; 3/26/10, 7:44 AM
Scott said...: When I saw the headline, I thought the post was about Australia.; 3/26/10, 7:47 AM
Jason said...: Why do you have to be such a f___ing tattle-tale, Scott?; 3/26/10, 7:47 AM
Scott said...: Couldn't they just use a substitute word that would convey the same idea?

Like "Virginia"?

Then all the kids would think it was about taking a vacation.; 3/26/10, 7:50 AM
vet66 said...: Remember "Feminine deodorant spray?" I accidentally used it for deodorant one morning and smelled like "Spring Rain" all day (It really lasted all day, too.)

Too funny...! Every once in awhile I overhear the ladies talking about the latest incident of failure to properly stow the string attached to the "Pearl" while wearing a bikini.

Too bad we have to couch the "period" in terms such as "Aunt Flo(w)" like the men and other women can't figure it out the condition on their own. Humor is the answer in dealing with this but then takes away the seriousness of the view that being female is a disorder to feminists.; 3/26/10, 8:48 AM
mRed said...: I remember my then young son (and young girlfriend) squirm as we watched an ad for jock itch cream during a TV show. I commented to my wife that soon we'd be seeing commercials about 'down there.' She told me that would never happen because some things are sacred. While I whole heartedly agreed with what she said, she was wrong about TV ads.; 3/26/10, 8:50 AM
dbp said...: "An executive for Kimberly-Clark, the owner of Kotex, notes that US TV networks have no such compunction about references to "erectile dysfunction" in prime-time ads for Viagra and Ciallis".

In all fairness, I'm pretty sure the erectile dysfunction drug ads never say "penis" or "down there" either.; 3/26/10, 8:59 AM
AllenS said...: Erectile dysfunction drug ads never say down there, because they want you to think up about here.; 3/26/10, 9:23 AM
Scott said...: Cuba Gooding Jr. for Cialis; 3/26/10, 9:36 AM
Moira Breen said...: ...US TV networks have no such compunction about references to "erectile dysfunction" in prime-time ads for Viagra and Ciallis".

But "erectile dysfunction" is a euphemism. (Anything with the word "dysfunction" in it is likely a euphemism.)

Euphemisms end up being euphemized themselves. Though earlier ad writers for tampons and pads took euphemism to such a high level of abstraction and incomprehensibility that for one brief shining era the word almost achieved escape velocity from the thing: I still remember the elaborately evening-gowned woman adorning the whole side of the magazine page, alone in an empty grey space, gaze fixed on infinity, be-captioned "Modess...because". After 45 years I'm still wondering "because...what?"; 3/26/10, 10:11 AM
chuck b. said...: Vagina should be seen and not heard.; 3/26/10, 10:17 AM
kimsch said...: On late night TV the "sweet young thing" is interviewing Jimmy Johnson asking if extenZe really works. Typing that out - Johnson....

Did you know you can get a week's supply for the price of a postage stamp and it comes with an invitation to dinner with Jimmy Johnson at an extenZe event?

Really?

You'd really want to go to an event and dinner for that?

wv: peterm; 3/26/10, 10:26 AM
Phil 314 said...: I loved the ad. As did my wife (a boomer) and my daughter (a Millenial)

who was offended?

(Now this does remind of this:
As a kid my mom always made it point to use the "real" word when discussing such things, so as a kid I was comfortable with words like "penis", "vagina". I quickly found out that my friends and their parents were uh.... not so much.

So as an adult and a physician I took the same approach. Sure enough my kids found that using such words was not ok

Oh well.; 3/26/10, 12:23 PM
Phil 314 said...: PS
Surely "vagina" is less offensive than
if you have an erection lasting more than four hours call your physician

(though its a great straight line for a whole hosts of responses i.e. "If you have an erection last more than four hours _____________"); 3/26/10, 12:26 PM
John henry said...: Whatever happened to "The mouse's bedtime"?

Anyone else follow the link to the mooncup? It is a cup that replaces tampons. They have a video of how to install it that is kind of interesting. SFW but a bit odd.

They also are having a contest for all the euphemisms for vagina such as lady garden etc.

John Henry
www.changeover.com

WV is eques. Does that imply that I am half hung like a horse?; 3/26/10, 1:05 PM
Methadras said...: Advertising feminine hygiene products is stupid. On the other hand, watching middle aged men walk around in commercials talking about their erectile dysfunctions is just revolting. There is no shame anymore.; 3/26/10, 8:56 PM
Methadras said...: Hey at least they didn't call 'Gasheesh'.; 3/26/10, 8:58 PM