Comments on Creepy Secret

It was "Ain't I a woman"

Hey, David, you know Secret and Sure brand anti-perspirants share the same patent number, don't you?
I guess Sure is made for a woman too.

Dear IAITD: Um, I know. That's why I said 'paraphrase.'

Dear Mydogben: Thanks for the heads-up on the genderbending antipersperant.

Ah, we've come a long way, baby. All the way from going to college to get an MRS degree to ... obsessing over engagement rings. Wow. What progress.

You know, if they really want to show women putting an antiperspirant to the test, maybe they need to think about, oh, I dunno, serious athletes, Congresswomen, roofers, or coders on rollout day. I mean, c'mon, who'd be a better ad for an antiperspirant than a CEO on the witness stand?

Advertising seems to take longer than any other medium to catch up to the idea of social change. You still see ads showing women having to laughingly rescue grown men from laundry disasters, because after all, everyone knows men don't have the clothing-washing gene.

...and I managed to convince my mother until I was 17 years old that I was too stupid to do laundry myself...

That's hardly the worst of these ads. The worst one is where the mom tells her daughter that she paid her prom date to go with her.

Jesus. Finding out you took a mom-funded hooker to the prom=ouch.

It was like something from the 18th century. Discussing marriage about/with a guy there's no implication she's even dating. Who does that? "Yeah, she's hot, funny, laid back - wouldn't mind marrying her." Totally twilight zone.

Does the idea of sharing a deodorant stick with your mom kind of squick anyone else out? Hey, mom, how about if we DON'T "Share the Secret", OK? Or do you want to use my toothbrush too, you sicko.

Is the fact that we're deconstructing advertisements for deoderant a sign that feminism is running out of real battles to fight?

Not quite EVERYTHING on the Slog is The Final Battle Between Good and Evil, Sean.

Have you all seen the one with a mother and daughter where the daughter confesses to playing "Spin-the-bottle" at a party? The mother smiles and says, "I know already". Then there are big laughs for all.

FNARF: "Not quite EVERYTHING on the Slog is The Final Battle Between Good and Evil, Sean."

That's pretty funny!

Thanks for stopping by, David. This kind of campaign is what happens when corporations try to retrofit an honest idea to get it aligned with brand platforms and positioning statements. The sad thing is all of the effort that went into this campaign was wasted because nobody could tell that it would ultimately fail when it was tested out in the real world against the sensibilities of thinking people.