An ad for pads stole the show during the Super Bowl.
Always, one of the biggest makers of feminine care products (the things women use during their period), debuted a 60-second spot during Sunday night’s game, highlighting the brand’s “Like A Girl” campaign. The ad push, which began last summer, shows differences in how young women, boys and young girls perceive the phrase, “like a girl.” The Super Bowl ad won kudos all over the Internet for changing the conversation about what it means to run, throw and do pretty much any activity “like a girl.”
The ad may be the first time a feminine care product was advertised during the Super Bowl and is a prominent example of how companies trying to woo women customers are shifting advertising tactics. Historically, ads hawking shampoos and cleaning products have focused largely on selling women a more idealized version of themselves: a “supermom” who keeps a spotless house, or a supermodel who dances around in an all-white outfit during the depths of her period. But certain brands, like Procter & Gamble’s Always, are now selling products to women using a combination of empowering messages and realistic portrayals of their target shopper.
The idea for the touchy-feely ad campaign came from a common business exercise: analyzing consumer research. Fama Francisco, vice president of Global Always, and her colleagues looked closely at the data and found that girls experience a significant drop in self-confidence when they hit puberty.
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Still, some say Always’ Super Bowl ad didn’t go far enough. Elissa Stein, co-author of Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation, noted that the spot never discussed the experience of having a period. Companies have shied away from talking about menstruation since the 1920s, when the first feminine care products came to the market. Stein argued that’s because the best way to sell pads and tampons is to get women to feel like their periods are shameful, embarrassing and dirty episodes.
“I thought they did a great job, but it has zero to do with menstruation, as do most menstrual ads,” Stein said. “Everybody was talking about toe fungus,” she added, referring to a Super Bowl ad for the fungal treatment Jublia, “and yet you can’t about periods.”
Despite her criticism, Stein said that airing an ad for feminine products during the Super Bowl was “groundbreaking.” At certain points in American history, such advertising wasn’t allowed on TV at all, she said. But in Stein’s ideal world, the campaign would “not just be about being a girl, or being a woman,” she said. It would be about “being a girl or a woman who has a period, and that’s okay.”
