Monday, July 18, 2011

9024: V Is For Vacuous, Vile & Vomit.


Summer’s Eve veers from Carlton the Cat to Cleopatra with its “Hail to the V” campaign.

The brand has also transitioned from advertising that looked like it was produced for a dime to big-budget extravaganzas—yet both extremes ultimately appear to be a colossal waste of money. The cheap stuff of previous years at least managed to be forgettable. “Hail to the V” cries for attention by figuratively exposing its genitalia, making the campaign cheap in a totally different way.

The Richards Group—creators of the offensive Chad and Ranjit for MetroPCS—is responsible for this latest batch of vaginal stink for Summer’s Eve. Were any adwomen behind this concept? Similar to the new “Got PMS?” milk campaign from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, “Hail to the V” feels male-oriented, especially with the nods to action/adventure movies. It’s hard to believe this garbage might have passed through focus group testing.

To be clear, saluting the vajayjay is not necessarily a bad angle. The Vagina Monologues has been successful for well over a decade. But it draws its inspiration from women, not warriors, knights and gladiators.

“From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor” by Jerry Della Femina recounted admen being charged with generating ideas for Pursettes tampons. The sophomoric solutions included using the feminine products as torches for dwarfs. Sorry, but “Hail to the V” shows that Madison Avenue has not evolved much from its Mad Men roots.

The Summer’s Eve campaign deserves to be labeled with a few choice C-Words: Culturally Clueless Crap.



P.S. Summer’s Eve couldn’t completely abandon its corny heritage. Note the “Fresh Daily” signage in the background as the women checks out her douche package.

2 comments:

on a lark said...

vulgar.

'nature is endeared by the wooded path, but offended where too many tread.' -ralph waldo emerson

Simone Pratt said...

The worse yet is the African Americansummary on the youtube video:
"You heard me! You best be headed to the store for some dermatologist-tested Summer's Eve Cleansing Wash and Cloths. Soap? Please. You don't want me to be itchy do you? Didn't think so: http://www.summerseve.com"

"You best be headed?" Seriously?
and why does the white one go to the gym and the Black one the club?