O.B. Is Really, Really, Really, Ad Nauseam-Ly Sorry
Lately, in my humble lady opinion, tampon makers have been stepping it up a notch.
First, UbyKotex (worst name to remember ever) comes up with their Social Experiment videos which – to me – raised some really valid points:
Why are we so uncomfortable buying tampons?
Why are tampon products so darn confusing?
And now, O.B. comes up to the plate and hits one out of the ballpark with their O.B. Triple Sorry campaign. On the site, http://www.obtampons.ca/apology users are asked to plug in their first name and are then presented with a personalized apology video, sung by a (really very) cute guy. The video incorporates my name surprisingly well (curious as to what was the process for being able to sing my name?) and then caps it off with a free coupon. Sweet. (Both sweet in the sense of, “Aww, what a sweet guy” and “Sweet! Hello, free product!”)
I took some screenshots if you are like a few of my friends who don’t have audio on their work computers (*cough*Maggie*cough):
Here’s the thing: Myself and two other women I chatted with had no idea what O.B. was apologizing for. A quick Google search “Why is OB tampons sorry?” led me to this Consumerist story, which tells me that apparently O.B. hasn’t been on shelves in months here in Canada. Hunh. I hadn’t even noticed – and I buy O.B. (Whoa, TMI. But also relevant so… Oh well.)
This is a great campaign, but also a campaign that highlights a negative component of a brand’s history that my social circle had no idea about. And now we do… because we got the apology letter. Thanks O.B.! (Also – curious as to the % of market that was aware of this issue. Anyone?)
Oh and one last, final thought: Why are men still in tampon commercials? Remember those awful Stayfree ads? Yeah. Can men just get out of those tampon ads? Love and thanks, all the women of the world.
Male perspective: Not knowing the background of why the *brand* might need to apologize, a male colleague and I assumed it was some kind of apology from men to the women in their lives… which made no sense, but seemed plausible without the real context.
A brand has already apologized to women in this realm: http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/show-random/california-milk-board-is-sorry-for-controversial-pms-ad-campaign.html
I also had no idea what this was about. Thanks for letting me know! I assumed they had said something dumb in a previous ad and were trying to make up for it. I use a Diva Cup and don’t watch commercials, so I don’t really pay attention to these things. This just popped up in my FB feed….
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The o.b. video is so cheesy that I couldn’t resist watching it a second time with the name “Diarrhea”. It was fun…
This really is stepping it up a notch, but tampon ads were always a weird phenomenon – I’m thinking about Jerry Seinfeld’s bit twenty years ago (They’re swimming, playing tennis, jumping around… nobody is having as much fun!) :-)
I just tried this, but no singing the name “Rayanne”. It’s the “Super Kid” personalized pencil all over again. Haha.
In this great design of things you’ll secure an A+ just for hard work. Exactly where you lost me ended up being in the facts. You know, people say, the devil is in the details… And that couldn’t be more accurate here. Having said that, let me tell you what did do the job. Your article (parts of it) can be extremely persuasive which is most likely why I am making the effort to comment. I do not really make it a regular habit of doing that. Second, even though I can easily notice the jumps in logic you make, I am not sure of how you appear to unite your points which inturn help to make the conclusion. For now I shall yield to your point but trust in the near future you link the dots much better.
Had no idea what the video was about – but verra cute guy and loved the song and the fact my name was inserted – but only downside – get the coupon at the end – oh vey – however am past the age of needing what they are selling – never mind it has added to the amusement factor for me having passed it on to familly/friends – bring on more of whomever HE is – yum!
First of all, he’s not that cute.
Also Ubykotex is pronounced You. By Kotex. Not so hard to remember.