The best that I can say about this French advertisement for tampons is that it is, err, very French. The tagline reads: "I am like a fish in water", but I am not sure that this really helps all that much in getting the gist of the piece.
Now, you must believe me when I say that I’ve thought long and hard [oohh err missus!] about this particular product promotion, but admit that I am no closer at answering the riddle that might unlock this particular enigma than when I began, and figure that I shan’t locate that answer any time soon.
The most obvious answer harks back to grubby schoolboy locker room jokes, but to my knowledge – and I say this as someone who remains a grubby schoolboy at heart – grubby schoolboys do not represent a significant proportion of the market share of feminine hygiene products.
No, I figure that is women who buy tampons (see, all of that taxpayers’ money wasn’t wasted on my education). As it is women that buy the tampons, it must be women that the advertisement is seeking to influence. So now, my thinking is that I am not a woman, and cannot see what a woman can see!
So I put it to you, ladies of the world: what on Earth is going on in this ad? Would it provoke you into switching brands and purchasing said product? Is it aimed at a particular subset of French women (perhaps residing in the Loire-Atlantique region, with its own particular Gallic penchant for fresh fish? I am at a loss, but perhaps you are not.
I need help, I know that much.
UPDATE: Nathalie in the comments is indeed correct. Depressingly, this Tampax ad is not real. A bit of research reveals that it actually comes from a 1972 issue of a French satire magazine called Hara Kiri.
It's not nearly as funny now that it turns out that they were trying to be offensive!
Comments
I'm French, I'm familiar with French ads for tampons, I've seen countless, there's NO WAY this ad would have made it to the glossy magazines. This is a FRAUD. It's a photoshop joke.
French girls wouldn't even have thought of it as funny.
Where on earth did you find this???
It's a reference to the many ads where you see tampons being dipped into a fish bowl so you can see how they expand as they retain fluids.
The mystery is ultimately solved when the author, Kris, updates the post to reveal that the "ad" was actually a satire piece from a 1972 issue of the magazine Hara Kiri. The community's collective detective work highlights how easily offensive satire can be mistaken for genuine, albeit "very French," marketing.