WARNING (mainly to men):
For a lot of people, the following video is cringeworthy. It crosses the line. This video advertisement covers a topic considered taboo in many homes…the outloud discussion of a girl's first period.
There, I said it. Did just mentioning that word make you uncomfortable? Then you may not want to watch.
But, as of this post, 5,986,539 other people have watched it. The Huffington Post writes, "…(this) Ad Gets It Oh-So Right, Makes Us Proud To Be Women." BuzzFeed declares, "Hello Flo just won Ad of the Year." And Arwa Mahdawl writes in The Guardian, "The rapturous reaction received by Camp Gyno is a clear indication that women are increasingly rejecting the risible conventions of sanitary-product advertising."
There's a lot of chatter on the Internet about this video…many supporting this approach and some questioning both the tactic and the need. I think that's a good thing from a pure marketing perspective. The owner, Naama Bloom, has successfully created controversy, conversation, and, more important, sales. In an interview with the Israeli newsource, Haaretz, Bloom talked about how she discovered this acknowledged need. "I spoke to other parents and I realized that there is a space here, an unacknowledged space. It’s not that girls don’t talk to their moms and dads about this — it’s that they don’t go in depth."
Bloom displays understanding of two very important marketing tenets: find a clearly defined target market (1) that acknowledges a need for your product or service (2). If you fit her niche, you get it. If you don't fit, you probably don't. And that's okay.
Last week I shared the plight of my country club and asked for your comments. Boy, did you comment! This week, I'm sharing a controversial video ad that's getting a lot of attention. I'd love to hear again what you think. Is this good marketing? Bad Marketing? Is it in bad taste? What do you think?
Are you ready to watch it now?
Stunningly brilliant. As a dude, the only part I cringed at was the Menstruation Demonstration. As a Dad, I found it beyond entertaining. Like it or not, we Dads have little girls that are going to grow up to Hello Flo. This is a great demonstration of using edginess and humor to take the danger out of a taboo topic.
I just wonder if there are enough consumers with a sense of humor willing to laugh at this (and themselves a little bit).
This video was both funny and entertaining.
Given how far we (and our children and grandchildren) are from the Victorian Era I certainly don’t see any harm in it.
I’ll be sharing this newsletter and video from you with my children, who are raising daughters.
Thanks!
I just watched this video 10 minutes ago in a link from my mom, who got it from my sister and took the opportunity to tack on her own camp story for us and her sisters. It must really be moving well and really connecting to people if you and my family both emailed it to me the same day! I love it!
Very interesting way to share some information that every young lady must know and deal with. If parents, that includes dads, are embarrassed to deal with this, it’s going to happen anyway.
This may be a fun way to introduce one of the facts of life. It is the parents responsibility to make sure that their daughters understand what is happening to their body and the should make it comfortable for the daughter to talk about and ask any questions with them, not their friends who might be misinformed.
Cute and entertaining way to cover a delicate subject. Didn’t find it offensivre at all. Chuckled at a few parts. Saw this previously shared by some the ladies in my friends list on facebook. I suspect Hello Flo could be a huge success.
As I watched this I found myself completely shocked!
Shocked that with all of the advertisements geared towards this type of product, ZERO of it is geared towards “new entries” into the marketplace. I guess the perception has always been that they will simply “use what mom uses.” Absolutely brilliant.