PSA: Pads Stick To Undies Not Skin
Do you remember the 2010 Libra pad ad ‘Wonder Man’? I might have only been 10 when it was airing, but I remember it like it was yesterday.
It was released to market Libra’s release of Invisible Pads. The commercial showed a young man waiting for his wife and parents to come home. He had the genius idea to cover his body in the extremely sticky pads and turned himself into the one, the only, ‘Wonder Man’… only to be awkwardly busted halfway through. Catch the fun here:
Honestly, I loved the ad. In fact, it’s been living in my head rent-free for the past 13 years — I think about it almost as much as the Roman Empire. On reflection, though, I’m not actually sure that’s a good thing. In fact, I reckon this ad led me astray.
Before I commit this very embarrassing moment to writing, let me put things in perspective: I went to an all-boys Catholic high school and our sex ed was close to non-existent. I actually don’t remember the menstrual cycle coming up once in any class. Having said that, I was raised in a feminist household with two older sisters and my mum, I have countless female cousins and aunts, and I grew up with a ton of strong female friends. Also, I have access to the internet. So I really have no excuse for the blunder I’m about to fill you in on.
Here it is: not so long ago I was sitting at a crowded table having a few bevs and laughing with a group of mates when somehow the topic of menstrual cycles came up. Then, I made the fatal remark I’ll never live down: “It must suck needing to pee and wearing a pad.” …. crickets. One of my female mates eventually asked, “What do you think pads stick to?” “The body, obviously”. It was up there with the most ickiest moments of my life. So, for all the blokes out there who don’t know: pads stick to the undies, not bodies. Crazy, I know.
After this humiliation, I tried to figure out where I went wrong. Now, I’m not prepared to dawg any of the boys but I will say that this misconception is not as uncommon as you might think; there are definitely men out there who don’t get how pads work.
I blame the Wonder Man ad. I looked it up again recently and came across some other criticisms, too. NewsHub released an article titled ‘A brief history of New Zealanders getting mad as hell about period ads’. In it, there was a complaint from a man called M. Rowlands who, according to NewsHub, “believed the advertisement made out the man who ‘adorned himself in the sanitary pads as an idiot’”. It was, he said, “an offensive portrayal which denigrated men in general”.
Nah mate, I did that to myself.
Isaac Muller is a proud Palawa and Wiradjuri man and writer at Junkee. Follow him on Instagram.
Image credit: Libra, sourced via YouTube