Markets

Can Shirtless Men Sell Maxi Pads? Stayfree Thinks So

By Jim Edwards

Updated on: September 1, 2010 / 2:32 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

You know what the problem with feminine hygiene ads is? Not enough men in them, obviously. That's the conclusion of the Stayfree pad people at Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)'s McNeil unit and their ad agency BBDO Toronto, who've produced a new campaign in which too-perfect-to-be-true hunks vacuum your house with their shirts off and then do the blue-liquid test on competing fem-hy brands. Whether women actually want this approach is yet to be seen.

There's a case to be made that someone at the client saw Procter & Gamble (PG)'s Old Spice ads and said, "Hey! We need that!" That's no bad thing, however. The tampon/pad category is currently undergoing a long-awaited creative revolution, triggered by Kimberly-Clark (KC)'s Kotex brand, which launched a campaign in March that critiqued decades of white-pants-on-the-beach clichÃ©s. For brand managers, it proves creative life can be found in even the most staid categories.

Each one opens with a male model doing some domestic chore. Trevor addresses the viewer directly:

Hey there! I wasn't expecting you so soon. I'm just vacuuming those hard-to-reach places!

After concluding that the humidity requires him to take his shirt off, he demonstrates that Stayfree is more absorbent than competing brands by dousing the products and then dropping small weights onto them. (In this scenario, the woman is the weight, apparently. Interesting choice, McNeil!) Naturally, Stayfree wins and Trevor announces he has to go take a shower. Trevor has two buddies who are as ludicrously perfect as he is. Ryan says:

I thought I'd put the finishing touches on these toys I'm making for underprivileged kids overseas, ... I love doing laundry, it's one of my guilty pleasures.

And Brad enthuses:

I'm just putting the finishing touches on this rosemary-sunflower risotto.

The ads are stilted and amateurish -- as if you, the period-haver, are doing the filming -- and clearly cost very little to make. Whether women want men to be involved in the whole period thing is an open question, however. Commenters at Salon, BrandChannel, and the Frisky have found them kinda weird and creepy.

In each ad, Stayfree performs better than Kotex and Always, who are both namechecked specifically. Why would McNeil poke its rivals so directly? Because the more mundane the category, the fiercer the hatred between the competitors.

Related:

Hat tip to AgencySpy.