UK maxi pad brand Bodyform has created a viral ad with a fictional CEO responding to a Facebook user, who accused the company of lying to the public. Facebook user Richard Neill wrote a sarcastic comment on Bodyform's page earlier this month poking fun at the company's depiction of a woman's "wonderful time of the month" in its TV ads. At the time of this publication, Neill’s rant totalled 88,745 likes and 3,848 comments. The spoof video - which has so far notched up nearly 3m views on YouTube - ends with the CEO thanking Richard for lifting the veil on their lies and exposing the truth.
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Brand: Bodyform | Country: UK | Sector: FMCG healthcare | Agency: Carat | Objective: Boost brand awareness | Format: Video, Facebook, YouTube
The amusing tirade accused Bodyform of lying by depicting women riding bikes, dancing, parachuting and riding rollercoasters.
"I felt a little jealous," Neill wrote. "Then I got a girlfriend, was so happy and couldn't wait for this joyous adventurous time of the month to happen .....you lied !!."
The comment was posted on Bodyform’s Facebook page October 8th.
It read:
As a child I watched your advertisements with interest as to how at this wonderful time of the month that the female gets to enjoy so many things ,I felt a little jealous. I mean bike riding , rollercoasters, dancing, parachuting, why couldn’t I get to enjoy this time of joy and ‘blue water’ and wings !! Dam my penis!! Then I got a girlfriend, was so happy and couldn’t wait for this joyous adventurous time of the month to happen …..you lied !! There was no joy , no extreme sports , no blue water spilling over wings and no rocking soundtrack oh no no no. Instead I had to fight against every male urge I had to resist screaming wooaaahhhhh bodddyyyyyyfooorrrmmm bodyformed for youuuuuuu as my lady changed from the loving , gentle, normal skin coloured lady to the little girl from the exorcist with added venom and extra 360 degree head spin. Thanks for setting me up for a fall bodyform
At the time of this publication, Neill’s rant totalled 88,745 likes and 3,848 comments.
After Neill's post went viral, Bodyform responded with a video from fictional CEO, Caroline Williams.
The introduction to the video read:
Hi Richard. We loved your post on our Facebook page. We are always grateful for input from our users, but your comment was particularly poignant. If Facebook had a “love” button, we’d have clicked it. But it doesn’t. So we’ve made you a video instead. Unfortunately, Bodyform doesn’t have a CEO. But if it did, she’d be called Caroline Williams. And she’d say this.
Do let us know if we can help you further…
Regards,
The Bodyform Team
Fart consultant: Mike Koenig
Appearing from behind a desk and drinking some suspiciously deep blue water (a reference to the blue liquid often used in product demonstrations in their TV commercials), Caroline address Niell’s comments directly.
"We lied to you Richard and we want to say 'sorry'. 'Sorry'," says Caroline.
Explaining Bodyform's deception, Caroline explains the company resorted to "metaphors" in its commercials to protect men from the truth about womens' periods.
"I hate to tell you this," says Williams, "but there's no such thing as a happy period. The reality is, some people simply can't handle the truth."
The spoof video - which has so far notched up 135,036 views on YouTube, 2,213 Facebook 'likes' and 211 comments - ends with the CEO thanking Richard for lifting the veil on their lies and exposing the truth.
SCA, manufacturers of Bodyform, and the brand's advertising agency Carat, co-ordinated the idea for the video response. The concept was scripted and filmed by Rubber Republic. The whole video was produced and published in less than a week.
Yulia Kretova, Brand Controller, at Bodyform said: “We found Richard's post very amusing and wanted to continue the positive dialogue around periods that this generated. Working with the brand for five years breaking down the taboo around Bodyform and periods has always been a challenge and I hope that we have started to address this. Carat has created an original and uniquely personalised response, brilliantly PR-ed by Myriad, allowing Bodyform to quickly engage in consumer conversations in a meaningful way.”
Rachael Lake, Communications Planning Manager at Carat said: “Bodyform's advertisements have a long, distinguished history that we wanted to build on in our film. Our carefully crafted response to the Facebook post is deliberately playful and uses video to present a humorous and spirited take on an often slightly taboo subject.'
Read the original Facebook post here (with reactions to the video response)
