After encountering some varied
opinions from colleagues and completely changing my own tune, I have finally settled
on a point of view regarding the new Lil-lets campaign by MC Saatchi &
Abel.
Someone argued that the ad doesn’t
convey any functional product benefits (e.g. efficacy and quality) and hence,
is essentially not doing much for the brand. I tend to disagree.
I admit that the campaign/ad is quite
emotional and serious and says nothing of the product, but I think that is precisely what’s
working for me. I reckon it is the details
of sanitary products that embarrass people i.e. the functional benefits that
are given horrible names/references like channels, leaks, leak-protection,
WINGS (for crying out loud), barriers, walls, absorbent gel…all of which have
quite vivid connotations or that conjure up very specific, unfeminine and often
awkward imagery.
I think the category, through
its communication and what have since become conventions, has created half the
embarrassment that women experience when it comes to talking about/experiencing
periods and I really don’t know if many chicks would choose to see all
this stuff.
What has changed my mind about
the Lil-lets campaign is the very fact that it says nothing about all those
exaggerated or weird things: no demos, no flapping wings or contorting pads, no
blue liquid, no reminders of all the things I really hate and that I am pretty
certain other girls and women dislike too.
Essentially, this ad challenges
the category slightly and gives a little more credit to what women know and
feel i.e. implying a level of personal discernment when it comes to choosing
and using (pretty intimate) products and knowing/feeling what is quality and
what works.
This is my experience. NOBODY can help me when I’m on my period besides chocolate, I migraine
tablet and isolation (read: a day off so I don’t have to talk to anyone), so a sanitary
brand is unlikely to do much for me either. All it offers is a product I HAVE
to use. No matter how comfortable you try
and convince me your pad or tampon is I’d still prefer not to wear one. Full
stop. But because that’s
not realistic, all I want is a product that is the “healthiest”/best possible
quality, the most efficacious, the least embarrassing…and if it proves not to
work, I’ll ask what my friends are using and change very swiftly.
A brand needs
to say very little to
suggest that it is a quality and hence efficacious product – I will make my
decision based on what you look like on that shelf or, depending on my age, I’d
rely on my mother or friends for help. At the end of the day, the proof will be
in my experience of a sanitary product, especially since I believe that every
woman or girl has had an embarrassing moment, moments which are actually often
not avoidable or solvable by the best product on the market.
Having said all this, the
Lil-lets communication may be category challenging and worthy of praise for sparing
us demos and unique descriptions, but executionally, it’s not new. One could change
the voiceover of the ad and it could be for life insurance, a car, a bank, an
education policy, a beauty product, tracker or the next instalment of the new
KFC campaign…
