new york
CNN
—
Anyone who has periods will tell you this. Periods often don't look or feel like the frenzy they are portrayed in typical tampon ads.
Taking aim at the hygienic and euphemistic nature of mass advertising aimed at women, personal care brand Frida on Wednesday launched an adult-only video tutorial video to show customers how to use its fertility, pre- and post-natal products. Launched an online platform.
The platform, developed in collaboration with medical experts, primarily addresses the fact that many marketing platforms and social media sites are removing or rejecting advertising about reproductive and women's health that shows more authentic representation of women. This is a response to. Chelsea Hirschhorn, Founder and CEO of Frida, said:
“You can go on Instagram and learn a 10-step beauty regimen…[but]there's no way for brands like ours to make products that help women in times like this,” she told CNN. told. “We teach women how to soak their nipples with saline when they have raw or cracked nipples. We teach women how to soak their nipples with saline when they have raw or cracked nipples. We will teach you how to stretch your vagina and show you how to properly cleanse your vagina after a vaginal birth.”
Hirshhorn said he did not expect this explicit content to be aired on social media or television networks, given their content guidelines, but some platforms do “Displays of women's bodies need to be allowed in non-sexual contexts as well,” it said, as objects and provocative materials are allowed. ”
When it comes to more explicit content and nudity, she argues that safe, age-restricted spaces are needed to disseminate that information usefully and openly to those who need it.
Frida's products have been available at retailers like CVS, Target and Walmart since 2019, but Hirschhorn said there's a constant back-and-forth when it comes to competing for marketing space.
In 2019, ABC refused to air an ad that showed a postpartum woman using the bathroom, which she had requested to be shown at the Academy Awards. Hirschhorn said the ad did not include nudity, but she was told by ABC that it would not allow content that included guns, politics, sexual nudity or women's products. At the time, an ABC spokesperson said the agency does not comment on the station's advertising policies or guidelines.
ABC declined to comment. The network's 2023 guidelines state that “advertising intimate products, personal care products, contraceptives, and fertility products will be permitted on a case-by-case basis.” Such advertisements should be presented in a sensitive and tasteful manner and are subject to scheduling restrictions. ”
Hirschhorn said that on Amazon, a product aimed at relieving breast pain due to health problems such as mastitis was flagged as inappropriate because the packaging featured an illustration of a breast. It is said that he was
Additionally, advertisements for Frida products related to fertility and breast health have long been censored and removed on social media sites such as Instagram.
“In one instance, there was a photo of a woman holding a home insemination syringe, presumably containing semen, with one leg in the air. That's how the product should be used. Some of it wasn't showing,” Hirschhorn said.
Frieda said the ad was rejected by an automated review system because it contained the word “fertility.”
Amazon declined to comment. Instagram's parent company, Meta, did not respond to CNN's request for comment.
Amazon's policy states that “ads may not display fully visible intimate body parts, such as genitals, female breasts, or buttocks,” but are not related to the product in question. An exception is made for partial nudity.
Instagram's community guidelines, which govern what ads are allowed, state that while nudity is not allowed, “photos related to breastfeeding, childbirth, the postnatal moment, or health-related situations (post-mastectomy, breast cancer awareness, etc.) are prohibited. “Not allowed.” or gender reassignment surgery) or protests are permitted. ”
“M” is a four-character idiom.
Meta has long been criticized by women's health experts and advocates for restricting content about women's reproductive health.
“Algorithms as currently designed appear to capture and disallow a lot of information about vaginal health and breast health,” said Jackie Rotman, CEO and founder of the Center for Intimacy Justice. told CNN. “And it's not just the algorithms, because a lot of the actual policies that the people at these companies created are still changing.”
CIJ, which partnered with Frida and helped launch the Frida Uncensored Platform, released a report in January 2022 accusing Meta of having a biased algorithm and citing male sexual expression. It said it found that men's reproductive health ads, including those that did so, were allowed. joy.
In response to this report, Meta tweaked its advertising policy for “adult products or services” in October 2022 to include clearer reproductive health guidelines and ensure that content is targeted to “persons 18 years of age.” clarified that advertising of “reproductive health products or services'' is permitted if the Or older. ”
In its adult products and services policy guidelines, Meta (FB) asserts that the issue is a sensitive one, stating that as a global company, “we are committed to working with different cultures and countries to avoid any potential negative connotations.” “We need to take into account different people,” he said. experience. ”
However, CIJ said, “Meta continues to reject these ads in practice.” CIJ has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission to take action on the platform's content policies and is currently working on a separate report investigating allegations of discriminatory censorship on other media platforms, including Amazon. There is.
The FTC told CNN that it does not discuss communications with outside parties unless it participates in a lawsuit and does not comment on whether an investigation exists “unless the parties publicly disclose it.”
“There is a huge lack of information available for people from all walks of life to access health information. That type of information is already lacking in clinics and is available online. They can't even do that because they don't even realize that certain keywords or search terms are hidden,” Lotman said. “That's why the (Frida Uncensored) platform is so important. We are taking a critical stance in this effort, activating more voices and increasing access to important health information.”
Critics also say content that sexualizes women is usually allowed, but ads that refer to women's pain or portray women's experiences in a more somber, raw way are likely to be rejected. Pointed out.
“Whether it's alcohol, underwear, or cars, our culture is used to seeing numerous examples of advertisements that sexualize women's bodies in order to sell something else. ,” Rotman said. “But when it comes to actually having agency over our own bodies, that information is extremely hidden.”
Discussions about women's bodily function and health have long been considered off-limits, even though women's pain and other health concerns are more likely to be ignored by medical professionals.
Taboos around women's health issues are hurting women by reducing awareness of conditions such as menstrual symptoms and loss of bladder control, according to a February 2023 report published by Canada's Women's Health Foundation of Alberta. There was found. The report notes that this in turn leads to worse health outcomes, as women ignore or downplay symptoms until medical intervention is absolutely necessary, which could mean treatment becomes more aggressive. It is said that there is a sex.
Advertisements about bladder control aids and menstrual symptoms, often promoted on television and social media, help raise awareness of these conditions and are “fundamental to addressing women's health,” according to the U.S. said Chloe Bird, director of the Center for Health Equity Research. Tufts Medical Center noted that popular culture and medicine have made great strides in increasing the visibility of women's health issues. For the past 50 years or so.
However, she added that there is still room for progress when it comes to making information public.
According to Bird, the return on investment when funding women's health is excellent. “But money alone won't get us there. Science alone won't do it.”
“The reality is that we have to be able to disseminate information about women's health at a level that is understandable. And if it's all innuendo and everything is left out, it's impossible to get the message across.” ,” said Bird, who is also the Sarah Murray Jordan Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. “[Censoring this type of content]prevents women from accessing technology that works, information about how to improve their health, understanding the differences between medications… and all of this is linked to women's health-related issues. It has a big impact on the quality of life, function, and health.
Hirschhorn said her decision to launch the Frida Unsend platform was also rooted in her experiences managing her own health throughout adolescence, including figuring out how to put a tampon correctly for the first time.
Bird says cultural lag occurs when people start talking openly about a particular topic and then the rules about social norms and practices change.
“We see decisions like that being made around advertising on social media, but in general society we talk about women's bodies and women's lives,” Bird said.
“Maybe we need more women in the decision-making rooms[at these companies].”
