What did FJ think of the PMS/Milk ads?

[dawbs]

I know what I think, but I'd like to hear what you folks think before I post that--although I think FJ will end up more in line w/ my thoughts on the matter than the website I took this link from ;)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43854582/ns ... _business/

Offensive or not?

snippets:

California milk producers have yanked a widely criticized ad campaign that poked fun at premenstrual syndrome and the way men supposedly suffer from the monthly cycles of their wives and girlfriends.

"Over the past couple of weeks, regrettably, some people found our campaign about milk and PMS to be outrageous and misguided — and we apologize to those we offended," the California Milk Processor Board says on its website. "Others thought it funny and educational. It has opened up a topic that affects women, of course, but also relationships."

Instead of abandoning the campaign completely, the milk producers are extending it by seeking to capitalize on the controversy surrounding it. They’ve put up a new website titled "got discussion?" featuring pro and con views and inviting people to join the discussion.

.......

The billboards, which will be replaced next week, showed harried-looking men holding cartons of milk accompanied by tag lines such as "I'm sorry I listened to what you said and NOT what you meant," or "I apologize for not reading between the RIGHT lines."

[Guest Anonymous]

This is just another variation on that tired old saw that women are crazy! Because they have lady parts! And lady parts are kind of gross and scary, plus they make you act crazy!

Color me unsurprised and unamused. Not to mention that milk makes me vomit so I guess my partner must continue to suffer my hormone fueled tyranny.

[Deleted03]

sure give more hormones to a PMSing woman! way to go!

I personally think that all milk ads are questionable anyway. It's so easy to make cash on women. Either they're sex objects/crazy women with crazy demands/or rational good mothers. it's pretty sad.

[xDreamerx]

At first I thought, "Oh cool. Maybe they are trying to spread awareness about women's health. Women do need calcium to help prevent things like osteoporosis and calcium can reduce the symptoms of PMS". Then I clicked the link and saw the add. Wow. Ridiculous.

[LynnKaboom]

The ads weren't funny, but the reaction they garnered seemed on the extreme side to me. Yeah, they weren't funny, but they just didn't deserve the "RAEG!!!!!!!" reaction I saw on a few websites.

[Lainey]

Erm...PMS does make me act crazy and irrational. At least, it did before my lovely friend Zoloft came into the picture. And my husband has been known to utter the sentence, "I don't know what I did wrong, but whatever it was, I'm sorry!"

[takers401]

Milk help with PMS? Is this true? Just seems like a falsehood designed to sell more milk, but maybe I'm wrong.

[Olivia]

Meh, mildly offensive but not something I'd get too excited about. The only PMS joke that ever works me up is when my normally-wonderful husband tries to ascribe PMS as the reason I'm mad about something. No, I'm irked because you're being an idiot, thankyouverymuch.

[LynnKaboom]

Milk help with PMS? Is this true? Just seems like a falsehood designed to sell more milk, but maybe I'm wrong.

Calcium is supposed to help alleviate symptoms of PMS, but I've never really noticed a difference.

[demgirl]

The think about something like this to me, is that it's not so inherently offensive that I'm going to go all NOW on the milk people. But I do think that it adds just one more layer on the subconscious belief that women are somehow moodier, more emotional, and weaker than men. But it's really just one drop in a pool of sexism that pervades society so completely that it's hardly noticeable to most people anymore.

[deelaem]

I know what I think, but I'd like to hear what you folks think before I post that--although I think FJ will end up more in line w/ my thoughts on the matter than the website I took this link from ;)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43854582/ns ... _business/

Offensive or not?

snippets:

California milk producers have yanked a widely criticized ad campaign that poked fun at premenstrual syndrome and the way men supposedly suffer from the monthly cycles of their wives and girlfriends.

.......

This was and is one of the most blatantly misogynistic and sexist ad campaigns to defile our sensibilities in a long time. The radical feminist community has staged a protest against it. The California Milk Processing Board are a huge bunch of douche-waffles.

[luckylibrarian]

I find it offensive. This ad is saying that if a woman is angry, moody, or irritable - which a whole other can of worms, as some have pointed out - then it must be PMS, and not the man. Once again, it's always the woman's fault and never the man's.

When a man is emotional, he is being "sensitive" and "expressing himself" and oh, isn't he a catch? When a woman is emotional, she must have PMS or she is just being irrational. When a man is emotional, women are supposed to cater to his emotions and listen, but if a woman is emotional, then just ignore her because it's just the PMS talking.

[liltwinstar]

I'm just bugged by PMS being a big ol' joke and an advertising gimmick. It's almost like they're saying "PMS isn't a *real* problem/issue, so we can joke about it." Some women get super bad PMS and that's not funny. Would we make jokey ads about people who have, say, bipolar disorder? No.

(not saying that PMS = bipolar disorder, because it's doesn't. Just pointing out that like bipolar, PMS is/can be a medical condition)

Also? I hate milk. And I don't currently have/get PMS (thank you BC pills). But even if I did, I wouldn't drink milk based on these stupid ads.

[CanadianHippie]

I hate milk ads in general, mostly because they seem to forget that diary is one of the big eight and not everyone can consume dairy products.

But the addition of "it must be that time of the month" type of BS just makes it all the worse. It makes women out to be nothing more than over emotional ovulating creatures, and makes light of some serious issues that women can have with their menstrual cycle.

[Shirley MacLaine]

awful / terrible / fuck everything

[ADoyle90815]

I'm bugged about PMS being a joke, and for me, one of the major reasons I take birth control pills is that it reduces symptoms for me. I'm also someone who doesn't like to drink milk, but I get plenty of calcium from cheese and other foods, and I also do weight training which is another way to reduce the risk of osteoporosis.

[Lainey]

I do agree that it shouldn't be a big joke. I don't like the way that I do go completely insane, and I'm happy to have meds to control it. I probably would have ended up divorced otherwise, because my husband seriously couldn't do anything right as far as I was concerned (and he's nice!).