The Dallas-based company is attempting to redefine the world of tampons introducing a new product line called "U by Kotex."  An integrated marketing campaign debuts this week and includes three TV spots with the tagline "Break the cycle." The spots satirize the unrealistic images associated with past feminine care ads, such as women dancing around in white spandex.  However, In what is truly the best tampon ad to reach airways, some people don’t even want to acknowledge that vaginas exist.  Tampon maker Kotex found that out the hard way when it attempted to sell tampon ads that invoked the word “vagina,” and found its commercials rejected by three networks. 

The New York Times reports that the Kotex ad where a young actress mocks traditional tampon ads for their condescending, euphemistic tone—originally referenced the “vagina.” When three networks rejected the spot, Kotex subbed in the euphemism “down there” for “vagina,” and only two of the three networks rejected it.  Now, the commercial contains no direct references to female genitalia—you know, the place where the tampon goes.

The irony is not lost on Kotex. “It’s very funny because the whole spot is about censorship,” a director of the ad company who created the spot told NYT. “The whole category has been very euphemistic, or paternalistic even, and we’re saying, enough with the euphemisms, and get over it. Tampon is not a dirty word, and neither is vagina.”