Recently, a Houston preacher went on a rant about Victoria's Secret marketing a line of underwear to teen girls. The only saving grace I feel these girls have is that VS does not have commercials. They do not advertise as frequently on tv as say a soap company would. They have catalogs; which by the way, I have to shred in fear of my teen boys pulling them out of the trash to "look at". I guess where I'm headed with this, I think people forget that young boys see these things too. We, as parents of teen boys, fight a battle as well.
I do not want my boys growing up thinking that all women are supposed to be skinny, super models. I don't want them growing up thinking that sex is all they can get from a woman. So, what got me on this tangent was the picture below...
This is something I have never noticed before. The back of an Axe body wash bottle. Notice the phrase, "the cleaner you are,the dirtier you get." Really?! And the other phrase, "Unlimited female attention". Wow. I had never noticed this before. I usually just go to Sam's Club and buy these in bulk because I buy for 500 boys.
What I want to know is, why? Why do the people at Unilever feel it is ok to market their product, that they freely admit that they market to young boys, feel it is ok to use sex as a tool to sell their soap. It's just soap. And smelly soap might I add (feel free to see my previous blog about "Baxe"). I would rather them market with, "Use this soap to prevent a smelly ass" than "Use this soap to get sex". Unilever knows that young boys use this soap. They. Know.
We all have this battle, folks. But why let these companies make it harder for us. Just yesterday, I was watching ABC Family and there was a commercial for Herbal Essence. And what's her face from some girl band was having an orgasm on an airplane because she was washing her hair with shampoo. Now I remember when I was younger seeing this for the first time and thinking, "wow, they really went there?" And to this day, I get embarrassed watching those commercials, especially if my child is in the room, because I was brought up to believe that those kinds of "moments" were between a couple who loves each other (preferably married).
I'm not trying to be preachy, or whatever you think this may be. I just don't want my teen boys, who will one day marry one of your teen girls, growing up to think that sex is just advertisement for themselves. I would hope that you would feel the same way. I want my boys to not just take sex for granted. It's not advertisement , it's not "just for fun" ( well you know what I mean) and its not just something you do. It's something that SHOULD be taken seriously, not lightly.
Some of you that know me might be thinking, "Girl, you are one to talk. With your potty mouth and and the way you talk to your boys." We'll, to you I say, go jump off a bridge. I keep it real with my kids. If I don't, then some one else will. And I'd rather them hear it from me, and not some prepubescent boy/girl that knows what they "know" from TV, or what they see from their parents that don't give a shit. So, I guess my point to all of this is, same on you, Unilever. You should be ashamed. And I will ask them, do you want your young boys or grand boys, whatever, thinking that sex is just "advertisement"? Or do you want one of your daughters marrying a young man that treats it as such?
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