So, first there was this.

and then there was this:

and then there was this:

You can’t help but wonder who thought that this ad campaign was a good idea. Clearly no one at Summer’s Eve consulted the pros at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce before launching this little campaign. I will be honest, when I first saw these in my Google reader, I assumed they were a joke of sorts, a parody of an actual ad campaign. But I soon realized that I was wrong. These were, in fact, real ads aimed at all kinds of women to discuss the idea that, um, all kinds of vaginas are itchy and smelly and speak in stereotypically thick accents?

The series of three videos in the Summer’s Eve “Hail to the V” campaign, featuring the puppeteer stylings of three different women—one Caucasian (boring old BFF), one Latina (ai-ai-ai in a leopard thong) and one Black (Afro-haired giiiiirl called Lady Wowza)—pretending to be the vaginas of three different women, have been accused of being racially insensitive and have since been pulled down from the Summer’s Eve website due to pressure from the online community. Summer’s Eve claims that the videos were not meant to be stereotypical, but instead they were meant to relatable. “Stereotyping or being offensive was not our intention in any way, shape, or form,” says PR executive Stacie Barnett.

But I can’t really understand what their angle was here. Are they trying to tell me that berry-scented douching is necessary? Because you don’t need a medical degree to know that a vagina is a self-cleaning part of the anatomy, and all it takes is proper hygiene to care for it. And it seems that Summer’s Eve is well aware of the fact that these products are not necessary, as Stacie Barnett goes on to say that ”the product that women and the medical community have questioned whether it is necessary is douching. This campaign is marketing the external cleanser, cloth and wash, which is no different than a special hand cream, eye cream, body wash, etc. Now, are these things necessary? No. But cosmetically, as women, we have those choices.”

Are they trying to open up a dialogue to talk about sensitive women’s issues? If they are, perhaps they should talk to me as a woman with some grown-up, adult advertising instead of using hand-puppets.

I know that I, for one, am not sorry to see that these videos were pulled. These videos are insulting to women—to all women.

What do you think? Do you find these ads racially insensitive? Or are they harmless?

—Ali, Senior Associate Editor of CF.ca