to feel offended by rules on advertising sanitary protection?

[GrouseAndMagpie]

Just discovered (via a guardian article - link at the bottom) that adverts for sanitary protection aren't allowed during or near to children's tv programmes. I'm feeling pretty offended by this! This puts menstruation in the same league as alcohol and gambling! I knew about the whole vat issue, but somehow the fact that these are ofcom's rules (as opposed to hmrc) and the fact that the list of restrictions is fairly simple (not the case for VAT rules!) makes this feel worse to me. Presumably from a business point of view companies wouldn't particularly want to advertise sanitary protection to under 10s anyway, but I think the fact they're not allowed to is ridiculous.

AIBU?

gu.com/p/455cj

Trend what's wrong with kids asking questions about periods?

Mine both know all about them and have done since they were about 3! They're not weird or anything...I did tell them that not all little girls and boys know about them so not to overshare information but still...it's life!

Fry I know...I lump them together with yogurt ads.

My dad used to embarrass me as a teenager by saying he wanted a Tampax t shirt so he could rollerskate, thanks to the advert at that time.

Two things:

Why call it Sanpro? Isn't this another way of not speaking out loud what it actually is?

My son used to call them tampompoms, wanted to know if he could have some.

Because Sanpro is only 6 letters long and thus much shorter than sanitary protection.

sanpro=quicker to type, for me at least

No, sanpro just the sector norm, and no more indicative of a wider attitude than any other contraction.

And it's a heck of a lot shorter to write than 'sanitary towels, pant liners, tampons, sponges and menstrual cups'

Have heard the term before and had no idea what it meant. Only just realised on reading this. Can understand the quicker to type thing and perhaps I'm just old slow on the uptake. But I don't understand why we need to shorten stuff. Don't do text speak either and Brangelina etc makes me want to go an live on an island and read books with proper words and not have to interact with the world/

See, I told you. Old and grumpy

I've never even noticed 'sanpro' not being advertised during kids tv, and TBH I couldn't care less, let alone be offended . I really consider it the parents role, backed up by the school, to teach their children about periods and everything related.
I've got to say, everyone seems much more open and relaxed about it nowadays which is an improvement.

ES knows what periods are; he and YS refuse to let me in and out of the bathroom without an audience, so when they've asked I've always been honest.

YS uses sanitary towels on each side of his head to pretend to be Thor. Thank frig someone has fun with them.

I for one am immensely grateful that they don't display a sodden browny-red sanitary towel on the TV while I'm eating my dinner [boak]

Or cut to a woman with an increasing look of panic on her face as she fumbles in her fanjo before finally dragging out something that looks like a dead Swamp Slug [double boak]

My Ex had nose surgery and came home with a mini sanitary towel (Dr White's type) slung between his ears and under his nose. I did tease him a bit......

Personaly, I think there should be no advertising at all on childrens shows.
But I dont consider san-pro a taboo subject.
Although it might be a bit of a PITA having to explain mensturation to a five year old in between episodes of Peppa Pig.

Years ago Clare Rayner did an advert extolling the virtues of "wings". My mum was horrified and huffing and puffing and saying it shouldn't be allowed. To my sister's credit, she told my mother in no uncertain terms that it was "very informative".

It was, too!

Agree with Glittoris, though. Not too many gory details, thank you. It's like diarrhoea medicine or constipation tinctures - we can imagine the likely effects rather than having them displayed before us with a forkful of food halfway to our mouths.

Ds called sanitary towels "front bum stickers". I'm afraid the term has, well, stuck, such that I write "fbs" on my shopping list...

I know precisely what a blood soaked sanitary towel looks like, up close and very personal. Really don't see the need to have them wafted across the TV screen during the evening too.

If I want some variety I can now get confronted with DD's specimens when she forgets to pop them in the bin and I have to do it. Never did I think I could love another human being enough to do this for them {shocked}

I was involved in an amateur production of a Disney musical recently, the detailed licensing agreement said that the show could not be linked with any advertising related to alcohol, tobacco, firearms or ( you guessed it) sanitary products (their words). Very annoying!

I started my period at age 10. If there had been ads for sanitary wear on tv when I was watching it I think it would have helped me immensely in feeling less embarrassed and like a freak.

at the front bum stickers

My dd plastered an entire pack of winged sanitary towels across the front bay window when she was 4, and started playing 'rocket mouse' with a spare tampon from my handbag when we were at a family barbecue.

I don't think I laughed then, but I do now when her friends are round and I tell the stories! To be fair, I think being able to talk about feminine products and menstrual cycles with girls (and boys I guess) makes it more normalised. If it was spoken about more when I was younger, I probably wouldn't have gone barging into my db room when we were 10 and 11, horrified and telling him we need to pack and leave home, because my mum had explained that 'periods are coming'.

So YANBU to think that kids do not need sheltering, but probably a bit U to be 'offended'

They also aren't allowed to show blood or blood coloured liquids
But you can show red wine and tomato sauce, and they're blood-coloured. And liquid.

And clearly tomato sauce and not on a sanpro advert

Well there is that.

I've always called them S.T's (short for sanitary towels) - but I like the term front bum stickers better

The blue liquid and vague wording confuses me - especially now there are so many tenalady type products. I was in the supermarket today and the tenalady et al were to one end of the shelf and the ones that I knew were definitely for periods were to the right but there were a few in the middle that I wasn't sure on. However, the packaging just talks about the 'liquid' and providing protection etc so I was none the wiser after reading it! Or is there no real difference between the two products and some are trying to go for both markets?

That's true about the Tenalady. I was in the supermarket earlier, trying to remember whether I needed to restock or not (I have forgotten a load of other stuff off the shopping list I didn't take with me...) I had a moment's confusion about why a weak bladder is more important than whether it's light or heavy flow. And then I realised it wasn't for periods.

I think it's a stupid ban. If they were allowed to advertise during children's programmes presumably they'd put on ads which were aimed at 10-14 year olds. And why not? They're the age group making their first choices about what sort of protection to use

There are those intensely annoying Tampax Pearl Mother Nature ads...