Bodyform hit back at comedy Facebook complaint with spoof video

By Scott McCartney
Published on 18/10/2012 13:29

A cheeky Facebook commenter has had the wind taken out of his sails after his jokey complaint on the page of sanitary towel maker Bodyform about the realities of menstruation drew response from the company in the form of a spoof apology video.

As the culture of leaving complaints on the Facebook pages of large multinational companies becomes increasingly commonplace, Richard Neill recently decided to leave a tongue-in-cheek complaint on Bodyform’s page, highlighting the myth over the firm’s famous adverts featuring women enjoying extreme sports.

But instead of the path most companies take of simply ignoring Facebook complaints, Bodyform has hit back with a spoof apology.

The video, featuring ‘Caroline Williams, the CEO of Bodyform’, sees the firm apologise for adverts showing women rollerblading, mountain biking and horse riding, and that the depictions were merely meant to be metaphors. The video then goes on to explain that while there is no such thing as a happy period, the metaphors were merely an attempt to protect men from the truth about the harsh realities of menstruation.

The video ends with the ‘CEO’ loudly passing wind before asking if Richard knew that women do that too.

With almost 6,000 likes on Facebook, the video has now spilled over onto the rest of the internet, causing a stir online.

One commenter said: “Best response from a corporation EVER!”, with another adding: “Love it or hate it, the fact we’re all talking about it means this cunning advertisement worked! I found it quite funny too.”

The original complaint from Richard Neill on Bodyform’s Facebook page said: “As a child I watched your advertisements with interest as to how at this wonderful time of the month that the female gets to enjoy so many things, I felt a little jealous.

“Then I got a girlfriend, was so happy and couldn’t wait for this joyous adventurous time of the month to happen . . . . you lied !!

“There was no joy, no extreme sports, no blue water spilling over wings and no rocking soundtrack oh no.

“Instead I had to fight against every male urge I had to resist screaming wooaaahhhhh Bodddyyyyyyfooorrrmmm Bodyformed for youuuuuuu as my lady changed from the loving, gentle, normal skin coloured lady to the little girl from the exorcist with added venom and extra 360 degree head spin.

“Thanks for setting me up for a fall Bodyform , you crafty b****r.”

Bodyform accompanied their video with the statement: “We loved Richard’s wicked sense of humour. We are always grateful for input from our users, but his comment was particularly poignant. If Facebook had a ‘love’ button, we’d have clicked it. But it doesn’t. So we’ve made Richard a video instead. Unfortunately Bodyform doesn’t have a CEO. But if it did she’d be called Caroline Williams. And she’d say this.”