T.V Adverts

[David]

Why is it that there are so many T.V adverts about mensuration pads,tampons and panty liners and none about incontinence products maybe if they were advertised a bit more the complaint would be less of a stigma for those suffering from it I have seen a few made by Tena but are few and far between.

[RichardJ]

I agree. There are even ads for bladder control drugs.
But for a lot of us drugs aren't going to help.
The stigma does exist.
I have a regular delivery from a company called HDIS.
If I want to try different pads or pull-ups I go on e-bay.
But if you go on e-bay,know your prices. Sometimes a good price is offset by larger shipping costs.

[David]

I have just had a look at the HDIS web site not a bad selection I would like to try the Priva Acti Fit Briefs but they are not available here.

[Alyssa]

I have only seen the t.v. ads for Tena for women with light incontinence.

[David]

Same here and they sell them in the supermarkets And you can get them with your groceries and nobody bats an eyelid when they are been bought it's as if you were buying sanitary pads but if a man was seen with incontinence pads or pants your looked at as if your wierd so they should be sold more freely so people are familar with them even if they don't need to use them.

[Alyssa]

I agree and understand.

In highschool I helped take care of my grandfather and one of the things required was the weekly grocery trip which included picking up the incontinence pads. Nobody looked at me at funny at all when I would buy tampons or female products but I felt like a leper when I bought the pads for my grandfather. There definitely needs to more education and overall ads to reduce the social stigma. This is something afterall that affects every age group, sex and race.

[David]

It's probably because a lot of people are uncomfortable with the subject of incontinence and they are also uncomfortable talking about periods-mensuration -time of the month whatever people liked to call it but the ad campaigns with beautiful girls in them brought pads panty liners and tampoons right into our living rooms and after a while the subject of periods became acceptable and second nature to us like wise people scoffed at the word breast but now with tactful adds girls are on high alert for lumps blemishes in their breasts which might turn out to be cancer Here we now have adds for "Man Matters" dealing with errectile disfunction and testicular cancer so proper adverts do work in changing attitudes towards sensitive subjects and break down barriers so why not with incontinence.

[Alyssa]

Here's one step in the right direction. Depend is apparently sponsoring the, Great American Try On. Actresses such as Lisa Rinna and pro-football stars such as Clay Matthews, DeMarcus Ware and Wes Walker are all trying on one of Depend's new products. Lisa said she wanted to show women not to be embarassed with this condition and Clay said he wanted to show men that they can still be active as they want while wearing the new briefs. Check out the whole article at http://www.sys-con.com/node/2232572

[Alyssa]

What do people think of the new ad campaign by Depend?

[Alyssa]

I would like to add even though there are more advertisments for women's incontinence products it's still not really discussed, at least by women in there 20's and 30's and 40's. Let's face, after childbirth this is a common experience, whether it is temporary or permanent. Women are happy to swap breast feeding techniques, complain about cramps and discuss their menstruations, discuss post-partum depression but I have never heard of anyone talking about any type of incontinence. And according to the numbers, at least 1 women in a group of friends is suffering in silence. It would be so nice to see a younger, high profile woman come out and say that she suffers from stress incontinence for all those women, myself including that are suffering with this and to maybe open up the dialogue. Maybe the advertising campaign I mentioned in the earlier post will be a start to opening up the discussions. I know that there are a lot of returning soliders who will also be suffering and probably suffering in silence too unless more is done to reduce the social stigma of incontience, in all of its forms.