It reminds me of the tampon ad from the ‘80s where the mom overheard her little boy telling his friend he wanted tampons for his birthday.
The mom was so confused and the little boy told his friend that with tampons, you can go swimming, fishing, diving, horseback riding, hang gliding, etc.!
I saw a group of gay men who did that easy spirit ad as a Halloween costume. They played a game in the middle of Castro street. They stuffed sports bras instead of regular bras for authenticity.
No, that wasn't a real commercial—it’s a classic joke from the 1980s and '90s!
The story you saw on Reddit is a long-standing playground joke that poked fun at how feminine hygiene products were marketed back then.
The Joke Punchline
In the classic version of the joke, a little boy asks his mom for a box of tampons for his birthday (or puts them in the grocery cart). When his confused mom asks why on earth he wants them, he says:
"Because on TV, it says if you use these, you can go swimming, horseback riding, and skydiving!"
Why People Misremember It as Real
The joke worked—and remains memorable decades later—because 1980s and '90s tampon commercials (from brands like Tampax, Playtex, and O.B.) were notoriously formulaic. They almost always featured women:
* Wearing pure white pants or white swimsuits.
* Running along a beach, horseback riding, or swimming in a pool.
* Smiling while talking about "ultimate freedom and protection."
Because those commercials played constantly on TV, people's brains blended the famous joke with the actual ads, leading many to misremember it as a real, hilarious TV spot!
I was thinking as I was watching this that it looks like so many ads I’ve seen for period products where all the women are running around to show you can still run and stuff with the product.
Even if I know for a fact my period won’t come, wearing all white feels too risky. Like the second I wear white, my uterus will decide my period actually needs to come then.
That's such a classic misunderstanding kids really do hear one line and build an entire story around it. Those old commercials had a charm that's hard to forget
In the last 10-15 years or so I read that teenagers would soak tampons in drinking alcohol then put it in their rear. Or the other place for girls. Gets them drunk.
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u/peridotpicacho Jul 22 '26
It reminds me of the tampon ad from the ‘80s where the mom overheard her little boy telling his friend he wanted tampons for his birthday.
The mom was so confused and the little boy told his friend that with tampons, you can go swimming, fishing, diving, horseback riding, hang gliding, etc.!