Australians were scandalized by a television ad featuring an innocent, adorable, harmless beaver who spends her day doing lady-like things with a (human) female friend. So why were there an "unusually high" number of complains about the commercial? Because the ad is for Kotex's "U" line of tampons, and ends with a voice over that says  "You've only got one. So for the ultimate care down there, make it U." The word beaver is never uttered. But it's the combination of the ad's HVC (High Vaginal Content) and the imagery of the beaver that offends. Of course, Kotex doesn't see it as offensive at all. It's inclusive and even democratic, since the beaver idea was based on a survey on genital nicknaming.

Turns out, the target of Kotex's campaign, 18-24 year old girls, have pet names for their you know whats. Kotex discovered that 94% of the women they polled are on a nickname basis with their privates, and found 181 different names to choose from. And guess what came in as the 11th most popular name? Beaver! A Kotex rep explains "people use euphemisms to make themselves feel more comfortable about talking about their own anatomy." Now, we happen to like the ad because we're suckers for cute animals. But we wouldn't use the euphemism defense. Euphemisms are "the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant." Euphemisms, in other words, are the g rated translations of R or NC 17 or X rated terms. So, when could beaver sound like a euphemism? "I got my beaver checked and it's clean, thank god." "I hope he finally tries to put his penis in by beaver tonight!." Does explaining to a little kid that while men have penises, "women have beavers," sound euphemistic? Or raunchy? 

So watch the ad and share your thoughts on beaver: offensive or cute?

Photo from Beaver Power