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NORTH AMERICA: How do you advertise products like tampons or women’s razors? Traditionally, these necessary but private items have been marketed discreetly. A new campaign for the Schick Quattro women’s razor has chosen another tactic: humour and double entendre.

The Quattro has a standard razor for the legs at one end and a “bikini trimmer” for pubic hair at the other. It’s the bikini trimmer that has inspired marketers to encourage women to “mow the lawn” and “trim the hedges” in a controversial video.

Schick introduced the new product in December last year, using burlesque performer Veronica Varlow to promote it. Although the US was the birthplace of TV’s Sex and the City, Schick seems to feel that there is a limit to viewers' tolerance. Television commercials for the Quattro are less risqué than the company's online videos, which first appeared in April. Jeff Chapman, global director of brand communications for Schick-Wilkinson Sword, told Maclean’s that the humorous campaign attempts “to somewhat diffuse the risk of offending people”.

Though the US was the birthplace of Sex and the City, Quattro's TV ads are less risqué than the online videos.

The response to the adverts has been mixed. Blogger Mary Elizabeth Williams at Slate.com, for example, described the campaign as “repellent”. But the DailyBeast.com thought it was “fun”.

Rob Tarry, associate creative director of Rethink Communications in Vancouver, says the ad has been effective in reaching a wide audience. “I welcome the humour. I love the client’s bravery,” Tarry says. But, he adds, “I wish it was not quite so crass and a little bit more insightful.”