Basic Trope: Water with blue food coloring added to it is used as a substitute for bodily fluids.
- Straight: An ad for a menstrual pad features a Side-by-Side Demonstration of "The Leading Brand" versus the brand being advertised, to show which one is more absorbent. To demonstrate, blue-dyed water is poured over each of the pads.
- Exaggerated:
- They even tell the audience outright that it's just a dramatization and that no bodily fluid or secretion matches this substance.
- The ad is for tampons, not pads, and they are dunked into cups of the liquid in question.
- In-Universe, there are No Periods, Period, and no mention of bladder or bowel incontinence, which makes one question the entire point of the ads.
- Downplayed: Red liquid is used, but it doesn't look anything like blood. If anything, it looks more like Kool-Aid.
- Justified:
- The pads are being advertised during hours where there might be kids watching whose parents feel that they aren't quite old enough yet to know about the facts of life and the birds and the bees and all that stuff. The network doesn't want to deal with complaints from them.
- The advertisers don't want to Squick anyone out; some of the audience is Afraid of Blood, or might be in the middle of dinner. (Or both.) Since no bodily fluids or waste match the color, and blue is associated with water via The Coconut Effect, that's what they use.
- The blue liquid has the same consistency as blood and is cheaper than its blood colored counterpart(s). note
- In-Universe: The people who are filming the ads are aliens who bleed blue blood/pee blue urine.
- Inverted: The leading brand of kitchen sponge and the brand of kitchen sponge being advertised are demonstrated using actual blood (either human or animal).
- Subverted:
- There is a container with blue liquid but the advertiser grabs red liquid from offscreen instead.
- They pour paint over the pads.
- Double Subverted:
- It doesn't match the consistency of blood; the red liquid is just water with red food dye.
- It's blue paint, so as not to remind the audience that it's a stand-in for blood.
- Parodied: The main character of the ad is a robot who leaks blue fluid every now and then.
- Bob the Genius Ditz inventor manages to create a perfect tampon which can absorb gallons of blue liquid but is utterly useless at the intended purpose and winds up pissing off all of his customers.
- Zig Zagged: Some ads (perhaps the ones that run during the latter part of Prime Time or at Otaku O'Clock) feature realistic-looking liquid, others don't.
- Averted:
- Menstrual or incontinence products are not advertised on TV.
- Actual blood is used.
- Enforced:
- Let's not Squick the audience out.
- Ads for menstrual products are only allowed if the blood shown is not red or a realistic colour.
- Lampshaded: "YourTime pads are twice as absorbent as The Leading Brand! Look at the difference!"
- Invoked: The ad is to be run during Prime Time, or during the after-school block
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: They use a more realistic-looking liquid, or merely talk about it.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Played For Laughs: The blue liquid scene has a disclaimer "Please see a doctor immediately if you have blue discharge.".
Back to Blue Liquid Absorbent
