AMV BBDO has won this year’s Channel 4 Diversity in Advertising Award, with #LastLonelyMenopause for Tena.
The commercial’s emotional heart comes from the warm and honest relationship between a mother and her daughter used to highlight some of the realities of menopause in a way never seen before on British TV.
Channel 4’s annual Diversity in Advertising Award offers the winning campaign £1 million worth of commercial airtime across the entire portfolio of channels in Channel 4’s commercial arm 4Sales, including its streaming service All 4. It was set up by the broadcaster to encourage the ad industry to embrace inclusive creative campaigns and extend Channel 4’s leadership in diversity beyond its editorial content and into the ad breaks and is now in its sixth year.
Channel 4’s brief to the industry this year was for creative treatments that would challenge ageism in advertising. Research has shown that people over 50 feel vastly misrepresented in the majority of ads, with 72% of those questioned feeling that people their age in adverts were outdated stereotypes. This year, for the first time, Channel 4 has extended its award with a £100K digital short-form series produced by 4Studio Productions commissioned by Channel 4 Digital Commissioning Executive Joe Churchill, which will show older and younger people talking about menopause in revealing, frank and funny exchanges. The series will launch on May 9.
#LastLonelyMenopause, which was directed by Shannon Murphy and produced by Lief, leans into the idea that menopause is often spoken about as puberty in reverse – but where puberty gets its manifold tales of rage and becoming, the menopause is left behind. The film draws on coming-of-age filmic techniques and tropes, extending the beauty and cultural clout of the genre to bring to the fore the often ignored realities of menopause. It tells a new menopause story, the second coming of age.
Veriça Djurdjevic, chief revenue officer at Channel 4, stated, “AMV’s ad for TENA is a game-changing take on the narrative around menopause. It perfectly fulfilled our Award brief to tackle ageism in advertising, using the central idea of talking about menopause as a way of breaking the stigma & silence that exists around it despite the fact half the population will experience it!
“Channel 4 exists to create change through entertainment, and we do this by representing unheard voices and challenging society. Through our annual Diversity in Advertising Award we’re committed to keep challenging the advertising industry to reflect all society authentically in their TV ads to ensure that the amazing diversity of the UK is reflected not just in our programming but across our ad breaks too.”
Meta Redstedt, global master brand & communications director at TENA, added, “TENA is tackling female ageism, presenting a modern perspective on how midlife women live, championing their participation in society, and representation in culture. With this campaign we are so proud to create a new narrative formenopause, hopefully starting important conversations in households across the country with Channel 4’s generous support.”
Lauren Peters and Augustine Cerf, creatives at AMV BBDO, commented, “People going through menopause also deserve their emotionally nuanced coming of age stories of rage, confusion, liberation and becoming. We hope this campaign can reinject humanity and beauty into the life stage, subvert damaging and demeaning stereotypes and help women feel better supported and less alone. We also hope it’ll inspire people to talk to their own loved ones about menopause – we all know someone going through it, yet we so rarely talk about it. It’s no wonder 1 in 3 feels alone during menopause.”
The award-winning TENA commercial is part of a wider campaign by AMV BBDO and Ketchum PR that will use social content, influencer activity and the Infrequently Asked Questions guide, available on the TENA Women website for download. The guide encourages its readers to ask better – and more – questions about menopause, and shows the value of doing so. Countering the dry, clinical information typically brought up by any internet search on the topic, it features words of wisdom gathered from women who have been through menopause, as well as the advice and tips they wish to pass down to those yet to live through it.
Other entries this year included Eve Sleep and Creature London who were highly commended by the judges. Runners up included: Hidden Hearing (The Sharp Agency), Baileys (VMLY&R), Shelter (Who Wot Why) and Boots (VML Y&R). All five runners up will be offered match funding of up to £250,000 each to encourage the pitched campaigns into production.
Award History:
- 2016 – Representation of Disability – WINNER Maltesers/AMV BBDO
- 2017 – Representation of Hidden Disability – WINNER Lloyds Bank /adam&eve DDB
- 2018 – Representation of Women – WINNER RAF/Engine Creative
- 2019 – Portrayal of LGBTQ+ communities – WINNER Starbucks/Iris Worldwide
- 2020 – Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic Culture – WINNER EA Sports
Credits:
Client: Essity (TENA Women)
Client Team: Meta Redstedt, Jason Kaplanis and Stefanie Steegs
Creative Agency: AMV BBDO
CCOs: Nicholas Hulley & Nadja Lossgott
Creative Director: Jim Hilson
Creative Team: Lauren Peters & Augustine Cerf
Designer: Vanessa Fowler Kendall
Planning Team: Margaux Revol and Bea Farmelo
Account Team: Laura Hazell and Rebecca Thomas
Creative Production Partner: Trish Russell
Senior Art Producer: Rhiannon Nicol
Senior Interactive Social Producer: Alex Warren
Business Affairs: Michelle Holmes
Production Company: Lief
Director: Shannon Murphy
Producers: Margo Mars & Ella Sanderson
Editing Company: Final Cut
Editors: Amanda James & Lucy Berry
Post-Production Company: Daydreamer
Flame: Pete Rypstra & Milo Paterson
VFX Producer: Cat Hammond
Colour: Company 3
Colourist: Yoomin Lee
Sound Studio: Wave Studios
Sound Engineers: Parv Thind & Ben Gulvin
Music: September Fields – Composer & Performer Frazey Ford
Media Agency: Zenith
PR agency: Ketchum PR
